WinXP guest and video acceleration

[jimoe]

opensuse v11.2 linux 2.6.31.12-0.2-desktop x86_64
windows XP sp3 w/1GB RAM allocated
amd AM2 5200 (dual core)
ati radeon hd3200
VBox v3.1.8

I installed Pinnacle Studio 14, a rather graphics heavy video editing program. One of its complaints is that the GPU acceleration is turned off.

I have every possible speed enhancement option turned on, including 2D and 3D acceleration (although the 2D option is grayed, it is still checked), and the 3D Direct (experimental) option in the guest additions.

Given the generally slightly sluggish performance of windows overall, I can believe that there is no acceleration.

Is this just an artifact of the virtual VBox video driver?
How do I actually enable the 2D acceleration option? The graphics card is certainly capable of it.

[fixedwheel]

ati radeon hd3200

proprietary driver from ati installed on the host?

[jimoe]

proprietary driver from ati installed on the host?

No.

I found the ATI driver to be, um, less than optimal. (Although it did have some cool features.)

[Sasquatch]

That's the problem. The Open Source driver for your video card does not have 3D acceleration. You MUST install the fglrx driver (take it from the repo, if possible) to get actual 3D. After that, you need to install the Guest Additions in safe mode of Windows and select 3D in the installer.

[jimoe]

That's the problem. The Open Source driver for your video card does not have 3D acceleration. You MUST install the fglrx driver (take it from the repo, if possible) to get actual 3D. After that, you need to install the Guest Additions in safe mode of Windows and select 3D in the installer.

No, that did not work.

The Windows VM is very difficult to start with the fglrx driver, it BSODs a LOT. It takes 3 - 8 attempts before some magic happens and Windows actually starts. (I have reported this issue.)

Worse, when I reverted to the open source driver, VBox aborts on startup. It does not matter which VM is started, they all die the same way. Now I am stuck with a video driver I do not like (it has several annoying features that cannot be modified) with no upside.

Here is the total log file for an aborted attempt. All VMs produce the same log.

Code: Select all

00:00:00.678 VirtualBox 3.1.8 r61349 linux.amd64 (May 10 2010 01:01:03) release log
00:00:00.678 Log opened 2010-05-16T22:59:31.806118000Z
00:00:00.678 OS Product: Linux
00:00:00.678 OS Release: 2.6.31.12-0.2-desktop
00:00:00.678 OS Version: #1 SMP PREEMPT 2010-03-16 21:25:39 +0100
00:00:00.678 Host RAM: 3016MB RAM, available: 2676MB
00:00:00.678 Executable: /usr/lib/virtualbox/VirtualBox
00:00:00.678 Process ID: 7259
00:00:00.678 Package type: LINUX_64BITS_OPENSUSE_11_1
00:00:00.697 SUP: Loaded VMMR0.r0 (/usr/lib/virtualbox/VMMR0.r0) at 0xffffffffa0992b40 - ModuleInit at ffffffffa09a5780 and ModuleTerm at ffffffffa09a5740
00:00:00.697 SUP: VMMR0EntryEx located at ffffffffa09a5650, VMMR0EntryFast at ffffffffa09a4800 and VMMR0EntryInt at ffffffffa09a45d0
00:00:00.828 VBoxSharedClipboard mode: Bidirectional

[Sasquatch]

Sounds like you're screwed with ATi. They never had very good drivers and the open source ones aren't all that great either (not that nVidia is any better, but their proprietary driver actually works), but they are getting better (or so I've heard).
Since I don't have any ATi hardware, I can't help you with this. I used to have an x1400 mobility radeon laptop, and on Ubuntu 9.04, with the open source driver, I had 3D on the Host (because it was supported in that driver, HD cards aren't), but the Guest didn't have much to work with. Don't know about the fglrx driver, as my card was abandoned since catalyst 9.4 that finally had Ubuntu support (for 9.04 that is). However, the VMs never crashed or were slow in any way. They just weren't able to use 3D.

And pinnacle software, isn't that for video editing? That requires a lot of CPU power, why run it in a VM? It's overhead is killing. You're better off with a second hand PC of about 3-4 years (at most) and use that, it's faster.