Alternative for virtualization?

[Gerd Mueller]

Hi everyone!

I'm not quite sure what to do, so I need your advice. Lately I moved from Win10 to Linux Mint 20 - so far no problem. But I need special software that will only run on Win, like Fusion360. So my plan was to run a VM with Win10 for this purpose with VirtualBox. I tested this and the overall experience is great with the guest extensions, like bidirectional clipboard, but the performance in for example fusion is bad, it will run but very slow.

What I have done so far: (VM has 6 cores, 8 GB ram, enough I think)

installed VirtualBox with guest extension

enabled 3D enhancement or what that is called

and also enabled virtualization in my bios

The result: good performance in most programs but not in these I created this VM for.

 

So what are my options?:

I read about GPU pass through- but I have only a 1060 in my rig (and a ryzen 2600 without integrated graphics) so I would need another GPU for the Guest - without a guarantee to work later on.

Dual Boot isn't an option for me (I have tried that, but isn't usable to reboot every hour).

Maybe another virtualization program? Any tips for better graphical performance?

Wine won't work for Fusion.

I also though about building another pc with Win10 on it and access it via TeamViewer (or similar) remotely.

 

My goal is to use Linux as my main OS and o integrate a to integrate a Win10 environment for programs who need it.

Have you any other suggestion or tried something similar?

[Korben]

I am no linux user, but isn't Wine the tool you're looking for?

https://gist.github.com/probonopd/0fab254aa0b6fc371d8db641822bd530

 

[C2dan88]

There is no alternative to virtualisation.

+1 for link above loots of people discussing how to get fusion360 working on linux.

 

To have better 3d performance in a vm you'll need to use gpu passthrough with a secondary gpu.

Otherwise dual boot linux/win10

[Gerd Mueller]

35 minutes ago, Korben said:

I am no linux user, but isn't Wine the tool you're looking for?

https://gist.github.com/probonopd/0fab254aa0b6fc371d8db641822bd530

 

Thanks! This looks good. I'll try it out - last time Wine couldn't run it, but this was also a long time ago.

[Gerd Mueller]

5 minutes ago, C2dan88 said:

There is no alternative to virtualisation.

+1 for link above loots of people discussing how to get fusion360 working on linux.

 

To have better 3d performance in a vm you'll need to use gpu passthrough with a secondary gpu.

Otherwise dual boot linux/win10

Ok, thank you! Yea, I'll try this procedure. gpu passthrough would mean spending money on another gpu - a quite expensive solution.

[Guest]

3 hours ago, Gerd Mueller said:

Thanks! This looks good. I'll try it out - last time Wine couldn't run it, but this was also a long time ago.

There is a lutris script for Fusion 360, just make sure you read everything.

https://lutris.net/games/autodesk-fusion-360/

 

3 hours ago, Gerd Mueller said:

Ok, thank you! Yea, I'll try this procedure. gpu passthrough would mean spending money on another gpu - a quite expensive solution.

Yes, but it would work as intended. However I would try your luck with the lutris script first.

[GoodBytes]

11 hours ago, Gerd Mueller said:

Ok, thank you! Yea, I'll try this procedure. gpu passthrough would mean spending money on another gpu - a quite expensive solution.

I don't know your setup. But the alternative is to do the reverse.

Windows 10 has something called WSL (Windows Subsystem Linux). You have terminal and use all Linux commands (from the availible distros) to interact with the OS. It has 2 modes/versions, you can pick.

 

• WSL1 -> Similar to Wine (but to run Linux programs instead of Windows). Compatibility might be an issue on somethings you do.
• WSL2 -> Runs your distro of choice, but your distro will use Windows 10 Linux version of its kernel which it runs in a tiny VM, and your distro just communicates with it. This is still way faster than a full blow VM. You have much greater compatibility over WSL1, bother interacts with Windows system files in the same way, however WSL2 gets a performance hit when access Windows files compared to its own files in own environment, and if you have stuff like a VPN, then the network adapter is not shared with the OS, so you will need to install the VPN in your WSL2 environment as well to make it go through this.

 

In both cases, Linux processes will appear in Windows Task Manager. And as we speak, there is no GUI support. Your best bet is to use XSerevr, and they are many tutorials and suggestions online. I recommend X410, but it is not free. Official GUI support with GPU acceleration is coming (target date only, not set in stone) on the next version of Windows 10 at the end of the year. You'll need a compatible GPU drivers for this. Probably the latest ones after the next version of Windows 10 is released will have what is needed to make this happen.

 

At work, we nearly all use WSL2. This allows us to do Linux development, including working with Dockers with ease, and installing solutions that we need that are Linux exclusive, while staying under Windows.