[ltp] HDMI-out from vmware windows under linux?

Dmitry E. Mikhailov linux-thinkpad@linux-thinkpad.org
Thu, 17 Nov 2011 11:45:56 +0600


On Thursday 17 November 2011 04:31, Steven J. Owens wrote:
>      I have a t520 with optimus, running ubuntu 11.10 oneiric and
> xubuntu-desktop (xfce).  AFAIK there's not much hope of getting
> HDMI-out to work under linux in the near future.
OT: Optimus sucks from every aspect except being (somewhat) usable by stupid 
user.

>      One of my colleagues is suggesting I set up a vmware Windows
> install to deal with something at work.  Is it possible to get
> HDMI-out working from such a setup?
With a really new vmware, vt-d (IOMMU) enabled hardware (which is on servers 
only, right?) you could try forwarding a PCI-E video card (nvidia one) to the 
Windows VM.

But then we got an intel card on linux, nvidia card on windows and optimus 
hardware to manage video outputs on... where?

I'd really like to hear from you if you try this.

Windows VM could grab video output once it's started if optimus hardware is 
controlled via nvidia PCI-e video card. It could be a nice experience to have 
linux running somewhere behind and have no video output at all. If the 
keyboard and mouse are also connected and good net bridging setup Linux could 
be invisible to the user.

And then in a couple years as KVM and hardware matures, one could create a 
bulletproof malware running various servers on a Linux running invisible in 
background and having Windows virtualized. Makes me wonder how would 
antiviruses deal with that?

Best regards,
	Dmitry Mikhailov