Virtual machine advice

[jayctech]

So I recently installed Ubuntu on a VM on my computer. I've noticed though that it's a bit laggy/input delay? when using it. I'm just wondering if this is normal or not.

 

I'm not sure what information to provide so if there are bits of info you need, ask away.

What I do know: Read/write speed on the HDD is utter rubbish (I checked resources on task manager on the host computer). I don't know if this is responsible for lag in the UI though, or why the figures are so bad since I don't think the hard drive is that terrible. On that note I've allocated 2GBs of RAM for the VM. The recommended min on their website is 0.5GB so I figure this should be plenty.

[jayctech]

You need to install the guest additions/driver within the VM for graphics acceleration and things such as clipboard sharing/folder mounting.

Is this what you're referring to?

[omniomi]

Is this what you're referring to?

 

Question 1... Are you actually using Hyper-V or are you using VirtualBox or something else?

[jayctech]

Question 1... Are you actually using Hyper-V or are you using VirtualBox or something else?

Hyper-V

[omniomi]

Hyper-V

 

Ok... So, there is no "Hyper-V-specific video device" support for Debian (Ubuntu). To quote the MS definition of HV SVD "This feature provides high-performance graphics and superior resolution for virtual machines." This directly affects the console view (right-clicking the VM and using "Connect.") The console will always be choppy and a lot of the visual flair of the shell will be lost. 

 

You can setup a VNC server on the Ubuntu VM and connect to it that way or you can run a linux RDP server (xrdp for example) and connect to it with Remote Desktop... Either way the graphics will not be 100% but they'll be better than using the console. 

[Satlen]

VMware player is probably the best virtual machine software because the performance is the best with major distros like mint and ubuntu. If you are going to be using lesser known linux distros then I would use virtualbox because their guest addons work with pretty much anything.

[Opcode]

VMware player is probably the best virtual machine software because the performance is the best with major distros like mint and ubuntu. If you are going to be using lesser known linux distros then I would use virtualbox because their guest addons work with pretty much anything.

I prefer VMware Workstation 10. Tho keep in mind VMware installs it's own guest drivers as well. It does this during the automated installation. Otherwise the virtual environment would be just as slow as VirtualBox.

[Satlen]

I prefer VMware Workstation 10. Tho keep in mind VMware installs it's own guest drivers as well. It does this during the automated installation. Otherwise the virtual environment would be just as slow as VirtualBox.

It only installs itself for the supported distros like I said. Also, virtualbox is not really slow, its just not as smooth. As for Workstation, it is good, but it also costs money for features one might not really need. I have used Workstation, but it is really geared towards businesses.

 

Edit: I guess I wasnt clear that you can use any distro with vmware but for the smaller distros it may be harder to get the drivers installed.

[Opcode]

It only installs itself for the supported distros like I said. Also, virtualbox is not really slow, its just not as smooth. As for Workstation, it is good, but it also costs money for features one might not really need. I have used Workstation, but it is really geared towards businesses.

 

Edit: I guess I wasnt clear that you can use any distro with vmware but for the smaller distros it may be harder to get the drivers installed.

It's like that with any virtual environment software. Without drivers for the guest operating system to communicate directly with hardware it will be slow and lacking as compared to having full accelerated support.

[Satlen]

It's like that with any virtual environment software. Without drivers for the guest operating system to communicate directly with hardware it will be slow and lacking as compared to having full accelerated support.

 

Right, here is a summary of what im saying:

 

VMware drivers: More optimized but difficult to set up for smaller distros

 

Virtualbox drivers: Less optimized but installs easily with almost every distro