MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Intel Mac & Parallels

dotmike · 11-14-2006, 08:30 PM

More info on the issue:

The failure of the CONNECT Reader software to launch under Parallels on the Mac Pro appears to be related to the ongoing issue with VT-x (hardware virtualization) support on the Mac Pro.

When started up with VT-x on, the CONNECT Reader software does actually launch...

The problem is that often VT-x is unavailable because of an issue in the Mac Pro firmware which the Parallels team can't work around and which Apple so far has not fixed with a firmware update. However, there is a workaround:

1. Launch Parallels and go to Preferences > User Interface and click the Restore hidden messages button. (This lets you know if VT-x is actually being disabled during the virtual machine startup.)

2. Shut down the currently running virtual machine (Windows Start menu > Shutdown).

3. Open its Configuration panel and click the underlined word "Acceleration" at the top left of the window (it has a green arrow and the word "High" to the right of it) and enable VT-x if not already enabled.

3. Send the Mac Pro to sleep.

4. Wake it again.

5. Restart the virtual machine.

This time, there should be NO warning dialog saying the hardware virtualization was not available because it was locked by firmware. Windows XP will also start up in lightning fast time (less than 10 seconds for me).

And now Sony's CONNECT Reader will launch on the Mac Pro!

(The sleep trick is a bit tedious, but at least it is faster than rebooting into a Boot Camp machine, and there is hope that eventually Apple will update the firmware to fix the VT-x issue.)

11-14-2006, 08:30 PM	#24
dotmike Member Posts: 12 Karma: 10 Join Date: May 2006 Device: Sony PRS-500	More info on the issue: The failure of the CONNECT Reader software to launch under Parallels on the Mac Pro appears to be related to the ongoing issue with VT-x (hardware virtualization) support on the Mac Pro. When started up with VT-x on, the CONNECT Reader software does actually launch... The problem is that often VT-x is unavailable because of an issue in the Mac Pro firmware which the Parallels team can't work around and which Apple so far has not fixed with a firmware update. However, there is a workaround: 1. Launch Parallels and go to Preferences > User Interface and click the Restore hidden messages button. (This lets you know if VT-x is actually being disabled during the virtual machine startup.) 2. Shut down the currently running virtual machine (Windows Start menu > Shutdown). 3. Open its Configuration panel and click the underlined word "Acceleration" at the top left of the window (it has a green arrow and the word "High" to the right of it) and enable VT-x if not already enabled. 3. Send the Mac Pro to sleep. 4. Wake it again. 5. Restart the virtual machine. This time, there should be NO warning dialog saying the hardware virtualization was not available because it was locked by firmware. Windows XP will also start up in lightning fast time (less than 10 seconds for me). And now Sony's CONNECT Reader will launch on the Mac Pro! (The sleep trick is a bit tedious, but at least it is faster than rebooting into a Boot Camp machine, and there is hope that eventually Apple will update the firmware to fix the VT-x issue.)