Xen - Having 2 Guis in VMs To Switch Back & Forth

jlpoole · Guru Joined: 01 Nov 2005 Posts: 483 Location: Salem, OR

I'm building a new machine, Ryzen 7950+ with 128GB. I would like to be able to run a desktop Gentoo in a VM [guest] and run, say, KDE Plasma in that VM, and then run my old Microsoft Windows 7 in another VM (I have and and *own* the 2012 Adobe Creative Suite and wish to continue using it without having to pay rentals to Adobe). While at the machine, I would like to be able to switch between the two VMs using the Xen command "xl console [VM ID]" while in the Dom0 console.

I'm posting here to learn if anyone else has configured a system such as I have described above. A colleague has urged me to use KVM, but I resits because I have been using Xen and believe it to be a very solid platform.

I am having problems with getting the KDE Plasma to appear in the screen of the main console when I am "in" the Gentoo VM. I have not yet installed MS Windows7, I'm banking on the fact that I installed Windows 2008 Server about a decade ago on another Xen instance and concluded that was a viable way to run a Windows instance within Xen. My current goal is run the Gentoo VM and have the KDE Plasma desktop on it. (I also want to do video editing with KDEnlive.) Note: I have been able to run Tiger VNC (net-misc/tigervnc) in the Gentoo VM and then access the VNC desktop from another computer -- works great. But that is a paradigm with two machines, I want to be able to consolidate a Windows instance and Gentoo instance into one machine, as well as have the ability to create other VMs for other purposes.

I'm afraid the Xorg windows stuff is daunting and I suppose I'll eventually work it out, but I am seeking encouragement by learning if anyone else has achieved this kind of setup. I may have to have a 2nd graphics card and possibly used PCI-passthrough, but that's an option if I cannot achieve getting the screen output of each VM to appear on the same monitor as I switch console with "xl console [\#]".

So, is anyone successfully running Xen and having KDE Plasma running in one VM, and another GUI, i.e. MS Windows, in another VM and switching back and forth on the screen attached to the machine? I'm going to guess NeddySeagon might have some experience in this, but otherwise I've found my Xen posts in this forum to have few responses. I guess I'm pushing envelope.

C5ace · Posted: Sat Dec 30, 2023 2:54 pm Post subject:

I run VirtualBox on a Ryzen 9 3950X Processor with Gentoo 64GB RAM as host. Clients used are Gentoo, OpenSuse, Windows 7, XP and DOS at the same time. Displays are shown on a 32" 4K monitor or 75" TV.
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jlpoole · Guru Joined: 01 Nov 2005 Posts: 483 Location: Salem, OR

C5ace · Posted: Sat Dec 30, 2023 4:23 pm Post subject:

I only use Xfce with one monitor at a time displaying up to 6 resizable virtual windows monitors in a Xfce screen.

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