Higher resolution for KVM guests by using "-vga vmware", e.g. for Ubuntu Lucid

[tom]

hi,

just tested the vmware vga graphic emulation, seems to work quite fine on Ubuntu Lucid. On Linux guest I do not get good performance by using "Standard VGA".
(For windows, 'Standard VGA' works best out of the box without additional driver inside.)

HowTo:
its not possible via gui (yet), you need to add the following line to your VMID.conf file (see /etc/qemu-server/):

args: -vga vmware

this should also work for windows guest, but here you need to get the extra driver - in Ubuntu its included - so I suggest to use standard vga on windows.

do not forget to stop and start after the change, a reboot is not enough.

 

[udo]

Hi Tom,
a short test with xubuntu 9.10 looks very good!

Thanks for the info.

Udo

 

[littletiger]

just tested the vmware vga graphic emulation, seems to work quite fine on Ubuntu Lucid.

On Proxmox 1.5 with 2.6.18 kernel I got the options "-vga [std|cirrus|vmware]" but when I added "-vga vmware" to start KVM, it gave the following error:

Unknown vga type: vmware
​

However "-vga vmware" was accepted without error by the KVM when I used the 2.6.32 kernel instead.

Is there something I need to do to get "-vga vmware" to work on Proxmox 2.6.18 ?

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[tom]

I tested it against the latest KVM 0.12.4 - only available on 2.6.24 and 2.6.32.

So I assume it will not work on the 2.6.18er.

 

[littletiger]

I tested it against the latest KVM 0.12.4 - only available on 2.6.24 and 2.6.32.

Thanks for your reply.

Looks like I will need to run 2.6.24 or 2.6.32 then, it is a pity that those kernels use twice the amount of CPU running KVMs than 2.6.18 ...

But that is for another thread
http://forum.proxmox.com/threads/3969-CPU-Utilisation-2.6.18-vs-2.6.24

 

[udo]

hi,

just tested the vmware vga graphic emulation, seems to work quite fine on Ubuntu Lucid. On Linux guest I do not get good performance by using "Standard VGA".
(For windows, 'Standard VGA' works best out of the box without additional driver inside.)

HowTo:
its not possible via gui (yet), you need to add the following line to your VMID.conf file (see /etc/qemu-server/):

args: -vga vmware

this should also work for windows guest, but here you need to get the extra driver - in Ubuntu its included - so I suggest to use standard vga on windows.

do not forget to stop and start after the change, a reboot is not enough.

Hi,
i've just test this with pve 1.6 (kernel 2.6.32-13) and there is the vga vmware unknown!

Is this proposed?

Udo

 

[tom]

works here, booted one of my lucid VM´s.

name: lucid-iscis-lvm
ide2: none,media=cdrom
vlan0: virtio=CA:5B:CD:E5:AD:A0
ostype: l26
memory: 1024
sockets: 1
args: -vga vmware
onboot: 0
cores: 1
virtio1: LVM-on-ISCSI:vm-102-disk-2
boot: c
freeze: 0
cpuunits: 1000
acpi: 1
kvm: 1
bootdisk: virtio1

proxmox-106:~# pveversion -v
pve-manager: 1.6-2 (pve-manager/1.6/5087)
running kernel: 2.6.32-3-pve
proxmox-ve-2.6.32: 1.6-13
pve-kernel-2.6.32-3-pve: 2.6.32-13
qemu-server: 1.1-18
pve-firmware: 1.0-7
libpve-storage-perl: 1.0-13
vncterm: 0.9-2
vzctl: 3.0.24-1pve3
vzdump: 1.2-7
vzprocps: 2.0.11-1dso2
vzquota: 3.0.11-1
pve-qemu-kvm: 0.12.5-1
ksm-control-daemon: 1.0-4
proxmox-106:~#

 

[udo]

works here, booted one of my lucid VM´s.

Hi,
strange - i tested just on another 1.6-node and it's work... hm, i must look this evening at home, why there on one server it's doesn't run...

Udo

 

[joolsr]

just a word of warning :- to anyone wanting to use vmware display driver, for at least two of us, using with vm guest of ubuntu lucid, caused 100% cpu lockup isues after about a day of use. So be warned !

 

[JustaGuy]

just a word of warning :- to anyone wanting to use vmware display driver, for at least two of us, using with vm guest of ubuntu lucid, caused 100% cpu lockup isues after about a day of use. So be warned !

Can be resolved for some it would seem.

I've had similar problems with several linux guests. Solved basically with:

- "args: -no-hpet" in /etc/qemu/XXX.conf on the host
- appending "clocksource=acpi_pm" on the kernel line in grub on the guest

After those mods I had no freezes anymore.

 

[udo]

Can be resolved for some it would seem.

Hi,
unfortunality maxmo74 use standard vga (no vmware)...

Udo

 

[JustaGuy]

Oh, I misunderstood then. Sorry.