Ubuntu 12.04 under Hyper-V on Windows 8
Recently a number of the Hyper-V drivers for Linux made it into the main kernel branch. This means that native support for Hyper-V is starting to turn up in a number of Linux distributions. Ubuntu 12.04 LTS is an example of a new Linux release with Hyper-V support “out of the box”. To try this out for myself – I grabbed the 32-bit desktop install media from Ubuntu.com and fired up a virtual machine:
After the initial splash screen, I was pleasantly surprised by the first indication of the improved Hyper-V support. Before even install Ubuntu, on the first page of setup, I already had integrated mouse support.
I chose to Install Ubuntu and was then presented with a page that confirmed that I had enough space, and I had a valid internet connection. This was also interesting to note, as I had not added a legacy network adapter to the virtual machine. This meant that Ubuntu had already recognized and loaded drivers for the Hyper-V high-performance network adapter.
After this – the installation was fairly pedestrian…
The only quirk I encountered was that at the end of the initial installation phase – the virtual machine failed to reboot automatically. It sat at this page for about a minute until I manually reset it:
But after that it booted perfectly:
And I confirmed that applications and network connectivity was working correctly:
My favorite part of this was seeing this message:
“No proprietary drivers are in use on this system”. Correct! The Hyper-V drivers are now part of Linux, under GPL.
Cheers,
Ben
Comments
Anonymous
May 04, 2012
What can you do in Ubuntu to get higher screen resolutions? Is there a Hyper-V display driver?Anonymous
June 04, 2012
This is not new. Linux Kernels have been making use of hv* drivers for a while now. I think it started in 2.6.30 or something. It was just a matter of using the right version and build. Typically, Ubuntu Server made those available since v10 natively (after a few updates of the kernel packages).Anonymous
June 12, 2012
It's been a while I would like to understand this: what is the difference between the hv_* drivers in the Linux kernel and the Linux Integration Services provided by Microsoft?Anonymous
June 25, 2012
The resolution in Ubuntu in Hyper-V does not make use of the full resolution of your monitor. Is there a way around this?Anonymous
August 15, 2012
@ Jonathan, Sepatown The Hyper-V console isn't really meant to run and interact with desktop operating systems full-time, it's more to aid in the initial setup and configuration. You will want to use other methods of interaction with the client via some remote desktop software (NoMachine's NX comes to mind since it has integrated audio support, but you could also use XDMCP or VNC) to get alternate screen resolutions.Anonymous
October 24, 2012
The comment has been removedAnonymous
November 13, 2012
Hi, What bothers me is that Ubuntu running in a VMWare Workstation on my Windows 8 computer installed on a MacBook Pro with Retina screen doesn't have any problem exploiting the whole screen when Hyper-V is limited to a poor way tooooo little screen unusable on my Mac : root@ubuntu:/home/christophe# xrandr Screen 0: minimum 1 x 1, current 2876 x 1577, maximum 8192 x 8192 Virtual1 connected 2876x1577+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 0mm x 0mm 2876x1577 60.0*+ 2560x1600 60.0 1920x1440 60.0 1856x1392 60.0 1792x1344 60.0 1920x1200 59.9 1600x1200 60.0 1680x1050 60.0 1400x1050 60.0 1280x1024 60.0 1440x900 59.9 1280x960 60.0 1360x768 60.0 1280x800 59.8 1152x864 75.0 1280x768 59.9 1024x768 60.0 800x600 60.3 640x480 59.9 Virtual2 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) Virtual3 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) Virtual4 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) Virtual5 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) Virtual6 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) Virtual7 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) Virtual8 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) root@ubuntu:/home/christophe# gtf 2876 1577 60 # 2880x1577 @ 60.00 Hz (GTF) hsync: 97.92 kHz; pclk: 385.41 MHz Modeline "2880x1577_60.00" 385.41 2880 3096 3408 3936 1577 1578 1581 1632 -HSync +VsyncAnonymous
November 18, 2012
hyper-v is usually use for servers, the "connect" in hyper-v manager is use for admins (I don't expect that to have a good user experience). The best way to utilize hyper-v is thru remote desktop. Myself hosted a Linux Ubuntu 12.04 in hyper-v for my web deployment LAMP. The advantage of that instead of virtualbox, is hyper-v is not user/login specific, you you won't be affect of any log-on and off. Resources consumption in hyper-v is also way lower compared using virtualbox. if you are thinking using compiz or alike avoid hyper-v.Anonymous
November 20, 2012
Hi vierx OK, how do you RDP to a Ubuntu desktop ? I've tried xrdp but I have problems with the keyboard (I'm using French and it stays in English and doesn't offer me anything else...) Do you have another solution than XRDP ? ThanksAnonymous
December 01, 2012
For my own setup, if I use the "Connect..." feature of Hyper-V manager, then the graphics works but the resolution is unchangeable. If I use Remote Desktop (by connecting to the IP address of Ubuntu, obtained via "ifconfig"), then the resolution is fullscreen but the graphics is slow. I've spent about 3 hours total of trying to get both to work to on avail. Would it have been so difficult for Hyper-V to allow different resolutions?Anonymous
December 03, 2012
Ok, so Windows 8 requires SLAM (Second Level Access Memory) in order to provide "good video interaction for developers" . At the same time, we, the developers, cannot use it in full screen, since "The Hyper-V console isn't really meant to run and interact with desktop operating systems". So, why do I need SLAM support into my CPU to access the virtual machines via MSTSC?Anonymous
December 06, 2012
Good, but i have any problem in Ubuntu 12.10 into Hyper-V: social.technet.microsoft.com/.../6828b612-77c2-4f7c-b4df-f1804b6f317aAnonymous
December 06, 2012
> no integration support for debian operating systems. Debian Wheezy (7.0) contain a backport Hyper-V drivers from Kernel 3.4 But the Hyper-V kernel modules ( as minimum, hv_vmbus hv_utils hv_storvsc hv_netvsc ) are missing in the installer image of Debian Wheezy created before 2012-11-13 Solution: You need use .iso created after 2012-11-14 ( or .iso by Arnaud Patard ) you’ll be able to use paravirt NIC, SCSI disks, additionally you’ll get mouse integration and support for more than 1 vCPU. Details: vvm.blog.tut.by/.../debian-on-hyper-vAnonymous
May 18, 2013
The comment has been removedAnonymous
September 03, 2013
Great! Where Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander, Linux Kernel 3.11 and Hyper-V 2012 R2? :)Anonymous
August 12, 2014
The bit where it says "Erase Disk and Install Ubuntu" will that just erase the hard disk area assigned by HyperV or actually my entire hard disk (as it says, and warns)?