Previously I used virtualbox but I wanted to try libvirt/kvm/qemu as I expected a bit more performance with kvm being a type 1 hypervisor, yet this was not the case. For example, even dragging a terminal across the screen, the window lags behind the mouse pointer by a couple hundred ms, whereas virtualbox is very smooth and almost instantaneous.
My hardware:
- AMD Ryzen 7 9800x3d
- AMD RX 9070 XT
- 32GB RAM
Host OS: NixOS 25.05.807313.59e69648d345, Kernel 6.16.0
Guest OS: ParrotOS 6.4
Nix config vm related settings:
programs.virt-manager.enable = true;
users.groups.libvirtd.members = ["my_user"];
virtualisation.libvirtd.enable = true;
virtualisation.libvirtd.qemu.package = pkgs.qemu_kvm;
virtualisation.spiceUSBRedirection.enable = true;
users.users.my_user = {
isNormalUser = true;
description = "my_user";
extraGroups = [ "networkmanager" "wheel" "libvirtd" ];
shell = pkgs.fish;
packages = with pkgs; [
kdePackages.kate
];
};
And here the vm xml:
<domain type='kvm'>
<name>ParrotOS</name>
<uuid>e37ad61b-8620-4542-9122-5b0bf1c91c42</uuid>
<description></description>
<metadata>
<libosinfo:libosinfo xmlns:libosinfo="http://libosinfo.org/xmlns/libvirt/domain/1.0">
<libosinfo:os id="http://libosinfo.org/linux/2024"/>
</libosinfo:libosinfo>
</metadata>
<memory unit='KiB'>8388608</memory>
<currentMemory unit='KiB'>8388608</currentMemory>
<vcpu placement='static'>8</vcpu>
<os>
<type arch='x86_64' machine='pc-q35-9.2'>hvm</type>
<boot dev='hd'/>
</os>
<features>
<acpi/>
<apic/>
<vmport state='off'/>
</features>
<cpu mode='host-passthrough' check='none' migratable='on'>
<topology sockets='81' dies='1' clusters='1' cores='4' threads='2'/>
</cpu>
<clock offset='utc'>
<timer name='rtc' tickpolicy='catchup'/>
<timer name='pit' tickpolicy='delay'/>
<timer name='hpet' present='no'/>
</clock>
<on_poweroff>destroy</on_poweroff>
<on_reboot>restart</on_reboot>
<on_crash>destroy</on_crash>
<pm>
<suspend-to-mem enabled='no'/>
<suspend-to-disk enabled='no'/>
</pm>
<devices>
<emulator>/run/libvirt/nix-emulators/qemu-system-x86_64</emulator>
<disk type='file' device='disk'>
<driver name='qemu' type='qcow2' discard='unmap'/>
<source file='/var/lib/libvirt/images/linux2024.qcow2'/>
<target dev='vda' bus='virtio'/>
<address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x04' slot='0x00' function='0x0'/>
</disk>
<disk type='file' device='cdrom'>
<driver name='qemu' type='raw'/>
<target dev='sda' bus='sata'/>
<readonly/>
<address type='drive' controller='0' bus='0' target='0' unit='0'/>
</disk>
<controller type='usb' index='0' model='qemu-xhci' ports='15'>
<address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x02' slot='0x00' function='0x0'/>
</controller>
<controller type='pci' index='0' model='pcie-root'/>
<controller type='pci' index='1' model='pcie-root-port'>
<model name='pcie-root-port'/>
<target chassis='1' port='0x10'/>
<address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x02' function='0x0' multifunction='on'/>
</controller>
<controller type='pci' index='2' model='pcie-root-port'>
<model name='pcie-root-port'/>
<target chassis='2' port='0x11'/>
<address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x02' function='0x1'/>
</controller>
<controller type='pci' index='3' model='pcie-root-port'>
<model name='pcie-root-port'/>
<target chassis='3' port='0x12'/>
<address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x02' function='0x2'/>
</controller>
<controller type='pci' index='4' model='pcie-root-port'>
<model name='pcie-root-port'/>
<target chassis='4' port='0x13'/>
<address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x02' function='0x3'/>
</controller>
<controller type='pci' index='5' model='pcie-root-port'>
<model name='pcie-root-port'/>
<target chassis='5' port='0x14'/>
<address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x02' function='0x4'/>
</controller>
<controller type='pci' index='6' model='pcie-root-port'>
<model name='pcie-root-port'/>
<target chassis='6' port='0x15'/>
<address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x02' function='0x5'/>
</controller>
<controller type='pci' index='7' model='pcie-root-port'>
<model name='pcie-root-port'/>
<target chassis='7' port='0x16'/>
<address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x02' function='0x6'/>
</controller>
<controller type='pci' index='8' model='pcie-root-port'>
<model name='pcie-root-port'/>
<target chassis='8' port='0x17'/>
<address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x02' function='0x7'/>
</controller>
<controller type='pci' index='9' model='pcie-root-port'>
<model name='pcie-root-port'/>
<target chassis='9' port='0x18'/>
<address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x03' function='0x0' multifunction='on'/>
</controller>
<controller type='pci' index='10' model='pcie-root-port'>
<model name='pcie-root-port'/>
<target chassis='10' port='0x19'/>
<address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x03' function='0x1'/>
</controller>
<controller type='pci' index='11' model='pcie-root-port'>
<model name='pcie-root-port'/>
<target chassis='11' port='0x1a'/>
<address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x03' function='0x2'/>
</controller>
<controller type='pci' index='12' model='pcie-root-port'>
<model name='pcie-root-port'/>
<target chassis='12' port='0x1b'/>
<address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x03' function='0x3'/>
</controller>
<controller type='pci' index='13' model='pcie-root-port'>
<model name='pcie-root-port'/>
<target chassis='13' port='0x1c'/>
<address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x03' function='0x4'/>
</controller>
<controller type='pci' index='14' model='pcie-root-port'>
<model name='pcie-root-port'/>
<target chassis='14' port='0x1d'/>
<address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x03' function='0x5'/>
</controller>
<controller type='sata' index='0'>
<address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x1f' function='0x2'/>
</controller>
<controller type='virtio-serial' index='0'>
<address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x03' slot='0x00' function='0x0'/>
</controller>
<interface type='network'>
<mac address='52:54:00:8b:01:15'/>
<source network='default'/>
<model type='virtio'/>
<address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x01' slot='0x00' function='0x0'/>
</interface>
<serial type='pty'>
<target type='isa-serial' port='0'>
<model name='isa-serial'/>
</target>
</serial>
<console type='pty'>
<target type='serial' port='0'/>
</console>
<channel type='unix'>
<target type='virtio' name='org.qemu.guest_agent.0'/>
<address type='virtio-serial' controller='0' bus='0' port='1'/>
</channel>
<channel type='spicevmc'>
<target type='virtio' name='com.redhat.spice.0'/>
<address type='virtio-serial' controller='0' bus='0' port='2'/>
</channel>
<input type='mouse' bus='ps2'/>
<input type='keyboard' bus='ps2'/>
<graphics type='spice'>
<listen type='none'/>
<image compression='off'/>
<gl enable='yes' rendernode='/dev/dri/by-path/pci-0000:03:00.0-render'/>
</graphics>
<sound model='ich9'>
<address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x1b' function='0x0'/>
</sound>
<audio id='1' type='spice'/>
<video>
<model type='virtio' heads='1' primary='yes'>
<acceleration accel3d='yes'/>
</model>
<address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x01' function='0x0'/>
</video>
<redirdev bus='usb' type='spicevmc'>
<address type='usb' bus='0' port='2'/>
</redirdev>
<redirdev bus='usb' type='spicevmc'>
<address type='usb' bus='0' port='3'/>
</redirdev>
<watchdog model='itco' action='reset'/>
<memballoon model='virtio'>
<address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x05' slot='0x00' function='0x0'/>
</memballoon>
<rng model='virtio'>
<backend model='random'>/dev/urandom</backend>
<address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x06' slot='0x00' function='0x0'/>
</rng>
</devices>
</domain>