<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class="">Hi-<div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">I’ve been trying to set up a KVM system (ubuntu 15.10 host + guests) for use in a classroom. I’m using Jacob Zimmerman’s PPA for more up-to-date versions of QEMU, libvirt, etc (<a href="https://launchpad.net/~jacob/+archive/ubuntu/virtualisation" class="">https://launchpad.net/~jacob/+archive/ubuntu/virtualisation</a>.)</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">The test machine is an older AMD based machine with 16Gb of RAM, and I’ve added a couple of G-Force GT-720 GPU cards.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">I’ve proved the machine is working, sort of. One instance of windows and things were fine, but I’m trying two instances right now and it’s extremely slow. I’m hoping it’s because one of the instances is still in the process of setting itself up; it’s a clone, but I want to prove it out before buying more windows licenses.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">They’re installed using EFI (OVMF) with i440FX chipset.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">First problem & question: Is the latest OVMF broken?</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">I built OVMF from source. No matter what I do (use i440FX & IDE or Q35 & SATA) the ‘fs0’ drive when I boot with any ISO selected is garbled. I can CD to the expected directory but the contents is just ‘$.’ and a few random characters for file names. Also many more entries than the couple (e.g. grubx64.efi) that I’m expecting.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">If I roll back to mid September it works… but only with i440FX & IDE. No drives are mapped if I use Q35.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Question: anyone else seeing this? Do I need a newer quemu or lbvirt than what’s in the PPA?</div><div class="">Does anyone have a working-for-them git SHA I can try?</div><div class="">What else can I do to get OVMF + Q35 working?</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Question 2: Is it possible to have Linux as a guest with GPU passthrough?</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">This is my preferred solution - much cheaper to setup than a windows license per seat.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">I’ve tried legacy bios + VGA passthrough & I think both chipsets. Instantly destroyed; I suspect by VGA arbitration issues: host screen gets some weird updates, and then the screen freezes. Guest GPU never gets far. I followed <a href="http://vfio.blogspot.ca/2015/05/vfio-gpu-how-to-series-part-5-vga-mode.html" class="">http://vfio.blogspot.ca/2015/05/vfio-gpu-how-to-series-part-5-vga-mode.html</a> </div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">I’ve tried (older) OVMF + i440: linux guest starts, Tiano/OVMF appears on the external monitor, then garbage, then guest silently shuts down. I read on the KVM website (?) that the linux GPU drivers don’t understand the PCI topology this setup has.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">I think I read that this *should* work with the Q35 chipset emulation.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Is this true?</div><div class="">Has anyone got this working?</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Some background for the curious-</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">I’d really like each students ‘workstation’ to be a VM that I can snapshot and easily manage. The machine is being set up to run some basic 3D applications for beginners, minecraft, and learning to program. The alternative is to buy cheap laptops… but I think sharing an i7 + dedicated GPU should work out better than a bay trail + IGD, not to mention replacing a keyboard and mouse is a lot cheaper! And I’d appreciate the advantages of centralized management.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">If I can’t get KVM + vfio to work my next steps are to try LXC + device passthrough, and then a multi-seat setup.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Are there other means of setting up a well isolated multi-seat machine that I’ve missed?</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Thanks in advance for any suggestions!</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Julian</div></body></html>