Can I run a 64-bit VMware image on a 32-bit machine

Question

Can I run a 64-bit VMware image on a 32-bit machine   I ve googled this  but there doesn t seem to be a conclusive answer   I know that it would have to be completely emulated and would run like a dog - but slow performance isn t necessarily an issue as I m just interested in testing some of my background services code on 64-bit platforms

User · Answer

It boils down to whether the CPU in your machine has the the VT bit (Virtualization), and the BIOS enables you to turn it on. For instance, my laptop is a Core 2 Duo which is capable of using this. However, my BIOS doesn't enable me to turn it on.

Note that I've read that turning on this feature can slow normal operations down by 10-12%, which is why it's normally turned off.

User · Answer

I honestly doubt it  for a number of reasons  but the most important one is that there are some instructions that are allowed in 32-bit mode  but not in 64-bit mode   Specifically  the REX prefix that is used to encode some instructions and registers in 64-bit mode is a byte of the form 0x4f 0x40  but in 32 bit mode the same byte is either INC or DEC with a fixed operand  Because of this  any 64-bit instruction that is prefixed by REX will be interpreted as either INC or DEC  and won t give the VMM the chance to emulate the 64-bit instruction  for instance by signaling an undefined opcode exception    The only way it might be done is to use a trap exception to return to the VMM after each and every instruction so that it can see if it needs special 64-bit handling   I simply can t see that happening

User · Answer

VMware does not allow you to run a 64-bit guest on a 32-bit host  You just have to read the documentation to find this out   If you really want to do this  you can use QEMU  and I recommend a Linux host  but it s going to be very slow  I really mean slow

User · Answer

If you have 32-bit hardware  no  you cannot run a 64-bit guest OS   VMware software does not emulate an instruction set for different hardware not physically present    However  QEMU can emulate a 64-bit processor  so you could convert the VMWare machine and run it with this  From this 2008-era blog post  mirrored by archive org       cd  path to vmware guestos   for i in   ls   0-9  vmdk    do qemu-img convert -f vmdk  i -O raw  i vmdk raw  done   cat   raw  gt  gt  guestos img       To run it   qemu -m 256 -hda guestos img       The downside  Most of us runs VMware without preallocation space for the virtual disk  So  when we make a conversion from VMware to QEMU  the raw file will be the total space WITH preallocation  I am still testing with -f qcow format will it solve the    problem or not  Such as   for i in  ls   0-9  vmdk   do qemu-img convert -f vmdk  i -O qcow   i vmdk qcow   done  amp  amp  cat   qcow  gt  gt  debian img

User · Answer

You can if your processor is 64-bit and Virtualization Technology  VT  extension is enabled  it can be switched off in BIOS   You can t do it on 32-bit processor   To check this under Linux you just need to look into  proc cpuinfo file  Just look for the appropriate flag  vmx for Intel processor or svm for AMD processor   egrep   vmx svm    proc cpuinfo   To check this under Windows you need to use a program like CPU-Z which will display your processor architecture and supported extensions

User · Answer

The easiest way to check your workstation is to download the VMware Processor Check for 64-Bit Compatibility tool from the VMware website   You can t run a 64-bit VM session on a 32-bit processor   However  you can run a 64-bit VM session if you have a 64-bit processor but have installed a 32-bit host OS and your processor supports the right extensions   The tool linked above will tell you if yours does

User · Answer

VMware  No  However  QEMU has an x86 64 system target that you can use  You likely won t be able to use a VMware image directly  IIRC  there s no conversion tool   but you can install the OS and such yourself and work inside it  QEMU can be a bit of a PITA to get up and running  but it tends to work quite nicely

User · Answer

Yes  running a 64-bit OS in VMWare is possible from a 32-bit OS if you have a 64 bit processor   I have an old Intel Core 2 Duo with Windows nbsp XP Professional 2002 running on it  and I got it to work   First of all  see if your CPU is capable of running a 64-bit OS  Search for  Processor check for 64-bit compatibility  on the VMware site  Run the program   If it says your processor is capable  restart your computer and go into the BIOS and see if you have  Virtualization  and are able to enable it  I was able to and got Windows Server 2008 R2 running under VMware on this old laptop   I hope it works for you

User · Answer

If your hardware is 32-bit only  then no  If you have 64 bit hardware and a 32-bit operating system  then maybe  See Hardware and Firmware Requirements for 64-Bit Guest Operating Systems for details  It has nothing to do with one vs  multiple processors

User · Answer

Yes  you can  I have a 64-bit Debian running in VMware on Windows nbsp XP 32-Bit  As long as you set the Guest to use two processors  it will work just fine

[64-bit] Can I run a 64-bit VMware image on a 32-bit machine?

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