VirtualBox GPU Passthrough from Linux Host to Windows Guest

Question

I'm trying to use my dedicated GPU (Nvidia GTX970M) in my guest system (Windows 7). I used the following command:

vboxmanage modifyvm "Windows 7" --pciattach 01:00.0@07:01.0

The GPU is successfully recognized in my guest system. Then I proceed to install Nvidia drivers and everything's okay. The problem comes when I try to open Nvidia control panel. An error message appears warning that control panel cannot be opened and a description: There is not an Nvidia card connected to the current screen.

My host system (Linux) uses Bumblebee-nvidia drivers.

Suggestions? Thanks in advance.

Solution

"I was getting a mysterious “Code 43” error in Windows when it tried to initialize the graphics card. I could tell the card was functional though, since it was sending a signal to the monitor. After digging around some more on the Internet, it seems the Nvidia driver will disable the card if it detects it’s running under virtualization. Thanks Nvidia."
http://taxes.moe/2017/07/08/linux-and-windows-running-simultaneously-with-gpu-passthrough/

Probably that is the reason. QEMU has a feature to hide from the guest the fact that it's running in a VM. I don't know though whether VirtualBox has any similar one.

But even if you succeed in fooling it, probably it won't work anyway, IIRC laptop videocards share videomemory, they're not truly separate.

Comments

[Admin]

AFAIK, that can be done with two graphics cards that can work simultaneously which is not the case with laptops hybrid graphics.

[tutormike]

also, cannot open control panel does not necessarily mean the driver components failed to install