How to verify if VT-x or AMD-V is activated without rebooting in BIOS

I must be a lucky fellow, :) I have found this program. Open up the terminal(CTRL+Alt+t)

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install cpu-checker

Then enter the command below

sudo kvm-ok

If you receive this output

INFO: /dev/kvm exists
KVM acceleration can be used

All is good. If you don't receive this output, you have to enter the BIOS/UEFI and to enable virtualization.

systemctl --firmware-setup reboot

The settings can look different from system to system due to the BIOS/UEFI OEM's like. Some examples

With this command you can verify if your CPU is even capable, which most CPU's nowadays are.

grep -E 'svm|vmx' /proc/cpuinfo

With this command you can ensure if the proper kernel module is loaded after. The BIOS settings had been enabled

# lsmod | grep kvm

Further reading

https://www.thomas-krenn.com/en/wiki/Activating_the_Intel_VT_Virtualization_Feature

These articles have been archived, the original links are dead :(

https://web.archive.org/web/20150923203121/https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/6/html/Virtualization_Administration_Guide/sect-Virtualization-Tips_and_tricks-Verifying_virtualization_extensions.html

https://web.archive.org/web/20150923203237/https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/6/html/Virtualization_Administration_Guide/sect-Virtualization-Troubleshooting-Enabling_Intel_VT_and_AMD_V_virtualization_hardware_extensions_in_BIOS.html#proc-Virtualization-Enabling_Intel_VT_and_AMD_V_virtualization_hardware_extensions_in_BIOS-Enabling_virtualization_extensions_in_BIOS

https://www.smarthomebeginner.com/enable-hardware-virtualization-vt-x-amd-v/

Some info in German

https://web.archive.org/web/20140102022018/http://www.heise.de/ct/hotline/CPU-Virtualisierungsfunktionen-nutzbar-323506.html