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webway n00b
Joined: 16 May 2006 Posts: 14 Location: UK
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Posted: Tue Mar 05, 2013 8:41 am Post subject: Simultaneous Gentoo and Windows? |
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Currently I have 2 PCs on my desk, the main one running Gentoo and the other for the few tasks which need Windows. I would like to replace them with a single PC running both Gentoo and Windows simultaneously (ie virtualised rather than dual-boot). Either with two screens (1 Windows, 1 Gentoo) off of the same graphics card or with having the windows output in a Gnome/Kde desktop, and with the one keyboard and moyse being able to access both VMs.
Is it possible to do this using Xen, KVM or some other hyperviser? |
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Ant P. Watchman
Joined: 18 Apr 2009 Posts: 6920
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Posted: Tue Mar 05, 2013 4:11 pm Post subject: |
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If your only use for windows is some office apps, it'll run fine inside KVM and you can fullscreen that on the second monitor easily.
If you use it for gaming then you'll have to let it take the graphics card for reasonable performance, which either means running it as the host OS, or running a headless Gentoo and giving Xen/KVM the graphics card. Either of those means you're going to be using windows for the main GUI, but the latter has the advantage of Linux driving the rest of the hardware. |
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666threesixes666 Veteran
Joined: 31 May 2011 Posts: 1248 Location: 42.68n 85.41w
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Posted: Tue Mar 05, 2013 5:11 pm Post subject: |
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my friends doze server is running virtualbox as a process with gentoo as a client, built up remotely via ssh, by me. its a headless remote desktop windows 2011 home server i think. |
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imaginasys Tux's lil' helper
Joined: 26 Dec 2009 Posts: 83 Location: Québec
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Posted: Tue Mar 05, 2013 6:14 pm Post subject: |
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I do this with virtualbox.
I got a PC from my work that was installed with windows. Since I'm a linux guy, and that it was forbitten to change the machine, I thought what a nice challenge!
I have squized windows on a 50GB partition, installed Kubuntu on the rest (200GB). First step : I had a dual boot machine.
Second step: I installed virtualbox I create a windows machine on a raw disk using the windows partition. On the windows side, You have to create a material profile for your VM (I have to be able to run windows native on the first partition). When I start the windows vm I have to specify it to use the virtual profile so it doesn't get confused by the physical hardware of the machine.
If you don't need to keep windows on a physical disk partition, you could do a P2V with a tool from vmware (search google : p2v vmware tool). Put the image on a usb disk. Install linux on the whole disk. Then copy the virtual disk created on your linux machine and use Vmware or VirtualBox to run windows.
Also, if you want to keep it simple, wipe the whole disk and just install Linux + virtualbox/vmware/kvm/xen/or whaterver and create a virtual disk big enough for windows (i recommand +20gb). Then create a virtual machine big enough for your needs and install windows on it.
Regards,
Bernard
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_______0 Guru
Joined: 15 Oct 2012 Posts: 521
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Posted: Thu Mar 07, 2013 10:27 pm Post subject: |
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imaginasys wrote: |
Second step: I installed virtualbox I create a windows machine on a raw disk using the windows partition. On the windows side, You have to create a material profile for your VM (I have to be able to run windows native on the first partition). When I start the windows vm I have to specify it to use the virtual profile so it doesn't get confused by the physical hardware of the machine.
Bernard
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I always found this intriguing, and confusing, could you provide more details about 'material profile', and how to use it with qemu?
thkns |
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imaginasys Tux's lil' helper
Joined: 26 Dec 2009 Posts: 83 Location: Québec
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Posted: Fri Mar 08, 2013 4:23 pm Post subject: |
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_______0 wrote: | I always found this intriguing, and confusing, could you provide more details about 'material profile', and how to use it with qemu?
thkns |
In the windows machine, you select your computer's icon->properties->Material profile.
Then you copy your actual profile and give it a name (i use "virtual").
Let the material profile be the default to be sure that the machine will reboot on windows with the material profile after 10 sec (This is my work computer).
When you boot the virtual machine you will have 10 sec (or whatever you choosed) to select the virtual profile.
You need a virtual profile because the virtual machine will simulate different hardware than you have. The video card , the sound, the network, the memory, the USB, even the mouse, all will be different.
So windows will need different hardware drivers to run under KVM/Vmware/Virtualbox/Xen/qemu/etc ... The material profile will allow you to load different hardware driver depending on what you want to do : run the physical windows or the virtual.
Take a look a http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/hardware_profiles_overview.mspx?mfr=true.
Regards,
Bernard
PS: First time you boot the virtual machine, windows will detect the virtual hardware and may be will ask for drivers disk : be ready.
These will be the drivers associated with your material profile. |
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_______0 Guru
Joined: 15 Oct 2012 Posts: 521
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Posted: Fri Mar 08, 2013 6:48 pm Post subject: |
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imaginasys wrote: |
In the windows machine, you select your computer's icon->properties->Material profile.
Then you copy your actual profile and give it a name (i use "virtual").
Regards,
Bernard
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That's all??? Seems very simple to do, I always thought it was crazy difficult. I will have to try it out. But I still see m$$ on VM more elegant solution, as it removes partition (and its boot implications) layer. |
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