Re: Running NetBSD as qemu guest on laptop, camouflaging as host

[Chavdar Ivanov <ci4ic4%gmail.com@localhost>]

On Wed, 22 Mar 2023 at 11:05, Mayuresh <mayuresh%acm.org@localhost> wrote:
>
> I'd like to run NetBSD on laptops, but lack of support for 2 things - Wifi
> and touchpad have always kept me from doing so.

WiFi is the problem for me; the touchpad functionality was sorted out
for the one (older) laptop I have running NetBSD-current native.

On my latest laptop (P16e Gen1 ThinkPAD, AMD based) the WiFi adapter
is not even recognized, the AMD Radeon 680M does not have DRI2 support
(although wsfb works fine in the right resolutions).

>
> With virtualization support in most laptop processors, it is possible to
> run NetBSD as a guest OS, without must loss of performance, to work around
> the above issues.

I have been running - again NetBSD-current - on the older laptop under
VirtualBox (W10/W11) for ages. I always compile whatever bits from the
VBox guest additions compile under NetBSD. The graphics work fine, the
audio is passed over OK with no interruptions.

On the new laptop I have VMWare Workstation professional and
VirtualBox, again, NetBSD works just fine. Under VMWare I can use
xrandr to set my desired geometry (19200x1200 in NetBSD's case, the
screen is natively 2560x1600) and enter full screen mode. I haven't
tested the sound, but it looks ok in dmesg.

>
> So, what can be done to make the guest look as much host as possible -
> i.e. to make it feel like NetBSD, to the extent possible. E.g.
>
> We can possibly configure Linux to auto-login to a user and start X11
> automatically with qemu as X client. (Or any other way to get NetBSD login
> prompt directly?)

I am not particularly interested in this.

>
> Would audio and video playbacks work with near native performance and what
> qemu options would be needed for that?
>

Video(+sound, e.g. YouTube) works OK for me under VirtualBox/Windows,
I haven't tested other combinations. Even Firefox works (for me -
reliably ) with OpenGL - e.g. cad.onshape.org/check returns some 2
million triangles per second, which is very low, but still accelerated
OpenGL.

>
> At present I am experimenting with such setup. But haven't managed to get
> things right as yet. E.g.
>
> - once I say startx on the qemu guest, the geometry of the X session
>   doesn't match that of the host. Takes some manual adjustments to make it
>   fit the screen.

Just xrandr for me.

>
> - haven't been able to pass audio device to qemu as yet

I have to check my VMWare workstation under Linux with NetBSD client -
I have already one,but haven't tested everything.

>
> - firefox SEGVs on the guest, may be a sign of display related issues

As I said, it works fine for me with VBoxVGA graphics with the
installed additions.

>
> etc.
>
> Any help or advice in this regard will be really useful.
>
> --
> Mayuresh

Chavdar


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