[vfio-users] Minimal host with desktop guest and gaming guest. Is this possible?

[Roman Mamedov]

On Sat, 15 Jul 2017 20:45:23 -0600
Alex Williamson <alex.l.williamson at gmail.com> wrote:

> Yes, it's possible, not even hard.  I've migrated my old desktop system to
> a VM, so I boot from a USB stick, the host owns the disk controller, USB3
> port, and NIC.  My Linux desktop get the IGD and the onboard USB
> controllers, a Windows VM gets a GeForce 750 and a plugin USB3 card.  Why
> not make more use of IGD assignment in your configuration.  Intel should be
> supporting vGPU on KabyLake soon (of course they're not driving physical
> monitors with vGPU yet).  Concerns with your hardware choice otherwise: a)
> No ACS, you won't be able to assign cards in CPU root port slots to
> separate VMs (see vfio.blogspot.com), b) insufficient cores, how much are
> you willing to have your storage server interfere with your gaming
> performance?

Personally I run my main desktop environment on a remote machine in vnc4server,
and access it from my gaming desktop over LAN, and other machines over the
Internet. But there's no particular reason that "desktop" couldn't run on the
same local machine, in a headless VM.

Point is, reconsider if you (both :) even need a GPU pass-through for the
non-gaming part, or you could run it purely virtual and GPU-less, accessing it
from other systems (including the local one) via a remote desktop protocol.
The bonus is then being able to access your desktop and running apps in the
same way from anywhere in the world!

The only major issue is that running things involving sound and video becomes
not possible on such desktop. But those can be viewed/listened locally, on
whatever actual machine you happen to be at. (Or also there are ways to pass
through sound from a remote desktop, or use video-efficient protocols such as
SPICE, but for my use I did not look into those as of yet).

-- 
With respect,
Roman