Re-Question on Windows Virtualization

Hello all,
Just wondering if any of you use Linux as your primary OS and have windows 11 in a virtualization environment. Wondering how effective that setup is and if it is worth it to do for my needs.

Thanks for responding!

Sure this will work but you get quite a significant performance penalty compared with natively running Windows on Host.

See my tests.


Even a Windows VM using HyperV is significantly faster.

I cannot say of it is worth it - it depends on needs and hardware.

High end gaming, video rendering forget it.

It would probably be ok for light surfing, emails, word, games that do not require high speed.interaction etc.

You would need at least 8 GB on host and probably i5 or better CPU.

Setting up Linux for virtual TPUs is not easy. However you can use techniques to install bypassing TPM checks.

Frankly, I do not see a lot to be gained going down this route.

It is simply easier to just have a dual boot pc but you could not run Windows at same time.

If sound is less of an issue, I would run Windows as the host and Linux in a Hyper-V VM or as an OS under WSL (Windows subsystem for Linux).

cereberus said:

Sure this will work but you get quite a significant performance penalty compared with natively running Windows on Host.

See my tests.

Virtualbox 7 so slooowwwwww.

Just done a comparison of Hyper-V with Virtualbox 7 (VB7 was in installation with no Hyper-V enabled), and also KVM from Linux Host CPU - similar, worse for KVM 2D - VB awful but KVM slightly better Memory - similar in all 3 Diskmark - VB awful, KVM much better but still 50% of Hyper-V In my...

www.elevenforum.com

Even a Windows VM using HyperV is significantly faster.

I cannot say of it is worth it - it depends on needs and hardware.

High end gaming, video rendering forget it.

It would probably be ok for light surfing, emails, word, games that do not require high speed.interaction etc.

You would need at least 8 GB on host and probably i5 or better CPU.

Setting up Linux for virtual TPUs is not easy. However you can use techniques to install bypassing TPM checks.

Frankly, I do not see a lot to be gained going down this route.

It is simply easier to just have a dual boot pc but you could not run Windows at same time.

If sound is less of an issue, I would run Windows as the host and Linux in a Hyper-V VM or as an OS under WSL (Windows subsystem for Linux).

Click to expand...

Hi there

My normal laptop runs arch linux with KDE desktop and I run on that laptop 2X W11 VM's and a W2021 server VM all under KVM (not concurrentlythough on a modest laptop).

Windows performs at almost native speed - especially if you use pass thru for graphics and ensure you install the windows virtio drivers (iso downloadable from fedora site) on the VM. These act as the vbox guest additions on vbox or vmware tools on vmware windows guests.

@cereberus -- when you were testing Windows VM's on Linux did you install the virtio drivers on the Guest and for network adapter and disks select virtio as the hardware type. The virtio drivers are valid for any Windows GUEST on KVM/QEMU even though the iso is from the Fedora site.


download the 229 version.



As for tpm emulation on linux -- simple at least on arch-linux / manjaro linux simply install swtpm /swtpm-tools. No need even to initialise it etc. To install software in arch linux from the standard repos --- simply as super user (sudo) run pacman -S package.

If the software is in the user repos install the helper package -- then as a NORMAL (non su / sudo) user run yay package.

"Seemples".

The standard TPM emulation is the IBM version which Windows guests can use quite successfully -- on Windows guests simply go to "Add optional features" and add the TPM diagnostics feature and run it -- whether you are using an emulated or real TPM.

If you have a real tpm - you can pass it thru to a Windows vm as a real device -- sevice on most linux distros is /dev/tpm0.

There's no reason these days for Windows VM's to be slow on either a Windows OR a linux host -- on Windows use HYPER-V and on Linux use KVM/QEMU.

Both have improved massively over the last few years.

Cheers
jimbo

Thank you for the responses. I appreciate it. I am now running Ubuntu 22 on Host and Windows 11 Pro on Virtual. The Windows 11 Virtual is working flawlessly. I am using VmWare Professional for the software. I tried this on virtualbox and it didn't work.

@cereberus Your test result is a surprise to me. Somehow I thought Linux would do a better job being a hypervisor than Windows, but apparently that is not the case.

I had thought of a setup like what the OP is planning, mainly because I am fed up with Windows, but haven't got a chance to actually try it out. But now that I see your test results, I may have to reconsider the whole idea. What a great find!