QEMU/Virt-Manager - virtio performance is worse than QXL

firefly · January 3, 2024, 5:48pm

A while ago I installed QEMU/virt-manager (with the help of this guide) to use Debian as a sort of learning sandbox.

Haven’t touched it for months, but when I booted it up today - noticed that it became unusable. There is huge input lag when simply typing in terminal, as well as lag/glitches when interacting with DE (like dragging application windows or selecting/highlighting shortcuts, files)

Since everything was fine before, my guess is that an update to the qemu bundle itself and/or updates to other packages are the culprits but I’m not sure.

Would appreciate any suggestions on where should I start looking in order to troubleshoot/fix this.

Below is VM configuration XML:

<domain type="kvm">
  <name>Debian12_LXQT</name>
  <uuid>e5608f3a-c37a-4cdc-9355-38de4a51b883</uuid>
  <metadata>
    <libosinfo:libosinfo xmlns:libosinfo="http://libosinfo.org/xmlns/libvirt/domain/1.0">
      <libosinfo:os id="http://debian.org/debian/12"/>
    </libosinfo:libosinfo>
  </metadata>
  <memory unit="KiB">2097152</memory>
  <currentMemory unit="KiB">2097152</currentMemory>
  <vcpu placement="static">2</vcpu>
  <os firmware="efi">
    <type arch="x86_64" machine="pc-q35-8.0">hvm</type>
    <firmware>
      <feature enabled="no" name="enrolled-keys"/>
      <feature enabled="yes" name="secure-boot"/>
    </firmware>
    <loader readonly="yes" secure="yes" type="pflash">/usr/share/edk2/x64/OVMF_CODE.secboot.4m.fd</loader>
    <nvram template="/usr/share/edk2/x64/OVMF_VARS.4m.fd">/home/tony/.config/libvirt/qemu/nvram/Debian12_LXQT_VARS.fd</nvram>
    <bootmenu enable="no"/>
  </os>
  <features>
    <acpi/>
    <apic/>
    <vmport state="off"/>
    <smm state="on"/>
  </features>
  <cpu mode="host-passthrough" check="none" migratable="on"/>
  <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>/usr/bin/qemu-system-x86_64</emulator>
    <disk type="file" device="disk">
      <driver name="qemu" type="qcow2" discard="unmap"/>
      <source file="/home/tony/.local/share/libvirt/images/Debian12_LXQT.qcow2"/>
      <target dev="vda" bus="virtio"/>
      <boot order="1"/>
      <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="user">
      <mac address="52:54:00:ef:5a:6a"/>
      <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"/>
    <input type="tablet" bus="usb">
      <address type="usb" bus="0" port="4"/>
    </input>
    <graphics type="spice" autoport="yes">
      <listen type="address"/>
      <image compression="off"/>
    </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"/>
      <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>

aandmsantos0910 · January 3, 2024, 10:13pm

Hmm, running 3 VMs in mine and I had not booted up in a bit but all working fine. My difference if I compare to your config is Video Model is QXL, you can try and set your Spice server settings like so

firefly · January 4, 2024, 2:38pm

Thank you.
After going through that linked guide once again, I realized that I had disabled 3D acceleration. Enabling it improved the overall situation (no more graphical glitches), but performance was still awful - simple window dragging was like slow motion. Fortunately, switching to QXL, as you suggested, solved the problem completely

What still puzzles me though is that when researching this topic, very often virtio is claimed to offer the best possible performance and is recommended as the default choice, yet for some reason in my setup with this light DE this is not the case

firefly · January 5, 2024, 11:55pm

A small update: I created another VM, this time based on Fedora LXQT spin, and basically got the same results. virtio with 3D acceleration on and auto defaults offers much worse performance than QXL, so it’s not distro specific. Guess something is off with my setup/hardware

ajgringo619 · January 6, 2024, 12:10am

Before the last batch of updates, my VirtIO systems worked great. Now they’re so clunky that I had to go back to GPU pass-through, including on the Linux-based VMs.

manfredlotz · January 6, 2024, 4:40am

I read somewhere (forgot if it was here in the forum or …) that there is a bug in the qemu 8.2 .

There are two workarounds

downgrade to 8.1 or
in a VM change Video VGA from Virtio to VGA .

Found it: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=291438

ajgringo619 · January 6, 2024, 5:22am

I tried VGA, but its performance was bad as well. After finishing up converting my systems back to GPU pass-through, I’m wondering why I switched in the first place. Gonna be able to test the next EOS dev ISO in Hyper-V next time.

manfredlotz · January 6, 2024, 9:50am

VGA is an improvement in the situation. But you are right, it is not really good. I tried out QXL in the Virtual Machine Manager and this is really good.

firefly · January 6, 2024, 12:30pm

Thanks for the additional input!
Glad to find out that I’m not the only one facing this problem

system · January 8, 2024, 12:31pm

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