5 ms·

Running Windows under FreeBSD's bhyve

100 points by vezzy-fnord 11y ago

protomyth 11y ago
The current BSD Now episode[1] has thoughts on this and the passing of @creepingfur[2][3] (Benjamin Perrault). 1) http://www.bsdnow.tv/episodes/2015_12_16-im_talking_about_the_man_in_the_middle http://www.bsdnow.tv/episodes/2015_12_16-im_talking_about_th... 2) https://twitter.com/michaeldexter/status/676290499389485057 https://twitter.com/michaeldexter/status/676290499389485057 3) http://pastebin.com/4BQ5uVsT http://pastebin.com/4BQ5uVsT
cakes 11y ago
Even though it looks like (and probably is, I can't easily try this right now) a lot of work, it's cool to see this running on bhyve
itgoon 11y ago
Poor guest support is why I ended up switching from FreeBSD to Linux for my test server. I'd like to go back, but I can't justify a single box for a single instance - I run lots of VMs, using all operating systems. So I'm glad to see this, and I hope they continue the improvements.
jbssm 11y ago
I know very little about FreeBDS and bhyve. But, is it possible to pass direct access to the GPU to the virtual machine this way? That way it would be possible to play the games in Windows or to use CUDA in a Linux guest inside bhyve.
- anoother 11y ago
  It seems the answer should be 'yes': https://github.com/pr1ntf/iohyve/wiki/USB-3.0-PCI-Controller-Pass-through https://github.com/pr1ntf/iohyve/wiki/USB-3.0-PCI-Controller...
- DiabloD3 11y ago
  bhyve would have to support what is called "PCI-E passthrough", and support such functionality via IOMMUs to allow device-initiated DMAs to work (which GPUs, >=10gbit NICs, storage controllers, etc, all require). KVM, Xen, and ESXI all support this, so if bhyve doesn't support it yet, it most likely will in the future.
  - qbrass 11y ago
    It should work for Intel's VT-d, but you're out of luck if you use AMD.
    - grubles 11y ago
      What? AMD has support for IOMMU.
      - sveiss 11y ago
        The implementation is different to Intel's. AFAIK, bhyve has code to support one but not the other.
- jlgaddis 11y ago
  I don't have an answer to your question but note that bhyve is still very new, it is still very experimental, and the feature list is still pretty short. That said, work is ongoing and progressing pretty quickly.
- techdragon 11y ago
  You won't have much help from Nvidia, they like to disable this sort of thing when they can, artificial limits in their binary drivers etc.
jlgaddis 11y ago
I'm certainly no expert on XML, but it looks like there's a good chunk of the Win2k8-AutoUnattend.xml file missing. Unfortunately, at the present moment, that's probably the part of this that I'm most interested in. ETA: Found the original XML file [0]. [0]: https://github.com/pr1ntf/YetAnotherBhyveScript/blob/master/Win2k8-AutoUnattend.xml https://github.com/pr1ntf/YetAnotherBhyveScript/blob/master/...

100 points by vezzy-fnord 11y ago

The current BSD Now episode[1] has thoughts on this and the passing of @creepingfur[2][3] (Benjamin Perrault). 1) http://www.bsdnow.tv/episodes/2015_12_16-im_talking_about_the_man_in_the_middle http://www.bsdnow.tv/episodes/2015_12_16-im_talking_about_th... 2) https://twitter.com/michaeldexter/status/676290499389485057 https://twitter.com/michaeldexter/status/676290499389485057 3) http://pastebin.com/4BQ5uVsT http://pastebin.com/4BQ5uVsT

cakes 11y ago

Even though it looks like (and probably is, I can't easily try this right now) a lot of work, it's cool to see this running on bhyve

itgoon 11y ago

Poor guest support is why I ended up switching from FreeBSD to Linux for my test server. I'd like to go back, but I can't justify a single box for a single instance - I run lots of VMs, using all operating systems. So I'm glad to see this, and I hope they continue the improvements.

jbssm 11y ago

I know very little about FreeBDS and bhyve. But, is it possible to pass direct access to the GPU to the virtual machine this way? That way it would be possible to play the games in Windows or to use CUDA in a Linux guest inside bhyve.

anoother 11y ago
It seems the answer should be 'yes': https://github.com/pr1ntf/iohyve/wiki/USB-3.0-PCI-Controller-Pass-through https://github.com/pr1ntf/iohyve/wiki/USB-3.0-PCI-Controller...
DiabloD3 11y ago
bhyve would have to support what is called "PCI-E passthrough", and support such functionality via IOMMUs to allow device-initiated DMAs to work (which GPUs, >=10gbit NICs, storage controllers, etc, all require). KVM, Xen, and ESXI all support this, so if bhyve doesn't support it yet, it most likely will in the future.
- qbrass 11y ago
  It should work for Intel's VT-d, but you're out of luck if you use AMD.
  - grubles 11y ago
    What? AMD has support for IOMMU.
    - sveiss 11y ago
      The implementation is different to Intel's. AFAIK, bhyve has code to support one but not the other.
jlgaddis 11y ago
I don't have an answer to your question but note that bhyve is still very new, it is still very experimental, and the feature list is still pretty short. That said, work is ongoing and progressing pretty quickly.
techdragon 11y ago
You won't have much help from Nvidia, they like to disable this sort of thing when they can, artificial limits in their binary drivers etc.

jlgaddis 11y ago

I'm certainly no expert on XML, but it looks like there's a good chunk of the Win2k8-AutoUnattend.xml file missing. Unfortunately, at the present moment, that's probably the part of this that I'm most interested in. ETA: Found the original XML file [0]. [0]: https://github.com/pr1ntf/YetAnotherBhyveScript/blob/master/Win2k8-AutoUnattend.xml https://github.com/pr1ntf/YetAnotherBhyveScript/blob/master/...