Re: [user question] Opinions about running Windows in KVM

[Marc Haber <mh+kvm@zugschlus.de>]

Hi,

sorry for taking so long to reply. I have results.

On Sun, Dec 16, 2012 at 01:55:08PM -0500, Andrew Cathrow wrote:
> > that the KVM-based Windows install was running much slower than an
> > existing Windows 7 guest running under VirtualBox (on the same
> > hardware and a similiarly configured VM), which is odd since
> > sparkling new Windows installs usually tend to run much better than
> > an
> 
> Where you using virtio-blk or emulated IDE? 

Thanks for this question, it was very helpful. It turned out that
choosing Windows as OS in virt-manager chose an emulated IDE drive.
After retrying with virtio-blk, disk performance is now as expected.

Here is the current XML:

    <disk type='file' device='disk'>
      <driver name='qemu' type='raw'/>
      <source file='/dev/luksdev/centoskvm'/>
      <target dev='vda' bus='virtio'/>
      <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x06' function='0x0'/>
    </disk>

> > On another point: The VirtualBox graphics drivers for Windows have an
> > option to couple the Windows desktop size to the size of the guest
> > Window. That is, when I resize the X11 Window that shows the VM
> > desktop, the desktop is automatically resized to fill the window
> > completely.
> 
> Try using spice with the windows guest tools which will give you copy
> and paste, cursor handling, resolution matching etc.
> http://www.spice-space.org/download.html

I installed the spice-guest-tools-0.2.exe, and set the VGA model to
"qxl" in virt-manager. I had to bcdedit -set loadoptions
DDISABLE_INTEGRITY_CHECKS and bcdedit -set TESTSIGNING ON to get the
unsigned qxl graphics driver to load (and now have an ugly "Test
Mode" warning) on my desktop, but resolution matching still does not
do what I expect. How do I enable that feature?

Here is the current XML:
    <graphics type='spice' autoport='yes'/>
    <video>
      <model type='qxl' vram='65536' heads='1'/>
      <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x02' function='0x0'/>
    </video>

Thanks for helping!

Greetings
Marc

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