Virtualization solution

[Shaika-Dzari]

Hi everyone,

So I got a new and shiny Dell XPS 15 touch a couple of month ago.
This beast (i7, 16gb, full SSD, 3200x1800 touch, Intel 4600m + nvidia 750) came with windows 8.1.

The first day I got it, Kubuntu was installed on it (dual boot) and is running just fine since them.
My problem is windows here. I need to keep it because I sometime need it to run software (tax declaration, webex, job related stufff, etc).
Dell did an horrible job with windows. It's crashing from time to time. Intel driver is very unreliable and if you search windows 8 black screen on google, you will see I'm not alone.

So... I have half of my disk sitting here for nothing.
And I'm feeling running windows inside a vm would actually be better than using it natively with all the systems this laptop has.

So my plan :
- Wiping the disk
- Reinstalling Kubuntu
- Buying a windows license (I can't use the one shipped with the laptop...)
- Installing it inside a vm

Now my question :
1- Which virtualization solution would you use (no 3d, no games) ? Virtualbox? Kvm?
2- I'm confused by the partiton table. What should I keep in this list ?

$:>sudo parted /dev/sda print                                                                                                                                                                                                               ~
Model: ATA SAMSUNG SSD SM84 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 512GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt

Number  Start   End     Size    File system  Name                          Flags
 1      1049kB  525MB   524MB   fat32        EFI system partition          boot
 2      525MB   567MB   41.9MB  fat32        Basic data partition          hidden
 3      567MB   701MB   134MB                Microsoft reserved partition  msftres
 4      701MB   1215MB  514MB   ntfs         Basic data partition          hidden, diag
 5      1215MB  250GB   248GB   ntfs         Basic data partition          msftdata
 8      250GB   262GB   12.0GB  ext4
 9      262GB   262GB   512MB
10      262GB   496GB   234GB   ext4
 7      496GB   504GB   7494MB  ntfs         Microsoft recovery partition  hidden, diag
 6      504GB   512GB   8593MB               Basic data partition

3- I need to install Windows from an USB key because I don't have a dvd player. Any problem with that?

Thanks for the help.

Regards

[GreyGeek]

Personally, I think your plan is a great solution, especially if the Win 8.1 BSoD fix includes doing "bootrec /fixmbr".

As far as the choice of VM my preference is for VirtualBox, including the "virtualbox-guest-additions-iso", which adds USB and monitor support, plus other cool abilities. Both are in the repository. Or, you can go to the Oracle site and download the latest deb packages.

There is a UEFI subforum (https://www.kubuntuforums.net/forumd...EFI-assistance) on KubuntuForums.net which offers info about installing Kubuntu on machines with UEFI installed. Also, Steve Riley, former Microsoft employee and one of the admins on this site is very knowledgeable about Windows, Linux and UEFI. IIRC, Steve's preference is for VMWare, and he is very knowledgeable about using it on Kubuntu. I used to use VMWare but switched to VirtualBox because it was in the repositories and worked great for me. I used to use it to keep a WinXP OS handy, but when XP died I deleted it and replaced it with Ubuntu ... which, like XP, I rarely run.

With that beast of a box you've got Win 8.1 should fly as a guest OS regardless of which VM you choosee.

[Shaika-Dzari]

Hi GreyGeek,

Sorry for my late response, this week was quite busy...

Actually, my issue is not the same as the link on mbr. I have a driver issue. Intel card does not seem to play well with my nvidia card, or the other way around...
Nvidia acknowledge the problem last week on their forum but everyone is still waiting for a fixed driver. And Dell is a long way behind anyway.

We are suppose to get rain all weekend here, so I'll try to check and elaborate my chosen solution.
Maybe trying kvm at the same time.

Thanks again

[SteveRiley]

KVM is designed more for server virtualization. It doesn't have a graphical configuration tool of its own. Instead, you'll need to rely on something else for that. Virt Manager is probably one of the more popular; it's Gtk+ based rather than Qt/KDE, so you may or may not care for that. Another is QEMU. Originally designed as a processor emulator, QEMU reverts to being a virtual machine manager when the guest and the host processor architectures are the same -- which is what 99% of us do in virtualization.

Neither Virt Manager nor QEMU-KVM provide a lot of guest-host integration, though. Spice aims to fix this, and is under active development. I tried getting QEMU-KVM plus Spice working about a year ago and gave up -- it was all just a little too rough. I suspect there's been much improvement lately, and it's on my never-ending, ever-growing list of things to do.

For general purpose desktop virtualization, I'd recommend Virtualbox. It has the interesting combination of being the easiest to set up and offering the most flexibility. It integrates with DKMS, meaning that each time there's a Virtualbox or kernel upgrade, the system automatically compiles new modules. However, it's missing one feature that makes VMware Player a little more interesting. VMware Player includes a neat trick called Unity (nothing to do with the Ubuntu user interface of the same name.) VMware Unity remove the "frame" surrounding the guest operating system; it places guest windows directly on the host's desktop and guest task icons on the host's icon switcher. I really like this, and it's whay I use VMware Player daily. However, Player is finicky; each time there's a Player or kernel update, you have to compile new modules (no DKMS integration). And Player is notorious for breaking when a new kernel is released, meaning you'll have to wait for someone to release a patch. VMware hardly ever does this for us.

[Shaika-Dzari]

Hi SteveRiley,

Fellow anime fan?

Thanks for the tips. I was kind of hoping to ditch Virtualbox (which I know and use for work), that's why I was asking for kvm... Being able to use a fully open source solution is appealing.
I try today and see how good or bad it is working...

Thanks

[ferri]

I used VMware for years. And finally I have switched to VirtualBox this year. It seems to me better.

[Shaika-Dzari]

Hi Ferri,

Yep, that's probably what I will use.

Yesterday, I played a little bit with kvm and virt manager.
Actually, that was not bad. I would say that SteveRiley is right. To virtualize a server, I would surely go this way. I have never saw a vm boot so fast...

Unfortunately, the 2D performance in KDE was not really great. That was usable but not at the same level of what Virtualbox is offering.
So case closed.

Thanks everyone.