Re: optimized conf for Win!= DomU

[David Hill <davehill@xxxxxxxxx>]

On 2021-06-01 6:21 a.m., Chris wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I use xen with win10 and a passed-through rtx2070 for gaming.
> At the moment use this config:
>
> name = "marax"
> uuid = "e0de3cb7-3937-417d-8d63-b0993b377b6a"
> maxmem = 32768
> memory = 32768
> vcpus = 16
> rtc_timeoffset = 0
> localtime = 1
> on_poweroff = "destroy"
> on_reboot = "restart"
> on_crash = "restart"
> boot = 'd'
> vif = [
> "mac=00:16:3e:05:01:10,bridge=xenbr5,script=vif-bridge,model=e1000" ]
> parallel = "none"
> serial = "none"
> type = "hvm"
> loader = "/usr/lib64/xen/boot/hvmloader"
> bios = "ovmf"
> device_model_version = "qemu-xen"
> bios_path_override = "/usr/lib64/xen/boot/OVMF.fd"
> disk = [ "phy:/dev/mapper/marax_c,hda,rw",
> "phy:/dev/vg_lilith/lv_marax_d,hdb,rw" ]
> max_grant_frames = "128"
> pci = [ "01:00.0", "01:00.1", "01:00.2", "01:00.3", "00:1f.3" ]
> pci_permissive  = 1
> keymap = "de"
> vnclisten="0.0.0.0:2"
> pci_power_mgmt=1
> xen_platform_pci=1
> pci_msitranslate=1
> viridian=1
> hpet=1
> acpi=1
> apic=1
> pae=1
> videoram=16
> stdvga=1
>
> it works nice but does someone see something in the config what I can
> make better? For gaming there is never enough optimizing and power :D
>
> Thanks in advance!
> --
> ------
> Greetz
Sorry - message took off when I tried to paste the Spice link in - my bad.

https://www.spice-space.org/

I see you're passing through the video card, so that should work best, 
but to the extent you're using vnc or equivalent, Spice would be an 
improvement.
It's not super-complicated to set up. You need Spice server to be 
enabled on the host - it's installed by default in major distros so 
that's probably not an issue.
Download the Windows "guest" binaries from the download page and install 
to Windows. Use virt-viewer as the client to access the guest.
On the other hand, since you're passing through the graphics card,  
maybe there's no need for either vnc or Spice?
Here's the relevant section of my cfg file:

#VIDEO
videoram                = 128
vga                     = 'stdvga'
# 'qxl' doesn't work well in Linux yet 2020.02.10

#SPICE
spice                   = 1
spicehost               = '0.0.0.0'
spiceport               = 6001
spiceusbredirection     = 4
spicedisable_ticketing  = 1
spicevdagent            = 1
spice_clipboard_sharing = 1
soundhw                 = 'hda'

# SPICE notes
# https://www.spice-space.org/index.html
# Be sure to install spice-vdagent in guest after install
# for seemless mouse mode.
# Using Remote Viewer (i.e. virt-viewer), connect to:
# spice://{localhost}/{host_ip_address}:6001
# Enables redirecting up to 4 usb devices from spice client to domUs
# spicedisable_ticketing enabled is for no spice password.
# To use spicepasswd, replace with:
# spicepasswd='test'
# Intel hd audio emulated card used for spice audio

I had trouble with veridien = 1 at one point