Arch Linux

olger

Member

Registered: 2012-02-18

Posts: 13

[SOLVED] Is this setup realistically implementable?

Not sure if this is the right forum for this, but here goes.

Going to get an XPS 13 from work real soon, and would like to use it for all my use cases. I currently have a laptop for work/school and a desktop for gaming. I've been dreaming of consolidating into one device for a long time now and I'm hoping the technology is here now, but I'm a bit sceptical. I made a diagram to visualize what I'm imagining right now:

This is as far as I know theoretically possible but I'm sceptical regarding how practical it would be in reality. I would be doing pretty much everything inside the Windows VMs, but I still want to run Arch as a layer below.

I guess my major concerns are:

1. GPU-passthrough gaming, how stable/easygoing is it once properly setup?
2. Moving between being stationary with the external GPU etc and going mobile. If I have to restart my laptop everytime I might aswell use multiple devices.
3. Sleep/hibernate on Linux in general and especially the VMs running on top of that.

Currently leaning towards this dream still being too complex to be practical but would love some input!

Last edited by olger (2016-11-08 21:02:53)

Benja

Member

Registered: 2016-11-05

Posts: 2

Re: [SOLVED] Is this setup realistically implementable?

If you want to have a better gaming experience I recommend a classic dual boot.
However, considering your priorities, you can decide if it's more convenient to virtualize linux in windows or the converse.

olger

Member

Registered: 2012-02-18

Posts: 13

Re: [SOLVED] Is this setup realistically implementable?

If you want to have a better gaming experience I recommend a classic dual boot.
However, considering your priorities, you can decide if it's more convenient to virtualize linux in windows or the converse.

Have considered just dual-booting many times but to me it's really impractical. The main goal with this setup would be to be able to move between two (or potentially more) Windows installations very efficiently so that I can separate my work & personal life in the same way I do now.

Dual-booting would make the technical side very simple though...

brebs

Member

Registered: 2007-04-03

Posts: 3,742

Re: [SOLVED] Is this setup realistically implementable?

If you can tolerate limiting yourself to the (ever-increasing) games that run well on Linux (or in Linux with Wine), then using your laptop for *all* becomes much more realistic.

R00KIE

Forum Fellow

From: Between a computer and a chair

Registered: 2008-09-14

Posts: 4,734

Re: [SOLVED] Is this setup realistically implementable?

I guess my major concerns are:

1. GPU-passthrough gaming, how stable/easygoing is it once properly setup?
2. Moving between being stationary with the external GPU etc and going mobile. If I have to restart my laptop everytime I might aswell use multiple devices.
3. Sleep/hibernate on Linux in general and especially the VMs running on top of that.

1 - That could be a problem with an external device, it all depends on how it is detected in the system, but if you can set it up to work once it should keep working.
2 - I'm not sure how linux will react to you unplugging a device like external an gpu. There is also the matter of gpu passthrough to the VMs, as far as I know that is a static assignment so you will need to have the external gpu connected if you want to use the VMs.
3 - Suspend/Hibernate on linux seems to be a bit of hit and miss or it might break between kernel updates. I'm not sure suspending a VM makes sense but hibernating should work.

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R00KIE
Tm90aGluZyB0byBzZWUgaGVyZSwgbW92ZSBhbG9uZy4K

Benja

Member

Registered: 2016-11-05

Posts: 2

Re: [SOLVED] Is this setup realistically implementable?

The main goal with this setup would be to be able to move between two (or potentially more) Windows installations very efficiently so that I can separate my work & personal life in the same way I do now.

Ok, I would do it this way.
I would keep Windows as the main os (games). Sad to say but ensures better compatibility and functionality with all internal and external devices (as GPU).
So I would create in Windows others VMs (windows and linux) for all other needs.
I would like to remind you that Arch is a rolling distro with frequent updates and a stable os (but there is really anyone?) ,which then allows you to open the other VMs, would be a better choice.
In the worst case, if you have serious problems with the "primary os",  you may not have access to any of your VMs configurations (windows or linux).
I think this is safer and realistic.

olger

Member

Registered: 2012-02-18

Posts: 13

Re: [SOLVED] Is this setup realistically implementable?

Thanks for all the input, which I guess echo what I was already thinking. Marking as "Solved".