[SOLVED] multi-virtualization : installing win81 on Virtualbox on Xen on Slackware on Linode

pisti · 08-26-2015, 10:12 AM

i need sometimes to run a virtual windows 8.1 in my Slackware VPS hosted by Linode. now, running Virtualbox within that Slackware VPS is a nono because of Xen's paravirtualization mode that comes with Linode VPSs.

i thought about installing Xen within my virtual Slackware VPS which then would provide the layer for installing Virtualbox from where i could run the virtual win81 image.

would this chain of virtual layers work in your opinion ?

dyasny · 08-26-2015, 10:30 AM

since you're on a VPS without nesting, you can only run windows in emulated mode, which is dead slow. You could simply do it using qemu, no need for extra layers or vbox at all

pisti · 08-26-2015, 01:00 PM

I actually just switched my Slackware VPS on Linode from Xen to KVM mode. Compiling kernel modules for VB seems to work now, just loading them is impossible currently... any advice here ?

dyasny · 08-26-2015, 01:11 PM

if Linode can enable nested KVM, that would be cool. But in any case, in a KVM or Xen VM, if nesting isn't enabled for the VM on the host level, you will not have the VT/SVM extensions avilable, so modules that rely on those extensions will not load.

pisti · 08-26-2015, 01:36 PM

thanks for your replies ! i guess this is the (sad) answer to 'nested or VT/SVM' (email from Linode support) :

"In order to run VirtualBox under KVM, you will need to boot your Linode in Full Virtualization mode, which you can choose in the configuration profile.
As we do not expose the underlying VT extensions to Linodes, you will also need to turn off hardware acceleration within VirtualBox. Please be aware VirtualBox VM performance will be severely hampered by running it within KVM."