Is Linux ready for the Intel Arc Pro B50? I ask this question because from my own experimenting this past week, it is clearly behind Windows 11.
Let me explain my point. I am running Proxmox 9.1 on a Intel Core i7 with an ASUS Z890 motherboard, with a Intel Arc Pro B50. It took me approximate 2 hours from start to finish to get two Windows 11 VMs running sharing the B50 via SR-IOV. You set the hardware in Proxmox, you install the driver B50 drivers in each of the VMs and it just worked. Heaven and Superposition worked the first time.
I moved to my main goal of using Linux VMs, preferably Linux Mint. After a solid week of nothing but failure and frustration, I am at a loss. I have read and studied multiple site about SR-IOV but nothing works for Linux and the B50. I have tried multiple kernels, mutiple linux distros, ect..
I have heard of people succeeding through seemingly black magic level hacks but I have yet to be able to duplicate any.
What is even more troubling than fixing my problem is the fact that it takes this much effort to do in Linux what Windows does without effort. I am trying to move away from Windows for various reasons, however these types of problems that keep me and probably others tied to Windows.
I am hoping that maybe later drivers will be able to solve this problem. If anyone want more details about to experience, just ask.
@wendell Yes, I found that to be fact from reading and testing.
Even when using the XE drivers,
Linux Mint 22.3 just ignores the card.
Ubuntu 25.10 actually becomes unusable. I could no longer use Terminal, or System Settings. The addition of the card breaks something internally. When I remove it from the hardware list Ubuntu works properly again.
@Strawberry I have tried using many combinations of Proxmox Console, RealVNC, and RustDesk.
After I add the B50 card to the hardware list here is the results.
With Linux Mint 22.3, If I set the Display to “None”, Console and RustDesk can’t connect. RealVNC will connect but say something like “No image to display”. If I set the Display to “Standard VGA” all three remote software works. However, Mint does not recognize the card as being a GPU. Mint acknowledges the present of the card but ignores it.
With Ubuntu 25.10, If I set the Display to “None”, nothing connects or works.
If I set the Display to “Standard VGA’ , neither RuskDesk or RealVNC work something about a PipeWire error. Only the Proxmox Console works. However, even when the screen appears the OS is broken. You can’t bring up Terminal or System Settings, it just hangs.
It is pretty tricky (from my experience) to get a VM using a B50 virtual function running on linux. I managed with sway+a headless output+moonlight but did not document the steps very well. It did end up working reasonably well, with hardware encoding for moonlight and acceleration working. Things just don’t really work if the B50/xe driver don’t have a (virtual) display to output to..
This guy did document nicely in another thread, but it’s not super easy. Maybe there’s simpler ways or software support might improve in the future:
@quilt I have read this article before, it may be a bit above my skill level in Linux but I will attempted it again.
However, that is kind of my point. It should not require black magic level hacks to accomplish this if you can do it in Windows by installing one driver file. Linux driver support needs to improve so that it does not required elite hacking skill to install a video driver.
I think I finally understand the problem. As I thought it appears that the Intel drivers for Linux are only half finished and incomplete. The drivers lack the “Display Engine” section which is why the OS does not recognize the card as a video output device.
This is Shadowbane from the other SR-IOV thread. Thanks for sharing your experience with Intel’s B50.
I was actually considering purchasing two Intel B60 cards for my future Proxmox server, but after reading about your experience—and heading how half-baked the Linux drivers still seem to be—I’ve changed my mind. You may have just saved me from making a $1,600 mistake.
I do have a question, though. You mentioned Heaven and Superposition. What exactly are they? When you said “Heaven,” I assumed you were referring to some kind of game benchmark, but I’ve never heard of Superposition.