ubuntu desktop is extremely slow inside KVM running on LinuxMint

[hasu]

I have installed Ubuntu 13.10 Desktop inside a Local KVM and the performance is unusably slow. It takes a second or two even to refresh the screen (you can see the desktop painting from top to bottom). Display adapter is KVM's "vga". Host machine is running the latest version of 64bit Linux Mint and the hardware is Rig#2 in my signature (6-Core 3.2 GHz/16GB).

My host machine does support hardware virtualization (AMD-V) as revealed by kvm-ok command and cpuinfo flags.

I installed Windows 7 for comparison and its display performance was pretty good with "vga" as the KVM display adapter.

Is there anything I can try to improve its performance?

Thanks!

 

[mv2devnull]

How do you display the desktop of the VM? VNC, Spice, ...?

AMD-V is mainly about CPU. There is an additional extension for more direct access to devices, such as graphics adapter. Which GPU do you have?

I bet the Ubuntu desktop is relatively heavy graphically, although Windows 7 desktop is not the lightest either.

 

[hasu]

How do you display the desktop of the VM? VNC, Spice, ...?

I am using VNC to connect to the VM.

AMD-V is mainly about CPU. There is an additional extension for more direct access to devices, such as graphics adapter. Which GPU do you have?

Well.. I am using the one built in into the motherboad.
Integrated ATI Radeon HD 4250 graphics (DirectX10.1).

Thanks for the help!

 

[mv2devnull]

Spice might be a bit better.

 

[Redinit]

I am using VNC to connect to the VM.



Well.. I am using the one built in into the motherboad.
Integrated ATI Radeon HD 4250 graphics (DirectX10.1).

Thanks for the help!

DirectX isn't a used at all with Linux. What graphics drivers are you using with Linux Mint? You will need GPU hardware acceleration. What settings do you have for the KVM?

 

[hasu]

Spice might be a bit better.

That is in my TODO list to figure out how to get spice working!

DirectX isn't a used at all with Linux. What graphics drivers are you using with Linux Mint? You will need GPU hardware acceleration. What settings do you have for the KVM?

No additional drivers are installed on the host machine. The default Linux Mint installation works just fine. I always stick with the default drivers. Gui performace of host machine is really good for regular use. I don't play games anymore!

How can I find what driver is installed for the graphics?

What settings do you have for the KVM?

KVM uses VNC, and again all default settings.