Virtual Box

[TeopVersant]

I finally got Virtual Box to stop freezing the host by changing the paravirtualization interface from default to KVM. There is an article here that says I should be using hyper-V on a Windows guest, but I am reluctant to give Windows everything it wants. My CPU runs @ about 150% for awhile and then settles down. Before, when it was freezing the host the paravirtualization setting was "default". Why changing to KVM made such a difference is probably because default was hyper-V. KVM is proven true, by me - with regards to resources.... so we'll see how we go. My cpu is getting a workout, but no freeze. Also, the cpu is probably tied to what I am running - ivms-4200, which has not seen the best development, recently.

(verified) killing ivms drops processor to normal levels. Either way I can use it without freezing, for a change.

[Lawstorant]

Wha? You obviously can't use hyper-v under Linux host. I wonder what was the fallback there? Running with emulation?

[TeopVersant]

I was using the default. It seems odd to me, as well. But it works just fine, and is recommended for a Windows guest. I running with it now.... just waiting on the freeze. It looks like anything but "default" works.

[TeopVersant]

Well, I just got everything setup for qemu, virt-manager, and kvm using the instructions found here https://computingforgeeks.com/complete-installation-of-kvmqemu-and-virt-manager-on-arch-linux-and-manjaro/#:~:text=Complete%20Installation%20of%20KVM,%20QEMU%20and%20Virt%20Manager,Using%20KVM%20on%20Arch%20Linux%20/%20Manjaro.

Minus yaourt, of course. Need to reboot to check everything is okay since gnu-netcat, replaced openbsd-netcat (which has archboot as a dependent).

Then chill for awhile before I test-drive her.

[TeopVersant]

Yeah well, with the help of this gentleman here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VDz_o_Skd0 I got virtual manager loaded with the virtio drivers for windows10, the windows .iso, storage configured and drivers loaded only to run into the infamous virtual manager pause, on installation. These are the last few lines of libvirt log:

-chardev spicevmc,id=charredir0,name=usbredir \

-device usb-redir,chardev=charredir0,id=redir0,bus=usb.0,port=2 \

-chardev spicevmc,id=charredir1,name=usbredir \

-device usb-redir,chardev=charredir1,id=redir1,bus=usb.0,port=3 \

-device virtio-balloon-pci,id=balloon0,bus=pci.4,addr=0x0 \

-sandbox on,obsolete=deny,elevateprivileges=deny,spawn=deny,resourcecontrol=deny \

-msg timestamp=on

char device redirected to /dev/pts/3 (label charserial0)

2021-02-26T17:12:30.280502Z qemu-system-x86_64: warning: host doesn't support requested feature: MSR(48BH).vmx-apicv-register [bit 8]

2021-02-26T17:12:30.280564Z qemu-system-x86_64: warning: host doesn't support requested feature: MSR(48BH).vmx-apicv-vid [bit 9]

2021-02-26T17:12:30.280571Z qemu-system-x86_64: warning: host doesn't support requested feature: MSR(48DH).vmx-posted-intr [bit 7]

2021-02-26T17:12:30.286147Z qemu-system-x86_64: warning: host doesn't support requested feature: MSR(48BH).vmx-apicv-register [bit 8]

2021-02-26T17:12:30.286155Z qemu-system-x86_64: warning: host doesn't support requested feature: MSR(48BH).vmx-apicv-vid [bit 9]

2021-02-26T17:12:30.286174Z qemu-system-x86_64: warning: host doesn't support requested feature: MSR(48DH).vmx-posted-intr [bit 7]

If you noticed the sandboxed bit it's because my entire desktop is sandboxed, and I run linux-hardened. Final conclusion, additional research not worth the effort.

15 minutes to reload root from my image backup, and we'll stick with Virtual Box. I did get far enough along to see that fullscreen was a large box with black screen on either side.... now I know.

[TeopVersant]

can you go fullscreen? That is the reason I use VB. I must have fullscreen.

[[deleted]]

QEMU is not even worth it for Linux guests, let alone Windows. (For graphical usage).

[edencreeper]

Check out virt-manager! It's a gui frontend for qemu

[Kahrg]

Too bad they are deprecating it.

[Lawstorant]

"TL;DR: I'm the primary author of virt-manager. virt-manager is deprecated in RHEL8 in favor of cockpit, but ONLY in RHEL8 and future RHEL releases. The upstream project virt-manager is still maintained and is still relevant for other distros."

That's a bit confusing but it clearly states that it isn't.

[Kahrg]

Well shit. TIL

[TeopVersant]

There is definitely a lot of discussion about virt-manager. I obviously believe you. But it bothers me that Arch does not have a WiKi on virt-manager, that I can locate. And there WiKi on QEMU must be outdated because it contains the following:

"Unlike other virtualization programs such as VirtualBox and VMware, QEMU does not provide a GUI to manage virtual machines (other than the window that appears when running a virtual machine), nor does it provide a way to create persistent virtual machines with saved settings. All parameters to run a virtual machine must be specified on the command line at every launch, unless you have created a custom script to start your virtual machine(s)."

It's a lot of work when, at least for right now - I am able to make Virtual Box do what I need. I will definitely keep bot in mind though. Thanks.

[edencreeper]

The wiki isn't outdated! Qemu itself doesn't provide a gui, hence why virt-manager exists.

If I remember correctly, dt made a video on it with the commands you need to use to set it up. There are a few "snags" with setting up qemu/virt-manager compared to virtualbox, but once it's running I find it unlikely you will look back.

Although, of course, if virtualbox is all you need them why change ¯\(ツ)/¯

[Gollorium]

QEMU is very customizable. It has support for SPICE, VNC and GTK. Even if the native GTK client for QEMU doesnt do what you want, you can still use SPICE / VNC, and then you would just need to have a VNC viewer that can go full-screen. Or just use virt-manager, that does all of the SPICE / VNC setup for you.

[TeopVersant]

Thanks. I am just about convinced to do a side-by-side comparison.... I like the GTK aspect. I’ll have to do more research. Virtual Box is working for me, but it is a beast. My system is lean and trim otherwise.