Is it possible to run "real" Windows under a hypervisor? If yes, what is the best way?

Question

linux

There is an ASUS N56 laptop with Windows 10 and OpenSUSE Tumbleweed in dual boot. I would like to be able to run Windows under a hypervisor in Linux without losing the ability to reboot into it natively, preferably by giving it direct access to one of the video adapters. If this can be done, what would be the best way to implement it (KVM, XEN, VirtualBox) and which direction to google?

Answer 1

The answer to your question is no.
How to make it most similar to what you need - make an image of your real windows and run it in virtuality.

Answer 2

Technically, it's probably possible. VirtualBox seems to allow you to use raw partitions instead of vhd. The snag will be in the hardware profiles and the required drivers in Winodws. Haven't tried it myself, need to check it out. I would start by trying to run an already installed Windows under a virtual machine using the existing partitions.

Answer 3

Windows most likely will not take off, but you can try (after creating a backup!).
What you are asking for under direct GPU access is called IOMMU. If the Intel HM76 chipset doesn't work, it can't do VT-d. KVM and Xen are able to do it, but I do not recommend the second one due to architectural problems in it.
Guide from Red Hat , Debianovsky , other experiments . Actually, google PCI Passthrough.
In a laptop, a discrete card most likely does not have its own video output, so PCI Passthrough is a bad job, because the video output will be on the forwarded card (unless you drive a video stream from the host to the VM).

Answer 4

Direct access to the video adapter on the laptop will not work, although theoretically under KVM on a station with two video cards this is possible - by forwarding the video card to the virtual machine. Direct access to the screw - and to save the ability to boot from it, bare-metal needs direct access to the screw - it is also theoretically possible with VT-d, but I haven’t tried it in practice, I have Windows in a virtual disk under KVM and works with a virtual adapter via Spice