SonWon

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Everything posted by SonWon

  1. Thank you both for the reply. My post was intended to notify LimeTech why they lost this sale and what they could have done to acquire a sale. The resistants was exactly as I expected. I am moving on.
  2. I would disagree that Unraid gui mode is a full desktop. Where is the WiFi, change keyboard layout, audio, etc. support? I know you can do all of these without a gui desktop. However a full gui desktop includes all of these and more. I am reply to you in a VM running Xubuntu. This VM doesn't use pass through and plays videos without stutter. Across the top of the server just above the VM window for server monitoring I have Network, temps (5 drives + CPU + MB), CPU load by thread, overall CPU load, free space on root, drive activity, memory and swap space usage, time up, RAID health, notifications for fan speeds, smart monitoring on the drives, and temps. With Virtual Machine Manager I can monitor each VM, memory usage, disk I/O, and network I/O. Unraid could make this type of setup possible through user friendliness. It took me 2-3 weeks to build this hybrid server because I needed to learn much of it as I went. I was looking toward Unraid to make this setup possible so I wouldn't have to spend 2 weeks learning. I haven't installed containers, haven't seen a need yet however I may in the future. I think this is doable for a small company if they leverage an existing linux distribution. Okay, peace, time for me to go!
  3. Thank you for the reply. I wish my post had been received in a positive manner. With my setup I can run one VM with GPU pass through and as many VM OSes as I have resources for. I have had two VMs running with a third VM running pass through mode, concurrently. Try that with Unraid and only two GPUs. I suppose you could go headless and run two VMs but not three. So my setup fits my needs better. I am only encouraging you to improve your product before someone else makes a completing product and makes you play catch-up. That is a good point about the USB stick. My install runs completely in RAM, booting from the SSD. I checked and that is 12 GB of space on the SSD. However I haven't optimized my setup, haven't had time yet. I know Unraid uses a lot less ram than my setup. Mine runs in 2.5 GM ram of which I have no idea how much is unneeded bloat. I suspect not much since XFCE is light weight which is why I choose it. So a 16 GB USB stick would be plenty large enough running with 2-3 GB ram. I think it is doable and makes Unraid more desirable as a KVM server. Another plus is WiFi support, builtin keyboard support for alternate languages, etc. This is likely my last post here. I wish Unraid all the best!
  4. I propose Unraid support or add a full gui desktop mode. Since I could not do that with the current version of Unraid I decided to use Xubuntu. I wanted the ease of use of setup that Unraid had to offer however I wasn't able to get it to work as well. Please consider adding or changing the current gui mode. I realize Unraid started as a gui-less server however the technology has evolved and this should be seriously considered. Or perhaps I am not Unraid's target audience. Anyway this is what it would take to get me to reconsider Unraid. Peace
  5. I suggest watching these videos. There are many other videos from Spaceinvaderone that will explain how Unraid works. If you only want one gaming VM I think you would be good if the hardware is good. Make an Unraid USB drive and boot and check your IOMMU groups before making a leap. The Unraid gui is not meant for running VMs and there are limitations with that mode when running VMs however there should be no problems with pass through if the hardware is good. Big question is the IOMMU groups. If you have a problem running Unraid gui mode you may need to load the plugin 'Unraid Nvidia' for a Nvidia GPU to get gui mode to work. This is likely unclear however it will become clearer as you watch the videos and get you up to speed. Here they are,
  6. @bastl Yes that didn't work for me either. And the Unraid documentation says in the Unraid OS GUI Mode (Desktop) section, "... for users that don't have a separate device to use for connecting to the webGui." That would be me when I finish this build. Or perhaps the manual needs updating? Besides, as I stated earlier your way for using Unraid doesn't work for me. However your post does raise an interesting question, why doesn't video playback work without stutter in my environment. Let's try to find out, please answer the following questions: I am assuming you are running the VMs remotely so host GPU doesn't matter. Unraid Host: Unraid version? Any plugins that would improve performance? Host CPU? Host network connection type and speed? Guest OS (OS running in the VM)? Remote PC: OS and version? Browser? CPU? GPU? Memory? VM settings: CPU Mode? Logical CPU's assigned? Memory? Machine? BIOS? Graphics card? VNC Video Driver? Sound Card? Netword Bridge: Did I miss anything that could effect latency with playing a video in a remote VM? A screenshot would likely be easiest. I'll do my best to match your VM setup that plays video files with no problems. I know one issue could be my network however that doesn't account for the stutter when running locally. After you post the settings we can discuss the differences.
  7. While I was searching the Diagnostic text for clues why Unraid gui was failing it dawned on me that Unraid does not load a native driver for the GPU. So I searched for a plugin that would load a driver. Good news and bad news: The good news, I got it working. Unraid as I suspected was not initializing the GPU properly. The workaround to fix this problem is to load the 'Unraid Nividia' plugin. This plugin will load a GPU driver. This will only work for systems booting on a Nividia GPU and only if it is supported by the driver. After loading the plugin Unraid gui started working. The bad news, while the video stutter was better it was still present in a VM. I tested this with Xubuntu 18.04.2 and compared it to a laptop running a VM running the same video. The laptop is 5 years old and rather slow, Intel i7 4 core, 8 threads, 1.73 Ghz, 460m GPU. The Unraid server is based on a AMD 2700X 4.3 Ghz, Geforce 1030 GPU. The VM configurations between the two were identical accept for display. The laptop VMM uses Spice while Unraid VM uses VNC. On the laptop VM there was no detectable stutter in the test video. So the stutter was either Unraid, GPU driver, or VNC. I had hoped Unraid was a good choice for me since I wanted the ease of configuration. So this will likely be my last post since I will go down a different path. Thanks again for trying to help.
  8. While I was searching the Diagnostic text for clues why Unraid gui was failing it dawned on me that Unraid does not load a native driver for the GPU. So I searched for a plugin that would load a driver. Good news and bad news: The good news, I got it working. Unraid as I suspected was not initializing the GPU properly. The workaround to fix this problem is to load the 'Unraid Nividia' plugin. This plugin will load a GPU driver. This will only work for systems booting on a Nividia GPU and only if it is supported by the driver. After loading the plugin Unraid gui started working. The bad news, while the video stutter was better it was still present in a VM. I tested this with Xubuntu 18.04.2 and compared it to a laptop running a VM running the same video. The laptop is 5 years old and rather slow, Intel i7 4 core, 8 threads, 1.73 Ghz, 460m GPU. The Unraid server is based on a AMD 2700X 4.3 Ghz, Geforce 1030 GPU. The VM configurations between the two were identical accept for display. The laptop VMM uses Spice while Unraid VM uses VNC. On the laptop VM there was no detectable stutter in the test video. So the stutter was either Unraid, GPU driver, or VNC. I had hoped Unraid was a good choice for me since I wanted the ease of configuration. So this will likely be my last post since I will go down a different path. Thanks again for trying to help.
  9. I was really looking forward to using Unraid and thought it would be a good fit for what I wanted to build. I have 22 days left on my trial and I am not getting anywhere in resolving this problem. I know this isn't considered a major / urgent issue. It is however a show stopper for my usage case. When I reported the problem I got a lot of push back to just use Unraid differently. I suppose I should be thankful for the push back since I did learn a lot however the product still doesn't work for me. I suspect it is an easy fix considering the server works and just gui mode is broken. I've confirmed that the motherboard and BIOS configuration is not the problem by booting Xubuntu Live 18.04.2. Xubuntu Live just works while Unraid gui boot does not work for me. Anyway I suppose I'll need to move on to another product since I cannot get this to work. It looks like I can use mdadm and bcache to arrive at a similar solution. I admit this will not be as easy as Unraid. I was hoping to use Unraid for ease of use. My thanks to everyone that tried to help.
  10. Xubuntu Live boots without problem from a USB stick so this is definitely an Unraid problem.
  11. Okay, I assume you are correct and the latency I am having from running a VM is because I have to go across the network. So I suspect we would not be having this discussion if I could open a VM from Unraid gui. Can we focus on why Unraid gui is not working?
  12. Sorry but the terminology between Unraid VMs (VNC video driver) and KVM (Video) is different so my wording wasn't exactly correct. Doesn't change my point. The VNC video driver is set for QXL however the graphic card has to be set for VNC or pass through so for any VM that isn't using pass through it runs through VNC and takes a performance hit. I don't need VNC when running KVM on top of a host OS so no performance hit. I hope that is clear unless there is something I am not understanding? As I wrote I can only fit two graphic cards in this system so my system is limited to two pass through VMs using Unraid. If Unraid was more flexible I wouldn't need VNC for any VMs. KVM on a host OS gives me better performing VMs when not using pass through. I tested this on a laptop running a quarter of the speed of the Unraid server I was building and KVM (running on an old clunky laptop) out performs the Unraid VNC (running on a 4 time faster system and this was with twice the CPU cores). I wish I could test Unraid without pass through and VNC I suspect Unraid would have the advantage in that case. If you know of a way I can run VMs on Unraid without pass through or VNC then please do share. And I'll test that setup too. Wait I can't because the gui isn't working. I am willing to work with Lime to resolve the gui problem and even test running VMs without VNC or pass through if they are interested.
  13. Got it, the Unraid limitation is that I cannot use QXL for a VM. I know pass through is faster but only for one single VM. I want to run multiple VMs without the VNC performance loss. I cannot do that without QXL. At most my system will fit two GPUs and I want to run 3 maybe 4. To use Unraid I would need to run two VMs max or use VNC and the performance degradation. It would have been better if I had the option to use Unraid with VNC or QXL or even both as it is it is a limitation.
  14. Thank you both. I will try passing through the GPU to the Linux VM and see what happens when I boot. The BIOS should post since pass through doesn't kick in until the kernel loads. I should still be able to access Unraid via the browser to start the VM. I can also test video playback. Wait with this setup only one Linux VM can run in pass through. The other will be crippled by VNC. I think better gui support would make Unraid a better platform for running VMs. For example, with Red Hat or Arch I can boot to a desktop and only run VMs without VNC overhead. I wouldn't run any applications on the Host OS just in the guest OSes. It would be better if I could use Unraid like that and Unraid would be more useful for my needs. Unraid offers me two things, unraid (storage) and easier to configure VMs. I need to think about if Unraid is worth the constraints.
  15. Yah, I think I worded this poorly. I am still learning about Unraid. I am more familiar with KVM and I now see that Unraid by default only supports VNC for a GPU. With KVM running on top of Xubuntu I can select 5 different GPU options not counting pass through and VNC is not one of the choices. VNC doesn't perform good enough for video applications in my limited testing. So I see now with Unraid I would need another GPU for two pass through VMs. GPU 1, boot for Unraid GPU 2, Linux VM for web browsing, email, youtube, netflix, etc. GPU 3, Gaming VM I don't know, will Unraid boot without a GPU, if yes then I would only need two GPUs. My current setup wouldn't support a third GPU. I need to reconsider using Unraid after I have an answer to booting Unraid without a GPU. My plan was to do all web browsing, email, and youtube inside a VM to isolate the OS from threats. The gaming VM was to dump dual booting, I am tired of that. However Unraid still doesn't boot into gui mode and it should so this is broken.
  16. That would require using the Win 10 VM to access Unraid and the other VMs. It would also mean a whole GPU is sitting there doing nothing. I think this would be a senseless workaround and not very secure. Every time I login the Unraid root password would be exposed to the Win 10 pass through VM and all of the other VMs have exposure too. I wouldn't trust a Win 10 pass through VM as my daily interface manager nor should anyone else. This defeats the purpose of Unraid.
  17. Memory is good. I had to return the first set because of errors during testing.
  18. I intend to only pass through one GPU for the gaming VM. The other two VMs will run with emulated graphics. I wouldn't trust a Win 10 pass through VM as my daily interface manager nor should anyone else. This defeats the purpose of Unraid.
  19. Yes, I get the selection menu. Yes, I see the Unraid starting up text scrolling by. Finally the screen is cleared with only a flashing cursor (1080p resolution) in the top left corner of the screen. Access via web browser works. Starting Unraid in the default mode leads to a login prompt, login works. No gui of course. Access via web browser works. Unraid is running just the gui isn't initializing.
  20. How when the I cannot get to the VMs because the Unraid gui didn't start? Even with them auto starting they are not accessible without the gui running.
  21. I wouldn't trust a Win 10 pass through VM as my daily interface manager nor should anyone else. This defeats the purpose of Unraid, no sale if that is how it works.
  22. I am NOT using the Unraid gui as a daily driver or to browse the web! Usage case, I plan to boot into Unraid gui, start one to three VMs, two Linux VMs running on the GeForce GT 1030 and one Gaming VM running on a RX590 using PCIe pass through. I was hoping to use Unraid to manage the VMs and storage needs. If Unraid isn't design to run in a gui then that option should be removed and I can move on. I just want to manage the VMs from Unraid and use the VMs. I don't need two computers for that if I did then for me there would be no point to Unraid.
  23. Usage case, I plan to boot into Unraid gui, start one to three VMs, two Linux VMs running on the GeForce GT 1030 and one Gaming VM running on a RX590 using PCIe pass through. I was hoping to use Unraid to manage the VMs and storage needs. In my opinion Unraid fails to initialize the gui. I know the monitor works since it boots with other software and I can see the start up text scroll by in high resolution, after that it goes to a cursor when the gui fails to start.
  24. The monitor works fine, tested with other software. The problem is Unraid is not initializing the gui. Asrock X470 Taichi motherboard Gigabyte GeForce GT 1030 2G display ViewSonic XG2401 monitor Some guidance from Lime with UEFI Secure boot would be nice. I am not convinced either way that is a motherboard or an Unraid problem so how do I diagnostic the problem? The missing gui is in my opinion an Unraid problem since other software boots fine.
  25. I am on the newest BIOS and have no USB problems. The motherboard is an Asrock X470 Taichi. I have tried every available UEFI option and configurations in the BIOS. When I turn on Secure boot Unraid fails to load. If you know of a website that explains UEFI setup I would be glad to check there. UEFI secure boot is a concern. Not being able to login into Unraid from the locally attached monitor is a show stopper as I will only be using one system.