So I’ve been looking into moving back entirely to Linux, but I play a lot of games so would likely need access to windows. I’m considering using KVM as dualbooting isn’t really something I’d want. I’ve some questions I don’t really get from how this setup would work:

  • I have 3 monitors. I have 1 Nvidia 2060. I imagine I might have to get a cheap-ish 2nd video card for Linux as the 2060 would have to be passed through to the guest (windows) VM… right? (I have integrated graphics, but not enough connections for the 3 monitors on it)
  • how do you switch between playing on the host and playing on the guest? I.e. if a game runs fine native on Linux, I’d want to use that instead of the windows vm. Is it possible to use the Nvidia card I’d normally pass through on the host? The only thing I can think of here is to run a Linux VM on the Linux host so the card can be passed through to it…? Or is it just not worth it and better to stick to just playing on the windows VM?
  • how do multiple monitors behave in this? E.g. I connect the 2 monitors on the left/right to the weak card which I dont have yet. I connect the middle monitor to both cards. Once I launch the VM I change the input on the main monitor to the connection with the Nvidia card. How will my monitors behave (and will I have any control over it)? E.g. will I be able to move the cursor across from the left monitor through the middle monitor and to the right or would they act more like 2 different PCs?
  • how do other things work, like microphone? E.g. can I have discord running on Linux and talk in voice chat, while also using the microphone to talk in game chat in the windows VM?

Answering any of them is useful, thanks in advance. Also if I misunderstood how this setup is meant to work, feel free to correct me.

  • kork349d
    2·
    1 month ago

    It behaves like 2 computers. I have mine set up to change my input from 3 monitors to 2 monitors when the VM starts with qemuhooks by running a xrandr script. You can position the 2 monitors virtually wherever you want. qemuhooks executes another script when it shuts down to switch back to 3 monitors. (Arandr is a great gui to set up the monitors the way you like them and then save the setup as a script)

    I have 2 mice and 2 keyboards. Gaming one is just the left half of a split keyboard. The gaming mouse and gaming keyboard get passed through automatically on VM startup.

    You can use one kb and mouse on both the host and guest but need to manage switching back and forth with keybinds. There are probably other solutions that I am not aware of maybe ones that let you move the mouse in and out of the virtual machine.

    I really like this setup though since I can have a web browser, discord, music etc open on the host and can just switch kb/mouse to control them and don’t need to worry about switching the input back and forth or cycling focus (alt tab etc.) the way i would if I was not using a virtual machine.

    If I want to use the mic in game and also on discord I pass the mic through to the guest and just run discord in there.

    I liked the setup so much that I installed a Linux VM. Eventually everything I was playing worked on Linux and I didn’t need windows anymore so I got rid of it but still use the passthrough.