single_gpu_passthrough_notes.md

IMPORTANT: These steps are meant for use on most Arch, systemd based distrobutions. Please take care and backup your system and files you've edited before progressing. Better safe than sorry.

Steps:

1. Update packages for distrobution. Typically on arch based systems you can run pacman -Syu --noconfirm with sudo privilidges to do this.

2. Install grub.

3. Edit /etc/defaults/grub (Make sure to back this file up beforehand)

4. Look for the line option named GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT and prepend the following depending on what CPU make you have:

   • Intel: intel_iommu=on iommu=pt iommu=1 video=efifb:off
   • AMD: amd_iommu=on iommu=pt iommu=1 video=efifb:off

5. Run sudo update-grub or sudo grub-mkconfig to regenerate your /boot/grub/grub.conf file. Make sure to reboot your system to apply the changes.

6. Install the necessary packages with your package manager/AUR helper. With paru, you can run the following command:

   paru -Sy --noconfirm --cleanafter kvmtool-git libvirt bridge-utils virt-manager ovmf-git

7. Edit/create the config located at /etc/libvirt/libvirtd.conf and uncomment these lines:

   unix_sock_group = "libvirt"
   unix_sock_rw_perms = "0770"

   ... or if the config variable does not exist, just append it to the end of the file.

8. Set these values yourself somewhere at the end of the config:

   log_filters = "1:qemu"
   log_outputs="1:file:/var/log/libvirt/libvirtd.log"

   When you've uncommented and/or added these lines, save and close the file.

9. Run the following command to add yourself to the libvirt group:

   sudo usermod -a -G libvirt $(whoami) # Or explicitly supply your username by replacing `$(whoami)`

10. Start and enable the libvirtd daemon:

sudo systemctl enable libvirtd
sudo systemctl start libvirtd

11. Add config values to the /etc/libvirt/qemu.conf:

user = "YOUR USERNAME"
group = "YOUR GROUP WHICH IS PROBABLY THE SAME AS YOUR USERNAME"

12. Restart the libvirtd daemon:

sudo systemctl restart libvirtd

13. Add yourself to the kvm and libvirt groups:

sudo usermod -aG kvm $(whoami)
sudo usermod -aG libvirt $(whoami)

14. Reboot.
15. Open virt-manager and create a new virtual machine.

• Give it half of your CPU cores
• 4 GB of ram is a decent amount
• Make sure to check Copy host CPU configuration under the CPUs settings tab
• DO NOT use UEFI (use SATA not IDE)