TLDR; tell me if this is a waste of time before I spend forever tinkering on something that will always be janky

I want to run multiple OSs on one machine including Linux, Windows, and maybe OSX from a host with multiple GPUs + igpu. I know there are multiple solutions but I’m looking for advice, opinions and experience. I know I can google how-to but is this worh pursuing?

I currently dual boot Bazzite and Ubuntu, for gaming and develoent respectively. I love Bazzite ease of updates and Ubuntu is where it’s at for testing and building frontier AI/ML tools.

What if I kept my computer running a thin hypervisor 24/7 and switched VMs based on my working context? I could pass through hardware as needed.

Proxmox? XCP-NG? Debian + QEMU? Anyone living with these as their computing machines (not homelabs/server hosts)?

This is inspired by Chris Tidus’s (YouTube) setup on arch but 1) i don’t know arch 2) I have a fairly beefy i7 265k 192gb build, but he’s on an enterprise xenon ddr5 build so in a differenrent power class 3) I have a heterogenous mix of graphics cards I’m hoping to pass though depending on workload

Use cases:

  • Bazzite + 1 gpu for gaming
  • Ubuntu + 1 or more GPUs for work
  • Windows + 0 or more GPU Music Production paid vstis and kernel-level anti cheat games (GTAV, etc)
  • OSX? Lightroom? GPU?

Edit: Thank you all for your thoughts and contributions

Edit: what I’ve learned

  • this is viable but might be a pain
  • a Windows VM for getting around anti-cheat in vames defeats the purpose. I’d need a dual boot for that use case
  • hyperV is a no. Qubes Qemu libvirt, yes
  • may want to just put everything on sparate disks and boot / VM into them as needed

Edit: distrobox/docker works great but doesn’t fit all my needs because I can’t install kernel-level modules in them (AFAIK)

  • InnerScientist@lemmy.world
    2·
    3 months ago

    Windows vms for beating kernel level anticheat takes a lot of work to prevent detection. I recommend dual booting instead for that use case.

    For the Linux environments I’d recommend using containers/podman/docker, systemd-nspawn or libvirt. These three solutions use the host kernel as the hypervisor and don’t require much setup.

    Containers can also share the GPU with the host easily.

    Your setup would be Hardware > Windows | Bazzite > Ubuntu(container) | OSX (libvirtd)

    Edit: You can also triple boot with windows, Bazzite and Ubuntu or add a proxmox/whatever hypervisor disk and try it out without touching your working system.

    • afk_strats@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      0·
      3 months ago

      I’ve read through the thread and your edit sounds like the best option for me. It gives direct hardware access and gets everything working right away but allows me to try out a hypervisor solution.

      I love and use containers/Distrobox all the time and it all works great except that I do run into problems with firmware and kernel modules because you can’t containerize that or I haven’t figured it out yet.

  • Fizz@lemmy.nzEnglish
    1·
    3 months ago

    Its very complex and overkill but its not a bad idea if you want to do it. I believe there is a youtuber SomeOrdinaryGamer who runs a linux base OS with hypervisor OSs on top with GPU passthrough. He has some videos explaining his setup and how it all works and how to configure it.

    You could also take a look at this linux distro designed for exactly what you want to do https://www.qubes-os.org/.

  • atzanteol@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    0·
    3 months ago

    I use VMs a lot for desktops doing development work. It’s certainly possible, with some caveats. Here’s a bit of a knowledge-dump that may be helpful.

    Multiple displays can be tricky. If you just want a single monitor you’re fine. But hypervisors have varying support for more than one display and some do it better than others. VirtualBox had the absolute best support for it. Hyper-V has “support” for it but only really if you use their preferred Ubuntu install. I’m not sure how libvirt handles it. Remote display protocols have varying support and can be options - rustdesk seems to support it very nicely (one window per display like VirtualBox) but I’ve had lots of keyboard issues with that.

    Running VMs is less efficient, you’ll need more memory in the base system to handle each VM but it sounds like you’re pretty decked out there.

    Access to hardware can be tricky. Hyper-V sucks at this - don’t use it if you can help it. I’ve never quite done gaming in a VM but I suspect this would be the most problematic. I have done libvirt pass-through of an nvidia card but only for video encoding/decoding with Jellyfin - which does work just fine. But VM displays tend not to be well accelerated so I would expect other issues. As an example my hyper-v Linux guest can’t play video above a small resolution without the audio skipping and losing track.

    I’d avoid Hyper-V entirely. It absolutely sucks as a desktop environment. It relies heavily on RDP “enhanced mode” for everything, has shitty support for hardware pass-through, etc. Just a complete fail.

    VirtualBox was really quite good for a desktop environment - but Oracle is more lawfirm than software company these days. There are hidden license issues with using any extensions (for, e.g. accelerated displays).

    Libvirt I don’t have as much experience with unfortunately. I’ve usually emulated Linux on Windows not the other way 'round.

    • afk_strats@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      0·
      3 months ago

      I think I’m sold on NOT using HyperV. I will also keep it to one monitor because thats my current setup.

  • Dran@lemmy.world
    0·
    3 months ago

    My solution to this problem was to buy a $180 Dell workstation off eBay and install Ubuntu on that as my main workstation. My gaming desktop is now in the basement and runs sunshine. Moonlight over LAN is basically native, and solves the annoying reboot to switch tasks scenario.

    • afk_strats@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      0·
      3 months ago

      This might/probably will be the end game for me as well. Sunshine for remote gaming and ruatdesk/ssh for work.

      • Slybebop@sh.itjust.works
        1·
        2 months ago

        Watch out regarding local streaming like moonlight / sunshine for kernel anti cheat games. I remember testing it earlier this year and Valorant wouldn’t let me use my mouse input when using Moonlight/Sunshine from a Windows PC into another machine (which happened to be running Linux Mint, but not sure that had any relevance)