[vfio-users] Linux-on-Linux desktop

[Adam Hunt]

I'm familiar with the Qubes project; it's quite interesting. That being
said, I'd really rather avoid dealing with multitude of Xen VMs if
possible. I have nothing against Xen but for now I'd really like to keep my
machine running pure Linux.

I do appreciate the idea; I'll keep the Qubes option in mind.

Adam


On Fri, Jun 17, 2016 at 6:49 AM Jiri 'Ghormoon' Novak <ghormoon at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I've got very similar setup on my laptop, one VM with passed in GPU that
> does X and desktop environment, a lot of containers and other VMs around on
> the internal network.
> I have discrete radeon GPU though, I've not personally tried any other.
>
> Also have a look at QubesOS, that one has idea of AppVMs, where
> applications are on separate VMs. It's based on Xen though. I wanted to be
> able to pass in the only GPU though to be able to switch the X VM for a
> windows one for gaming, so I went the LVM + LXC way instead. The downside
> there are less premade tools, so you do some scripting yourself.
>
> Regards,
> Gh.
>
> Adam Hunt wrote:
>
> I'd like to virtualize my desktop so that Linux machine I use day-to-day
> is running as a VM on a minimally configured Linux host.
>
> The idea is to allow me to run a couple other virtual machines along side
> my desktop without them getting in each other's way. This way I would be
> able to do things such as upgrade the kernel on my desktop without
> disturbing the VM acting as my primary firewall and router[1], or the VM
> which hosts a number of containers running various personal services.[2]
>
> ​
> While I've read quite a bit about KVM, QEMU, PCI passthrough, and vfio I
> wanted to make sure that what I'm planning isn't doomed to fail for some
> reason which I've overlooked. My two primary concerns are that as of now I
> lack a discrete GPU and that my Ivy Bridge CPU (i5-3570) clearly lacks ACS.
>
> If necessary I suppose could hold this off until I get myself a suitable
> PCIe GPU, though, I'd prefer not to. I don't use the system for gaming of
> any sort and while I'd like to have the option of doing some 3D work in the
> future it's not an immediate concern of mine for this system. The CPU is
> more of a sticking point, there's little chance of it being upgraded in the
> foreseeable future and most certainly not to what Intel refers to as a
> "high end" processor. If you scroll down you'll find a list of the hardware
> in my machine currently.
>
> I'd appreciate any thoughts on this plan of mine. I have years of
> experience with Linux but PCI passthrough is new territory for me.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Adam
>
>
> ​​
> [1] I'm upgrading
> ​ to ​
> a symmetric gigabit FTTH connection in the near future and I
> ​ don't expect
>  my OpenWRT wifi router with its puny 560 MHz MIPS processor
> ​ will be able​
>  to keep up. So, for the time being,
> ​ running
> VyOS in a VM my workstation is my best option.
>
> [2] One of these days I hope to have enough space for proper hardware to
> run all these things on, until that day, I'm hoping VMs will suffice.
> ​​
>
> Drogon
> Item Manufacturer Model Notes
> CPU Intel i5-3570 4×3.4 GHz, VT-x, VT-d, EPT
> Motherboard Intel DQ77MK Q77, vPro, VT-d, dual 1 Gb/s Ethernet
> Memory G.Skill 32 GB (4×8 GB) DDR3 1600 MHz
> SSD Samsung 850 Pro, 256 GB GPT partitioned with a small FAT boot part
> and a large Btrfs filesystem
> Storage various various 4×3 TB SATA v3.0, operating as single multi
> device Btrfs filesystem
> NIC Intel 82579LM 1 Gb/s, integrated, AMT 8.0 support
> NIC Intel 82574L 1 Gb/s, integrated
> ​
>
>
>
>
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>
>
>
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