How to install a version of qemu and libvirt that doesn't come with apt-get

Question

I need to install QEMU 2.5.0 and libvirt 1.3.3 to get around Nvidia driver issues (Code 43) when doing GPU passthrough on a windows VM. See first article under troubleshooting in src for details.

I've installed KVM using sudo apt-get install qemu-kvm qemu-utils qemu-efi ovmf libvirt-bin libvirt-de, they this gives me older versions.

With virsh the version command prints out:

Compiled against library: libvirt 1.3.1
Using library: libvirt 1.3.1
Using API: QEMU 1.3.1
Running hypervisor: QEMU 2.5.0

I've fairly new to Ubuntu, so could someone explain how I upgrade or install QEMU 2.5.0 and libvirt 1.3.3 (or a later version)?

Answer 1

It's probably not an issue related to the version you have/had. There's a few changes to your VM's config (xml file) you have to make to workaround nvidia's deliberate attempt to brick VM functionality on their mainstream/non workstation cards. Make sure there's no virtual display attached to the VM with the virt-manager tool, then

1. Shut down your vm and virt manager

2. Open up a command prompt and type:

   sudo virsh edit vmnamehere
   

3. Replace the very first line with:

   <domain type='kvm' xmlns:qemu='http://libvirt.org/schemas/domain/qemu/1.0'>
   

   (You can find the code here: https://paste.ubuntu.com/p/HtXhxTTvjS/)

4. Scroll to the very end of the config file and right before </domain>, insert:

   <qemu:commandline>
     <qemu:arg value='-cpu'/>
     <qemu:arg value='host,hv_time,kvm=off,hv_vendor,hv_vendor_id=null'/>
   </qemu:commandline>
   

   (You can find the code here: https://paste.ubuntu.com/p/HtXhxTTvjS/)

5. Save + exit whatever editor you used

6. Restart the virt-manager application

This works for me every time. Hope you didn't give up on this, as I see this is an old post. A good way to see if you're doing things right is to try GPU passthrough on an OS that will for sure work, like a Linux / Ubuntu / Debian VM.