I'm planning on running a linux host OS with a triple monitor setup connected to the graphics card. Of course, I have games that only work on windows so I was planning on running a Windows VM in seamless mode with the graphics card being passed through to the VM. I want to know whether or not this will cause the linux OS to no longer be able to use the graphics cards to display the desktop while the VM is on. If this will prevent the linux OS from displaying to the monitors, what is an alternative solution that will allow me to run a windows VM in seamless mode while still making use of the graphics card on the host system with as little as possible performance degradation.
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It's unclear what software and drivers you use but if you do effectively setup a pass-through, then the display will be controlled by the guest. That is exactly what you want to do. The alternative is to use it as VMs are generally configured, but this obviously reduces the video throughput and quality.– Julie PelletierCommented Jun 5, 2016 at 6:06
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@JuliePelletier What should I do if I want to be able to use the graphics card for the VM without losing display control in the host OS?– EnderShadowCommented Jun 5, 2016 at 6:10
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You can have a VM output in a window on the host system without any problems. You just seem to imply that you're using some special method to pass-through the video card control, which is not the way it usually works.– Julie PelletierCommented Jun 5, 2016 at 6:15
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I was going to use the passthrough ability of qemu or virtualbox.– EnderShadowCommented Jun 5, 2016 at 6:51
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I've been using VirtualBox for quite a while and tried the different settings and never encountered any similar issues.– Julie PelletierCommented Jun 5, 2016 at 14:59
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2 Answers
Your host can still use the graphics card.
answered Jun 5, 2016 at 2:33
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I doubt. How do you see two drivers, one in the host OS and another in VM OS working with the same device on 'register' level without conflicts?– SergeCommented Jun 5, 2016 at 2:58
For the below 'question', if you intend to use VirtualBox, the answer is YES - you can use VirtualBox while Linux host OS still owns and uses GPU if you are not having PCI passthrough:
I want to know whether or not this will cause the linux OS to no longer be able to use the graphics cards to display the desktop while the VM is on.
If you intend to use virtualbox in Linux host OS to play games - you are out of luck:
You won't achieve high performance as VB is limited to 256mb of GPU memory.
PCI passhrough is extremelly experimental on VirtualBox (Didn't work for me few weeks ago)
For PCI passthrough, you need 2 GPUs as long as I know. It won't work with 1 GPU.
It is quite hard to set up QEMU + vfio for emulation. Have a try if you want, but I was not able to set it up on my Arch Linux system using QEMU + vfio (2 GPUs on my laptop).
