Two Needs and Request for Info

[dcbdbis]

Good Evening All,

My linux contracts are winding down. I no longer need Linux as my main "driver".

I have a friend who is recommending that I give OpenBSD a shot, instead of returning to FreeBSD which I have used extensively.

I have two needs - that are now very important.

a) I need a VM manager. Be That VirtualBox, or a KVM(linux only) like alternative. I don;t se anything of the sorts in either of the online ports tree amalgams I've look at. Is there a VMM for OpenBSD?

b) The latest AMDGPU drivers - turn the fans off at startup. The GPU then idles @ ~ 140degF (60DegC). In Linux - I run a python daemon that samples the temp every 10 seconds, and then sets the fan to a specified fan curve in a text file that sits in the /etc tree (/usr/local/etc in many BSD's). How do we do that in OpenBSD?

MSI RX-480.

Thank you for taking the time to read this...


Dave

[J65nko]

OpenBSD has virtualization. From https://www.openbsd.org/faq/faq16.html :

OpenBSD comes with the vmm(4) hypervisor and vmd(8) daemon. Virtual machines can be orchestrated with the vmctl(8) control utility, using configuration settings stored in the vm.conf(5) file.

But be aware that compared with VirtualBox or KVM it misses some features:

The following features are not available at this time:

• graphics
• snapshots
• guest SMP support
• hardware passthrough
• live migration across hosts
• live hardware change

Supported guest operating systems are currently limited to OpenBSD and Linux. As there is no VGA support yet, the guest OS must support serial console.

BTW the OpenBSD FAQ is a nice introduction to the features of the OS.
It just does not have a section about the OpenBSD implementation of Wireguard yet.

[jggimi]

To extend on J65kno's comments -- while there is no virtual graphics hardware support, guest virtual machines can deploy network connected graphical protocols such as X11, VNC, HTML, etc.

The OpenBSD admin has no direct control over hardware fan speed. One can only set the OS performance adjustments to high/low/automatic via apm(8) and apmd(8).

[J65nko]

For a list of known issues with OpenBSD vmm see https://openbsd.amsterdam/known.html

[dcbdbis]

Thank you for the response. I posted in both the OpenBSD and FreeBSD forums deliberately - because both of these BSD's are in the running for my return to BSD's. OpenBSD can't always do what FreeBSD does - so I thought posting in both forums for this scenario was appropriate as I was unsure which BSD could do this.

THANK YOU for the responses. Now I know that OpenBSD can't do what I need it to do to be a daily driver... That's not a rap on OpenBSd - not at all...It just not ready for this type of workflow yet.

D

[J65nko]

I have used OpenBSD guests on a Linux box using KVM. See http://daemonforums.org/showthread.php?t=8791

[jggimi]

And I am running HTML graphics applications from a guest OpenBSD OS under the OpenBSD hypervisor. It's a QC test environment for a production Wordpress webserver.

[dcbdbis]

I have contacted the author of the AMDGPU-Fan python daemon. He is going to look at his code and see what it would take to work under FreeBSD...

D

[dcbdbis]

Good Afternoon All,


I think we have reached the end of this discussion.

I want to sincerely thank all of the respondents for their posts. It's all helpful - thank you!


Reading the amdgpu temp, and then controlling the GPU fan, is not possible under ANY BSD.

In all the posts I've read in a wide variety of BSD resources, it has been alleged that the porters of the amdgpu to BSD's, were forced to turn off certain features and functionality in the amdgpu driver, in order for it to work within the limitations of the various BSD kernels.

Why the amd folks decided to turn the fans to zero with their newer drivers is beyond me. This is an AMD issue - not a BSD one. And then the onboard GPU BIOS waits way too late to even begin to spool up the fans.

Heat - is the bane of all electronics.

It's a bummer - but the BSD's do not meet my requirements to use a BSD as a daily driver.
And I am not going to purchase an NVidia GPU just so I can use their proprietary driver - which does include fan control (I am told). But - I don't even know if an NVidia GPU even needs special consideration for their fans. They may already do autonomously, what I need to do manually with AMD.

NVidia is particularly hostile to OSS - so I will not purchase any of their stuff. Kinda my personal boycott if you will.



D