Proxmox on personal computer
Just wondering about the feasibility of putting proxmox on a PC to run multiple OS at the same time (minimum two, one Windows and one Linux) and if anyone has done it.
Dual boot is a pain because I can only access one but not the other OS at the same time. I can use virtual box or VMWare but GPU passthrough seems impossible. Proxmox seems to be able to handle GPU passthrough to containers.
Any advice and sharing of experience is greatly appreciated so that I can plan how to roll out this thing if feasible on my PC. I have a powerful GPU that I use for machine learning stuff mostly on Linix, but sometimes I work on Adobe apps in Windows and I would like to passthrough the GPU to the Windows container to take advantage of its capability.
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It could work, for experimental purposes, if you install Proxmox and then install a desktop environment. I don't know how well it would work, but you could run a Windows guest with the GPU passed to it and an extra monitor? Never tried it but the pieces are all there, don't see why it wouldn't work.
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I guess this will be an interesting year-end experiment to see how well it performs. I think you should be able to VNC or RDP into the Windows guest with GPU passed to it if you don't have an extra monitor, just that resolution may be an issue.
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Why not virtualbox?
NVM, just read you use linux.
Virt-manager is something I have used for some of my homelab stuff. Does what is needed to be done without much drama.
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I use virtualbox now, but my issue is that it doesn't support GPU passthrough into the Windows VM. I have a GTX1070 that I would like to passthrough into the Windows VM for Adobe apps to take advantage of. Not that I do it often, but I want an effective non-dual boot solution so that I can always work in Linux and then quickly switch to a Windows VM to use Adobe apps that can make use of the GPU via passthrough.
It's an uncommon scenario because I prefer to use Linux as my daily driver. I have been trying to figure out what's the most painless way to quickly switch to Windows and have a native windows environment that can run any program (Wine doesn't work well for the latest Windows programs).
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If your workflow depends on Windows, it's kinda unavoidable having to dual boot or run Linux virtualized for your daily driving. X2go is an awesome, faster and generally better alternative to VNC for Linux remote desktops.
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Does
?
I have weaned myself off Windows. It's just that I have to use the latest Adobe CC apps from time to time and I have been looking for a solution that can allow me to quickly boot up a Windows guest that can take advantage of my GPU. I probably do this thing like once every few months, so I prefer to stay on Linux and seek a perfect solution for having Windows as guest.
Virtualbox and VMware on Linux actually works well for everything I need so far (e.g. MS Office because my collaborators don't like to use the awesome LibreOffice that I use and I don't want to deal with the quirks of working on a Word document in LibreOffice, saving it as a docx file and then later get a complaint email about formatting or other issues). The only imperfection is that I can't get GPU passthrough.
That's what I am trying to see if I can solve with a Proxmox setup on a PC.
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Yeap. And quite easily.
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Sounds like another option to try. Maybe I will try this first.
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I too faced this issue, but it was with my family member ever since i installed a linux distro on a Dell Laptop which came with win 8.1 (out of the box).It had 4 gigs and an i3 but it made no difference. So i had to move away from windows.
LibreOffice has improved greatly in its interface. It now has tabbed toolbars too. For the price of nothing, you can't beat it.
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I haven't used Windows for a very long time, I managed to ditch Windows completely a few years back. For anything that insists on Windows, applications only, I don't play games often, I have a VM with Windows 7 running.
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Why not Windows 10 on the VM? I have one Windows 10 VM on my el cheapo laptop. Works well and less likely to run into issues of backward compatibility.
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I hope to do this one day with an 6/8C Ryzen.
linustechtips has a few videos on gpu passthrough.
The all seeing eye sees everything...
Mainly because I already have a Windows 7 CD and a legit license for it, which I got for free a while back. I'm not keen on paying for Windows 10 and prefer to keep the install clean without cracks and activators adding extra shit (potentially)
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Any support for Android on virt-manager ?
Some people (like me) cannot ditch windows, due to the applications they use for their daily jobs (for me, it's Photoshop, Illustrator, QuarkXpress, AfterEffects, Premiere, Vegas, Edius and others). Nowadays, some decent alternatives are rising, but not for all and not as good as the mentioned above apps...
@poisson , have you played yet with proxmox? I have not searched yet, can it pass thru GPU and all external ports like usb3, serial and parallel? Have you tested yet the overhead of the system?
• If a program actually fits in memory and has enough disk space, it is guaranteed to crash.
• If such a program has not crashed yet, it is waiting for a critical moment before it crashes.
I haven't used it, but I think QubesOS might be a possible solution.. It basically uses Xen as a hypervisor and uses multiple containers to run different operating systems on one hypervisor
https://www.qubes-os.org/intro/
I'd second virt-manager. It's what I use on my desktop, and it works perfectly. In addiction to QEMU/KVM it may handle LXC as well. It usually comes with some pre-configs for commonly virtualized OS. Almost anything can be handled within the GUI (unless you'd have some fancy setup). If GPU passthrough is possible in QEMU/KVM, it's possible to handle it via virt-manager.
excessive overhead for OP's purpose imho, also I don't think OP wants to switch distro
Haven't tried it yet. I am just going with a full single boot Linux install but I intend to stick a spare SSD this month into the system and see how it goes. From my research, everything can be passed through into any virtual machine on say VMWare and virtual box easily except the GPU.
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GPU is crucial...
• If a program actually fits in memory and has enough disk space, it is guaranteed to crash.
• If such a program has not crashed yet, it is waiting for a critical moment before it crashes.
I know.. there is no easy way to passthrough. Here's one guide that apparently works: https://mathiashueber.com/windows-virtual-machine-gpu-passthrough-ubuntu/
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not a good idea
proxmox is for servers, you can easily run Windows in a virtual box where its place should be
It's more than plausible, but you should learn how to handle QEMU directly, boot a low-impact hypervisor and spin off your various VMs.
I've done it with an aging i7 for years, and it works great- provided you have enough RAM and disk I/O isn't the biggest issue you're facing otherwise.
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My good man, life is difficult as it is, why would you want to run android on a computer is beyond my imagination.
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Android as a guest OS, Android as a Host OS would be really silly.
Want to test some things on that.
LMFAO
You're on the wrong forums, if you haven't just switched from a Core 2 Duo.
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@poisson GPU passthough will give you video. You'll need at least 3 cards, 1 for Linux, 1 for windows, 1 for proxmox. If you count the built in one, and your existing gfx card, then you'll need one more.
You also need keyboard and mouse and thumbdrive. So you'll need to get two pcie USB controller and passthrough it as well.
Don't forget to get a HDMI KVM switch to switch your monitor+usb devices between the Linux and windows.
As both instances will be running, your power consumption will be high, while the performance will be low as resources are shared.
I've tried it, and it's not worth it. So I bought a mini PC and use it as my daily driver, while my gaming PC (that hosted proxmox before), I use as windows gaming PC. I only have a 6 core Intel 8600k in there so between proxmox, windows and Linux, it wasn't enough.
If I need both, I power them on and switch between them using the hdmi+USB KVM switch I already bought. It also shares my USB devices so when I switch, everything I have connected to it will get swapped over.
My current proxmox is only running as a server for my server on amd ryzen 2600. The leftover graphics card is in there as well.
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