[Spice-devel] Windows 10 KVM guest very slow in SPICE console

[Victor Toso]

Hi,

On Thu, Jun 14, 2018 at 12:04:22PM -0500, Carlos González wrote:
> Hello.
>
> I installed a Windows 10 KVM guest through libvirt on an
> openSUSE host. I use it with SPICE console through host's
> installed package virt-viewer. The guest uses qcow2 storage
> format, and has RAM ballooning range of 2 Gb - 3 Gb. I
> installed all due drivers in the guest through
> spice-guest-tools installer.

For windows 10 you need QXL-WDDM-DOD driver. I'm not 100% sure
that's included in latest spice-guest-tools but you can download
it on spice-space.org/download.html page.

> Host hardware is a laptop probably dating from 7-8 years ago,
> with i3 2.53 GHz, 4 Gb RAM, and a 7200 rpm SATA hard disk. Yes,
> it's a bit old already.

I would suggest trying some SSD.

> From the moment Windows finishes booting and prepares to load
> the login screen -the one with the hour before choosing a
> user-, it takes a minute or more to actually load the login
> screen, and even when it does it takes more time to even become
> responsive.
>
> So I finally get to enter the desktop, and wait some more
> seconds to let it finish load all the stuff it needs. But in
> summary, when totally ready to use, the guest always feels
> generally slow: programs or windows take time to be able to
> load -even if just the file manager-; some times they never
> even open. And if stressing the guest just a little more in
> order to do a bit of daily work such as opening web browser or
> a couple of MS Office documents, it just hangs and becomes
> unresponsive and broken.
>
> I tried with a VNC console and also RDP. Though they feel laggy
> in general, they are definitely quite usable in comparison with
> what I'm getting with SPICE.
>
> This is making no sense. AFAIK, SPICE was designed to be a
> "faster" protocol than VNC, and it's being totally the
> opposite, at least for me.

But some correct configuration is expected too as we do guest ->
host -> client communication.

Would be nice to share your domain information like:
# virsh dumpxml $my-windows-guest

> Out of curiosity I tried another Windows 10 KVM guest, also
> with RAM ballooning 2 - 3 Gb, but this time installed in an
> apart server using Proxmox VE, with RAW storage format. The
> server is in the same local network segment as my host.
>
> I got exactly the same results: slow SPICE, fast VNC, even when
> guest is not even installed in host itself but in an external
> server, being accessed through LAN. Local network had no
> traffic by the way; just laptop host and Proxmox server there.
>
> I used to think it was problem with my host's hardware. But the
> test in the Proxmox server would suggest not. In Proxmox I
> tried increasing guest's RAM to 6 Gb with no real difference
> neither, while with VNC console it worked ok with just the 3 Gb
> RAM.
>
> Could anyone help please?
> Thanks beforehand.

Also, can you confirm that kvm is enabled in your host? That also
should impact your guest's performance (but not related to remote
protocol).

- This would tell if you have the driver loaded
# lsmod | grep -i kvm

The domain xml could clarify if you are using it or not.

Cheers,
        toso
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