What is the best Virtual App in Mint to have Windows in it?

[DanRR]

What QEMU out of suggested packages in LM repository to install (i have AMD EPYC processor, Linux Mint host)

[Merrick]

What QEMU out of suggested packages in LM repository to install (i have AMD EPYC processor, Linux Mint host)

I think,
For your AMD EPYC processor on Linux Mint, consider installing the QEMU package recommended in the LM repository for optimal compatibility.

[ajgreeny]

I'm using KVM/QEMU on a 12 year old desktop machine with an Intel i5375k cpu and 8G ram.
The whole requirement was installed simply by running

Code: Select all

sudo apt install virt-manager

All else needed was installed with the one command making the process just the one step.
Try it yourself!

[powerhouse]

Question: What is the best Virtual App in Mint to have Windows in it?

Answer: It depends. If you just want to run some Windows productivity apps like Office or so, I guess Vbox is the easiest way.

However, if you need top performance (near bare metal performance) for things like gaming, photo or video editing, then kvm / QEMU is the way to go. Just bear in mind that installing a VM using the kvm/QEMU tools libvirt and virt-manager (Virtual Machine Manager) isn't always so straightforward.

The second kvm/QEMU method is often referred to as PCI passthrough, GPU passthrough, or VFIO. Let's call it VFIO (you will find Reddit and other forums/groups under that name). In order to use VFIO, your hardware must support certain features. Most important is good IOMMU separation. It is also helpful to have a dedicated graphics card for your Windows virtual machine (VM).

I'm using PCI passthrough now for 12 years and have written several tutorials. The most recent is https://www.heiko-sieger.info/creating- ... ssthrough/. It also contains instructions for Intel hardware, so don't let the title discourage you.

But the first thing you should read is the following: https://www.heiko-sieger.info/iommu-gro ... -consider/

My tutorials are not meant for single GPU passthrough, but you'll find links to some useful tutorials.

While the technology evolves and today's virtualization toolbox offers more tools (for example virtio-fs shared file system), the basics stay more or less the same.

VFIO is a more demanding method of installing a Windows VM, but in the long run it may be worth it if you need the performance benefits. Aside from better performance (comparable to bare metal performance), VFIO - in conjunction with for example LVM - can provide easy VM backup and restore, migration to a different hardware platform, and more.

Hope this helps.