Hardware Error “Unknown PCI header type ‘127’ “ Attention! The ASUS Prime x370/x470/x570 pro BIOS versions for AMD RYZEN 3000-series support (version 4602 – version 5220), will break a PCI passthrough setup. Error “Unknown PCI header type ‘127’“. BIOS versions up to (and including) 4406, 2019/03/11 are working. BIOS versions from (and including) 5406, 2019/11/25 […]
qemu
How to update QEMU on Ubuntu 18.04
Ubuntu 18.04 ships with QEMU version 2.11. If you want to use a newer version, 4.1 in my case, you can build it on your own. In case you are using Libvirt qith QEMU, keep in mind that you might need to update Libvirt as well. The easiest way to update QEMU and Libvirt, is […]
Beginner friendly guide to windows virtual machines with GPU passthrough on Ubuntu 18.04; or how to play competitive games in a virtual machine.
Preamble The intent of this document is to provide a complete, step-by-step guide on how to setup a virtual machine(VM) with graphics cards(GPU) passthrough – detailed enough that even Linux rookies are able to participate. The final system will run Xubuntu 18.04 as host operating system(OS), and Windows 10 as guest OS, considering gaming as […]
Comprehensive guide to performance optimizations for gaming on virtual machines with KVM/QEMU and PCI passthrough
Preamble This guide describes performance optimizations for gaming on a virtual machine (VM) with GPU passthrough. In order to optimize the user experience for virtualized gaming, I started to pursue low latency and high performance. Especially since my main focus are demanding online multiplayer games. The Benchmarking Process I started benchmarking several setups (found on […]
Fighting error 43 – Nvidia GPU in a virtual machine
The infamous error 43 is triggered by the Nvidia Windows driver, in case it recognizes the GPU is used inside a virtual machine with GPU passthrough. This means the driver won’t load correctly during the system startup leaving you with cumbersome 800 by 600 display resolution. An examination of the Windows Device Manager will unveil […]
Virtual machine audio setup – or how to get pulse audio working
In this post, I compare several options of how to get the sound output from an KVM virtual machine guest, back into the host. I will compare spice server, pulse audio and a hardware solution. The Host runs an Asus Xonar DGX 5.1 PCIE sound card. In any case – harmonize sample rates of host […]