Re: [gentoo-user] vmware opengl

[Paul Hartman <paul.hartman+gentoo@gmail.com>]

On Tue, Jun 7, 2011 at 2:33 PM, Paul Hartman
<paul.hartman+gentoo@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Tue, Jun 7, 2011 at 1:43 PM, Matt Harrison
> <iwasinnamuknow@genestate.com> wrote:
>> Hi list,
>>
>> I have to run windows most of the time on my main desktop for work reasons,
>> but every now and then I install a gentoo guest on vmware to see how the
>> latest DMs are coming along.
>>
>> The current KDE4 is vastly improved from last time, extremely responsive and
>> everything is really nice...except that I cannot get opengl working for
>> compositing.
>>
>> The virtual machine has acceleration enabled, everything relevant has opengl
>> compiled. I'm not very experienced with X/opengl/etc so I'm not sure what
>> else needs to be done.
>
> AFAIK there is nothing working currently that allows you to use 3D
> acceleration in linux guest in VMWare. There are several non-working,
> half-working, used-to-work-but-don't-anymore projects trying to
> achieve it, but they're generally unmaintained and more of
> proof-of-concept than ready for users.
>
> The 3D acceleration does work for Windows guests, using the vmware
> helper drivers. Last time I tried it (a year or so ago), it "worked"
> as far as 3D being detected by the guest OS, but was not actually
> useable for anything real because it was so buggy and incomplete.
>
> I think the "official" way to use 3D in linux vmware guest is to use
> the vmwgfx kernel module, building some specific (patched?) libdrm,
> mesa with certain gallium configuration options, and enabling some
> magic switches in your xorg.conf, though I have read that this hasn't
> worked in a year or two. If you're using old versions of kernel &
> everything then maybe it could work...
>
> But I'm no expert in this area, maybe I'm wrong. ;)
>

I will add that maybe you can do something more simple like
client/server relationship between your host and guest, just use your
non-virtual X server to render the "remote" (virtualized) programs.