[fedora-virt] Guest resolution notabug?

[Scott Dowdle]

Paul,

----- "Paul Lambert" <eb30750 at gmail.com> wrote:
> The host is FE-12 x86_64 and the guest is x86_32 (i386). Why would the
> same software not recognize the same hardware running as a guest? Most
> likely because the virt manager software simply restricts the
> resolution choices. The goal of virtualization is to make all guest
> runs as "pass through" operating systems where the guest can do what
> the host can do.

KVM has some PCI pass-thru features but I'm not that familiar with them.  I believe that when used the device has to be dedicated to the VM... but I'm not sure.

Yes, I understand that some other virtualization products do give you much more flexibility with video options including some offering accelerated 3D video in the VM (under certain conditions) but that isn't something built in with virt-manager and the VNC connector it offers. Of course a SPICE video option in virt-manager will be much different once it makes it into Fedora in a usable way but we aren't there yet.

One work around is to run vncserver, freenx or whatever similar client/server app you'd like in the VM specifying the desired resolution and then connect to it with a client app.  For example I sometimes simulate a netbook resolution for people who want to try out 1024x600 before commiting to that resolution with netbook hardware.  I think getting a real (or virtualized) video card to do 1024x600 is problematic but VNC handles it just fine.  One of the drawbacks of doing it that way though is you don't get access to the virtual consoles like you do using virt-manager/VNC.

So while it feels like a bug to you, it is really just missing functionality in the virtual video cards offered by KVM/qemu today.  To the best of my knowledge it isn't specific to Fedora and applies to all distros using KVM.

TYL,
-- 
Scott Dowdle
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