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---
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layout: doc
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title: Windows gaming hvm
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permalink: /doc/windows-gaming-hvm/
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---
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# Windows gaming HVM
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Some information to configure a windows HVM for gaming.
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This is not officially supported, just some community trial & errors
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## References
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Everythings needed is referenced here
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- [Useful technical details](https://paste.debian.net/1043341/)
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- [Reddit thread of what is needed for GPU passthrough](https://www.reddit.com/r/Qubes/comments/9hp3e7/gpu_passthrough_howto/)
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- [Solution to have more than 3 GB of RAM in the Windows HVM](https://github.com/QubesOS/qubes-issues/issues/4321#issuecomment-423011787)
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- [Some old references](https://www.reddit.com/r/Qubes/comments/66wk4q/gpu_passthrough/)
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## Prerequise
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You have a functional Windows 7 HVM.
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The "how to" for this part can be found on the Qubes OS documentation and here: [Useful github comment](https://github.com/QubesOS/qubes-issues/issues/3585#issuecomment-453200971).
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However, few tips:
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- Do a backup (clone VM) of the Windows HVM BEFORE starting to install QWT
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- The Windows user MUST BE "user"
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- Windows 7 Only, do not use Windows 10 or others.
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## Hardware
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To have a Windows HVM for gaming, you must have:
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- A dedicated AMD GPU. By dedicated, it means: it is a secondary GPU, not the GPU used to display dom0. Nvidia GPU are not supported (or maybe with a lot of trick).
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- A really fast disk (M.2 disk)
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- A lot of RAM
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- A dedicated screen
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In my case, I use:
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- Secondary GPU: AMD RX580
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- Primary GPU: Some Nvidia trash, used for dom0
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- 32 GB of RAM. 16 GB of RAM will be dedicated for the Windows HVM
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- A fast M.2 disk
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## Checklist
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Short list of things to do to make the GPU passthrough work:
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- In dom0, you edited the file `/etc/default/grub` or `/boot/efi/EFI/qubes/xen.cfg` to allow PCI hiding for your secondary GPU, and regenerated the grub if needed
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- You patched your stubdom-linux-rootfs.gz to allow to more than 3 GB of RAM for your Windows HVM
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## GRUB modification
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You must hide your secondary GPU from dom0.
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To do that, you have to edit the GRUB or `xen.cfg` depending on if you use legacy or UEFI boot.
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In a dom0 Terminal, type:
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```bash
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qvm-pci
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```
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Then find the devices id for your secondary gpu.
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In my case, it is "dom0:0a_00.0" and "dom0:0a_00.1".
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Edit /etc/default/grub, and add the PCI hiding
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```
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GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="....rd.qubes.hide_pci=0a:00.0,0a:00.1 "
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```
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then regenerate the grub
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```bash
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grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg
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```
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Or if using UEFI boot, edit `/boot/efi/EFI/qubes/xen.cfg` and add the `rd.qubes.hide_pci=` option to the `kernel=` line.
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## Patching stubdom-linux-rootfs.gz
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Follow the instructions here: [https://github.com/QubesOS/qubes-issues/issues/4321#issuecomment-423011787](https://github.com/QubesOS/qubes-issues/issues/4321#issuecomment-423011787)
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Copy-paste of the comment:
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```
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This is caused by the default TOLUD (Top of Low Usable DRAM) of 3.75G provided by qemu not being large enough to accommodate the larger BARs that a graphics card typically has.
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The code to pass a custom max-ram-below-4g value to the qemu commandline does exist in the libxl_dm.c file of xen, but there is no functionality in libvirt to addthis parameter.
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It is possible to manually add this parameter to the qemu commandline by doing the following in a dom0 terminal:
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```bash
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mkdir stubroot
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cp /usr/lib/xen/boot/stubdom-linux-rootfs stubroot/stubdom-linux-rootfs.gz
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cd stubroot
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gunzip stubdom-linux-rootfs.gz
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cpio -i -d -H newc --no-absolute-filenames < stubdom-linux-rootfs
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rm stubdom-linux-rootfs
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nano init3
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```
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Before the line "# $dm_args and $kernel are separated withx1b to allow for spaces in arguments." add:
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```bash
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SP=$'\x1b'
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dm_args=$(echo "$dm_args"\
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sed"s/-machine\\${SP}xenfv/-machine\
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\\${SP}xenfv,max-ram-below-4g=3.5G/g")
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```
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Then execute:
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```bash
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find . -print0 | cpio --null -ov\
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--format=newc | gzip -9 > ../stubdom-linux-rootfs
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sudo mv ../stubdom-linux-rootfs /usr/lib/xen/boot/
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```
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Note that this will apply the change to all HVMs, so if you have any other HVM with more than 3.5 GB ram assigned,
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they will not start without the adapter being passed through.
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Ideally to fix this libvirt should be extended to pass the max-ram-below-4g parameter through to xen,
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and then a calculation added to determine the correct TOLUD based on the total BAR size of the PCI devices
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are being passed through to the vm.
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## Pass the GPU
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In qubes settings for the windows HVM, go to the "devices" tab, pass the ID corresponding to your AMD GPU.
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(in my case, it was 0a:00.0 and 0a:00.1)
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And check the option for "nostrictreset" for those.
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In some case, you might also need to set the "permissive" flag to true (But I didn't need that with the RX 580):
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```
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qvm-pci attach windows-hvm dom0:0a_00.0 -o permissive=True -o no-strict-reset=True
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qvm-pci attach windows-hvm dom0:0a_00.1 -o permissive=True -o no-strict-reset=True
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```
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## Conclusion
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Don’t forget to install the GPU drivers, you can install the official one from AMD website, no modification or trick to do.
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Nothing else is required to make it work (in my case at least, once I finish to fight to find those informations).
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If you have issues, you can refer to the links in the first sections.
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If it doesn’t work and you need to debug more things, you can go deeper.
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- Virsh (start, define, ...)
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- /etc/libvirt/libxl/
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- xl
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- /etc/qubes/templates/libvirt/xen/by-name/
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- /usr/lib/xen/boot/
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- virsh -c xen:/// domxml-to-native xen-xm /etc/libvirt/libxl/...
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I am able to play games on my windows HVM with very good performances. And safely.
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## Bugs
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The AMD GPUs have a bug when used in HVM: each time you will reboot your windows HVM, it will get slower and slower.
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It is because the AMD GPU is not correctly reset when you restart your windows HVM.
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Two solutions for that:
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- Reboot your computer
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- In the windows HVM, use the windows option in the system tray to "safely remove devices", remove your GPU. Restart the HVM.
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This bug is referenced somewhere, but lost the link
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