How to enable VT-x in BIOS and KVM modules on Linux?

Question

I have Dell Inspiron 15 5000 Series laptop containing intel core i5 6200U processor. I am using Windows 10 Home edition. It has the virtualization device and I already checked in BIOS for the virtualization, which is enabled. But in android studio I am getting this error when I run AVD manager.

Enable VT-x in your BIOS security settings, ensure that you Linux distro has working KVM modules.

Answer 1

As I understand, you've already enabled the VT-x option in BIOS. That's good. Because you have Linux as your operating system, now you need to install and configure KVM.

Instructions: https://software.intel.com/en-us/blogs/2012/03/12/how-to-start-intel-hardware-assisted-virtualization-hypervisor-on-linux-to-speed-up-intel-android-x86-emulator

KVM Installation

I referred the instructions from Ubuntu community documentation page. to get KVM installed.To see if your processor supports hardware virtualization, you can review the output from this command:

$ egrep -c '(vmx|svm)' /proc/cpuinfo

If the output is 0 it means that your CPU doesn't support hardware virtualization.

Next is to install CPU checker:

$ sudo apt-get install cpu-checker

Now you can check if your cpu supports kvm:

$ sudo kvm-ok

and insert root password

If you see:

"INFO: Your CPU supports KVM extensions KVM acceleration can be used"

It means you can run your virtual machine faster with the KVM extensions.

If you see:

"INFO: KVM is disabled by your BIOS HINT: Enter your BIOS setup and enable Virtualization Technology (VT), and then hard poweroff/poweron your system KVM acceleration can NOT be used"

You need to go to BIOS setup and enable the VT.

Use a 64 bit kernel

Running a 64bit kernel on the host operating system is recommended since Google no longer offers support for 32bit kernel.. This allows the serving of more than 2GB of RAM for your VMs. Also, a 64-bit system can host both 32-bit and 64-bit guests. A 32-bit system can only host 32-bit guests. To see if your processor is 64-bit, you can run this command:

$ egrep -c ' lm ' /proc/cpuinfo

If 0 is printed, it means that your CPU is not 64-bit. If 1 or higher, it is. Note: lm stands for Long Mode which equates to a 64-bit CPU. Now see if your running kernel is 64-bit, just issue the following command:

$ uname -m

x86_64 indicates a running 64-bit kernel. If you see i386, i486, i586 or i686, you're running a 32-bit kernel.

Install KVM

For Ubuntu Lucid (12.04 LTS Precise) or later:

$ sudo apt-get install qemu-kvm libvirt-bin ubuntu-vm-builder bridge-utils

If it is displayed, you may ignore the Postfix Configuration below by selecting "No Configuration"

Next is to add your account to the group kvm and libvirtd

$ sudo adduser your_user_name kvm

$ sudo adduser your_user_name libvirtd

After the installation, you need to relogin so that your user account becomes an effective member of kvm and libvirtd user groups. The members of this group can run virtual machines.

Verify Installation You can test if your install has been successful with the following command:

$ sudo virsh -c qemu:///system list

Hope that helps.

EDIT: As you may be running Windows instead of Linux, please follow the instructions in this post instead: https://software.intel.com/en-us/android/articles/installation-instructions-for-intel-hardware-accelerated-execution-manager-windows