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What are you using as your host OS? I've been really wanting to virtualize my Win7 install but I haven't decided on a host OS yet. My ideal would be Qubes OS.

by blakes 10y ago

lokedhs 10y ago
Qubes OS is a reasonable way of running Windows VM's. You install a template VM with Windows 7, and the only thing you run in that VM is Windows Update to make sure it's up to date. Your actual Windows work is run in AppVM's which are based on the template. Any changes in an AppVM is rolled back every time it's restarted (it's always based on the template), with the exception on the user's home directory. For anyone that hasn't used Qubes OS, this is how you do most work in it, even for the Linux VM's, and I like how it allows you to be in better control of what is actually running on your system. Using Qubes OS take a bit more effort, but once you get everything up and running the way you want it, you'll be asking yourself why not all operating systems do this.
- blakes 10y ago
  Thanks for the info! My most painful hurdle will be passing PCIe through to the Win VM, as I do enjoy some CS:GO in my life.
__jal 10y ago
This is a very late response - hope you find it. I really like the idea of Qubes, but it just seems Not There Yet. Or at least, was when I last looked. Anyway, I wouldn't recommend doing what I'm doing. My home environment is the result of many years of incremental change, benign neglect, not-so-benign neglect, quick duct-tape fixes and grandiose redesigns half-completed. Learn From My Mistakes. I run two virtualization hosts - FreeBSD and Ubuntu[1]. FreeBSD runs my always-on VMs (DNS, DB, some apps, monitoring, etc.). The Ubuntu box is where I run the Windows VM I mentioned, and sometimes others, depending on what I'm working on. Ubuntu/KVM is fine as a virtualization host. I'm less thrilled with Ubuntu overall; generally, I don't like some of the decisions they've made. Next rebuild I'll probably be back to vanilla Debian. I wouldn't recommend FreeBSD/Bhyve to anyone who is not already conversant with FreeBSD. From the perspective of a user coming from Linux, the transition isn't bad, but if you're running VMs, you're at least a part-time sysadmin as well, and managing FreeBSD looks a fair bit different than Linux. Additionally, Bhyve is currently missing some features KVM/libvirt has. In particular, if you want VGA or USB passthrough, stick to Linux[2] for now. This is all predicated on this being a workstation - if you're doing server virtualization, I really like Ovirt, which requires an RHEL-lineage host OS. [1] The FreeBSD box used to be "just" a storage server, but has grown up a lot and last time I did a lot of work on it, I renamed it 'spof', as in 'single point of failure', in honor of the role it serves. The Ubuntu box is my desktop machine. [2] Actually, unless you like the adventure, maybe wait a bit - there are patches soon to be merged that will make VGA-passthrough quite a bit easier than it is now. I had a terrible time getting it working and to a kinda-stable point.

What are you using as your host OS? I've been really wanting to virtualize my Win7 install but I haven't decided on a host OS yet. My ideal would be Qubes OS.

by blakes 10y ago

What are you using as your host OS? I've been really wanting to virtualize my Win7 install but I haven't decided on a host OS yet. My ideal would be Qubes OS.

lokedhs 10y ago

Qubes OS is a reasonable way of running Windows VM's. You install a template VM with Windows 7, and the only thing you run in that VM is Windows Update to make sure it's up to date. Your actual Windows work is run in AppVM's which are based on the template. Any changes in an AppVM is rolled back every time it's restarted (it's always based on the template), with the exception on the user's home directory. For anyone that hasn't used Qubes OS, this is how you do most work in it, even for the Linux VM's, and I like how it allows you to be in better control of what is actually running on your system. Using Qubes OS take a bit more effort, but once you get everything up and running the way you want it, you'll be asking yourself why not all operating systems do this.

blakes 10y ago
Thanks for the info! My most painful hurdle will be passing PCIe through to the Win VM, as I do enjoy some CS:GO in my life.

__jal 10y ago

This is a very late response - hope you find it. I really like the idea of Qubes, but it just seems Not There Yet. Or at least, was when I last looked. Anyway, I wouldn't recommend doing what I'm doing. My home environment is the result of many years of incremental change, benign neglect, not-so-benign neglect, quick duct-tape fixes and grandiose redesigns half-completed. Learn From My Mistakes. I run two virtualization hosts - FreeBSD and Ubuntu[1]. FreeBSD runs my always-on VMs (DNS, DB, some apps, monitoring, etc.). The Ubuntu box is where I run the Windows VM I mentioned, and sometimes others, depending on what I'm working on. Ubuntu/KVM is fine as a virtualization host. I'm less thrilled with Ubuntu overall; generally, I don't like some of the decisions they've made. Next rebuild I'll probably be back to vanilla Debian. I wouldn't recommend FreeBSD/Bhyve to anyone who is not already conversant with FreeBSD. From the perspective of a user coming from Linux, the transition isn't bad, but if you're running VMs, you're at least a part-time sysadmin as well, and managing FreeBSD looks a fair bit different than Linux. Additionally, Bhyve is currently missing some features KVM/libvirt has. In particular, if you want VGA or USB passthrough, stick to Linux[2] for now. This is all predicated on this being a workstation - if you're doing server virtualization, I really like Ovirt, which requires an RHEL-lineage host OS. [1] The FreeBSD box used to be "just" a storage server, but has grown up a lot and last time I did a lot of work on it, I renamed it 'spof', as in 'single point of failure', in honor of the role it serves. The Ubuntu box is my desktop machine. [2] Actually, unless you like the adventure, maybe wait a bit - there are patches soon to be merged that will make VGA-passthrough quite a bit easier than it is now. I had a terrible time getting it working and to a kinda-stable point.