Running virtual machines with a USB graphics card adapter as the main graphics processor
Running virtual machines with a USB graphics card adapter as the main graphics processor
I’m curious about setting up a guest operating system on your machine while keeping your host running smoothly. Since your 3600 lacks integrated graphics, you might consider using a USB display adapter as the dedicated graphics card for your Linux host. My past experience shows it can be slow and needs special drivers, so expect some setup work. Since you plan to boot your guest OS automatically, there should be no performance issues on the host. This approach is definitely possible—go for it?
In my view, the outcome varies. With a typical Linux host using virtualisation—whether via a preloaded hypervisor like Xen or VMware, or an in-kernel solution such as KVM—you can usually employ a DisplayLink USB GPU as the main frame buffer. This approach avoids UEFI/BIOS/Bootloader signals, though you can still access them via iSO/Linux or standard serial ports. During startup, the system firmware and GPU firmware typically initialize as the primary buffer, so the first output will show up before the hypervisor takes control and powers down the device. In earlier setups, PCIe GPU IO-MMU (like Vt-d) worked well for dedicated GPUs but not always for integrated ones. Remember that this was an era when IMC and PCH replaced the northbridge iGPUs. Currently, if the GPU is on an internal PCIe lane, it should still be remappable, depending on your hypervisor. The key factor is addressing; tools like lspci and BAR in dmesg can help you check. Your configuration likely includes firmware (probably UEFI), a hypervisor (Xen or KVM), the host OS, and a USB GPU. Be careful not to share the USB port with another device or a hub that also uses a remapped controller—it can affect performance. With USB-C and Thunderbolt 3, it should work well since the chipset is built for higher power handling.