[vfio-users] Mouse and keyboard for gaming

[Will Marler]

It's also worth mentioning that some gaming device software (I have
personal experience with Logitech) doesn't work when the mouse is passed
through via Synergy. I also had a condition, when passing the mouse through
as a USB device, where the guest (Windows 10) wanted to update firmware on
the mouse and said "ok, now unplug the mouse & re-plug it in to start the
update." I couldn't get this to work without passing through a PCI USB
controller to the guest, and plugging/unplugging the mouse to that.

On Tue, Sep 27, 2016 at 2:55 PM, Jayme Howard <g.prime at gmail.com> wrote:

> Initially, I was playing all my games over Steam In-Home Streaming.  I
> played on the host machine, just using the integrated graphics to display
> the stream.  That worked pretty well, in games that weren't CPU intensive,
> but it had framerate limitations, and you could definitely see the cracks
> on more intensive games.  I've, relatively recently, moved to native
> controls on the guest OS.  I tried, at first, using USB passthrough to
> detach my keyboard and mouse from the host and provide them to the guest,
> but that was a pain, because I'd have to either connect a secondary
> keyboard or SSH in to go back to the host.  Since then, I've taken a more
> novel approach.
>
> I have a dedicated PCI-E USB 3.0 card with 4 ports (Insignia brand from
> Best Buy.  I tried an Anker, and had TONS of problems, and this one just
> works flawlessly.).  That entire card gets passed through to the VM just
> like my GPU does, so it's effectively native.  Then, I have a USB A/B
> switch, with one input and two outputs.  One output is connected to a host
> USB port, and the other is connected to the previously mentioned card.
> Attached to that is a 4 port hub.  I have my keyboard and mouse (sometimes
> a flash drive as well) attached to the hub.  This allows me to easily swap
> between the host and the guest at the push of a button on the switch.  I
> also use dual inputs on my monitor, so it's connected to both the host and
> the guest.  This allows for mostly seamless transition between the two.  I
> switch the input, then the USB, and I'm off to the races.  When I want to
> go back to the host, I reverse the process.  The USB switchover event
> generally takes about 2-3 seconds in either direction, about the same as
> the input change on the monitor.
>
> As far as my Windows guest is concerned, the input is 100% native, and it
> works flawlessly.
>
> On Tue, Sep 27, 2016 at 3:46 PM, Jonas Camillus Jeppesen <jonascj at sdu.dk>
> wrote:
>
>> Hi everyone
>>
>> This is not strictly vfio related, but many people associate vfio with
>> gaming on virtual machines on Linux, so that's my justification for posting
>> my question here.
>>
>> How is your mouse and keyboard setup for gaming on Windows guests?
>>
>> By gaming I mean you pass your dedicated GPU through to a Windows 7 or 10
>> guest to play Counter Strike, World of Warcraft, Rocket League, Skyrim etc.
>>
>> Personally I've only tried Synergy with the Linux host as server, and Win
>> 10 guest as client. This works reasonably well for non-first person
>> shooters (FPS). In FPS games the camera tends to go completely haywire when
>> moving the mouse.
>>
>> Are people binding mouse/keyboard to the guest (no longer usable on
>> host), and then run the Synergy on Windows, and client on Linux host?
>>
>> I look forward to hear about your setups! The goal is to have mouse and
>> keyboard on both Linux host and Windows host, and mouse working in 3D games
>> (like CS, WoW, etc.).
>>
>>
>> / Jonas
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>
>
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