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dockercontainersosx-elcapitan

Docker on Mac pre-2010?

Is there a workaround to install Docker for OSX on Macs without Intel's hardware support for MMU virtualization?

If not, would there be a workaround to create containers, e.g. for Python scripts and libraries?

Solution

  • Update Q1 2019, Antonio Linares Cañas mentions in the comments:

    "Enable VT-X on Mac Pro (Early 2008) - KVM" from GeorgeStyles, with a program that will tell you the status of your MSR (manufacturer specific register, on all cores), and if its unlocked and off, will attempt to turn on VTX and lock it on.

    See also msrtool or voltageshift.
    Example:

    cd /Applications/voltageshift 
sudo chmod -R 755 VoltageShift.kext 
sudo chown -R root:wheel VoltageShift.kext 
sudo ./voltageshift read 0x3a 
a value of 0x5 means: ON-cero-LOCKED

    Original answer Dec. 2017:

    I don't know of a workaround, but as mentioned here:

    On OS X, the way of knowing if your CPU complies with all the Hypervisor.framework requirements is by checking the value of the sysctl kern.hv_support key.

    $ sysctl kern.hv_support
kern.hv_support: 1

    If it is 1, then your CPU is supported.
    If it is 0, it means the Hypervisor.framework cannot be used with your CPU, for a reason or another.

    The same thread adds:

    My CPU supports all virtualization, including EPT, VT-d and VT-x: http://ark.intel.com/products/41316/Intel-Core-i7-860-Processor-8M-Cache-2_80-GHz53

    The problem is that the BIOS setting is set by default to '0' or 'disabled' instead of '1' or 'enabled'

    There is a HUGE user group that this is affecting but most have no idea how to check so it doesn't get reported - millions of laptops/desktops sold over many years are experiencing this.

    There has to be a way to change the BIOS setting from 0 to 1.