SmartSDR in Virtualbox

K2ERA

I am wondering if anyone has used SmartSDR in virtualbox?  I run linux and am running SmartSDR in virtualbox generally with success however graphics acceleration is not working.

The latest version of Virtualbox supports 2d and 3d hardware acceleration.  I have also installed the Direct3d support driver in Virtualbox add-ons for windows.  However, SmartSDR says no graphics acceleration is detected and doesnt use it.

Virtualbox can do DirectX 9 acceleration and I believe that is what SmartSDR needs.

The issue is that everything is being done on my CPU and using a lot of resources instead of offloading any of it to my Nvidia 660ti.

Thanks

K2ERA

Ok, it seems I made a mistake when installing the direct3d driver for Virtualbox.  I chose to install the version that needs to be installed in safemode.   I reinstalled with the other one that doesnt need to be installed in safemode and now I get "maximum graphics acceleration" in smartsdr. 

HOWEVER, its terribly slow and no longer fluid and smooth.  So although it might be using my GPU and less CPU its not really usable.  I will be going back to the cpu accelerated method, at least until Virtualbox improves the direct3d support.

DrTeeth

The graphics acceleration in a virtual machine is not 'real' graphics acceleration AIUI. It does not use the graphics card and is bluffed in software. Never come across an extension pack that needs to be installed in safe mode...there is only one and VB offers to d/l and install it when run for the first time.

K2ERA

In virtualbox they have real hardware 3d acceleration as an option.  Unfortunately it just doesnt work well with smartsdr but it does use the real GPU.  from their manual:

"The VirtualBox Guest Additions contain experimental hardware 3D support for Windows, Linux and Solaris guests.[20]
With this feature, if an application inside your virtual machine uses 3D features through the OpenGL or Direct3D 8/9 programming interfaces, instead of emulating them in software (which would be slow), VirtualBox will attempt to use your host's 3D hardware. This works for all supported host platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux, Solaris), provided that your host operating system can make use of your accelerated 3D hardware in the first place."

DrTeeth

Thanks for the correction.

K2ERA

Unfortunately Guy it doesnt really matter as its worse than software acceleration.  Hopefully down the road virtualbox can improve the hardware acceleration for gpu, until then I am back to using CPU only.  

TBH it doesnt seem to make that much of a difference anyways, it only takes a small amount of load off the CPU it seems.

  

WA6FXT Mike

K2era, never tried VBox; however, VMWare Fusion works great on my MacBook Pro. FWIW Mike

Dave - W6OVP

How about an update of this thread? Has anyone made this work? TNX.

WA6FXT Mike

Since my last post, I’ve switched to VirtualBOX. SmartSDR works fine on win7 running on VBox. Mike

Dave - W6OVP

TNX Mike. What version of Linux are you running?

WA6FXT Mike

Actually, MacOS

WA6FXT Mike

MacOS

Dave - W6OVP

OK TNX. Wonder if anyone here has it going under Linux?

chris hartley (G3VjV)

Dave, I'm using Linux Mint 18.3 with Vbox 5.2.6 Runing Flex 1.11.12 on W7,
working fine.
Chris

Mark_WS7M

I have tried SmartSDR 2.4.9 in VirtualBox under linux and had no issues with general operation.  I did not put it to any kind of a stress test though.

I was running 20 FPS without issues but kept the window small.

Mark - WS7M

Roland

Chris, have you tried using the com ports in programs such as N1MM. N1MM does not support API. I have been using WIN7 and Flex 2.5 a while now and all programs that use the Flex TCP or API work fine.Thanks!

Sorry, I should have noted that I am using Linux Mint 19.2 with Virtualbox 6.14.