Page 1 of 1

Windows guest with VMSVGA adapter

Posted: 9. Dec 2018, 12:29
by pal1000
GA installation fails in this configuration as it fails to find appropriate GPU adapter. I think GA installer should skip GPU driver install in this case or if it's possible to preload the VboxSVGA driver using pnputil.exe, something similar to what DriverStore Explorer does. This trick only works for WDDM drivers as far as I know though. In the longterm however Virtualbox VMSVGA should support VMWare windows proprietary VMSVGA driver included in VMWare Tools. At the moment attempting to install it results in BSOD. Just like Linux Mesa3D svga driver, VMWare proprietary GPU driver is a lot faster than VboxSVGA driver.

Testing compatibility with VMWare proprietary GPU driver
- Download VMWare Tools standalone: https://packages.vmware.com/tools/relea ... index.html
- After mounting VMWare Tools ISO in a VM run setup.exe /a or setup64.exe /a (on 64-bit guests) to extract the installer components as normal installation is not allowed in a non-VMWare VM;
- the remaining steps are manual driver installation similar to virtio-net. As I said it doesn't succeed and everything ends in a BSOD. Fortunately Windows returns to basic display on restart so there is no permanent damage to the VM.

Re: Windows guest with VMSVGA adapter

Posted: 9. Dec 2018, 18:24
by socratis
VMSVGA is for Linux guests, not Windows guests. For Windows guests, if you want to move from the old default VBoxVGA, you should try VBoxSVGA.

Re: Windows guest with VMSVGA adapter

Posted: 11. Dec 2018, 02:30
by Dave B
Hi socratis,

In case possibly missed one snippet of information?
pal1000 wrote:...VMWare proprietary GPU driver is a lot faster than VboxSVGA driver.
socratis wrote:...you should try VBoxSVGA.
Appears pal1000 may have already tried VBoxSVGA? :)

Re: Windows guest with VMSVGA adapter

Posted: 11. Dec 2018, 11:28
by socratis
Yes, he did. My statement was more of a "generic" statement in nature, so let me try and correct it, from:
socratis wrote:For Windows guests, if you want to move from the old default VBoxVGA, you should try VBoxSVGA.
to
socratis wrote:For Windows guests, if anyone chooses to move from the old default VBoxVGA, they should be trying VBoxSVGA, not VMSVGA.
Better? ;)