VM to host networking

Operating Systems & Open Source Linux
1

I’m nearing the end of the ordeal that began when I got a new Ryzen desktop. I’ve successfully added a 2nd video card, enabled GPU passthrough and configured a Windows VM. The final thing I’d like to accomplish is guest-to-host networking.

My goal is to enable Steam streaming from guest to host so that I would only rarely have to touch Windows, but would still be able to play Windows games. However, this does not seem possible with the approaches that I’ve tried. I tried binding a bridge to my ethernet adapter. While this gave the VM an IP address on my physical LAN, it still would not allow guest-to-host networking.

This desktop has an Ethernet NIC and a WiFi module, so I thought I’d just pass the WiFi through to the VM. But the WiFi adapter’s IOMMU group has about half a dozen devices in it, so that’s not possible. The NIC has one group all to itself, but it seems a bit weird to have a Linux box with only WiFi - especially if I decide to start providing network services.

Does anyone have any advice for enabling guest to host networking? I’ve been using Linux for quite a while, but my skill level with Linux networking is minimal - just enough to get a statically configured workstation on the Internet.

2

Which distro are you using? And are you using qemu/kvm or a front-end GUI like virt-manager?

3

Fedora 28+qemu-kvm+virt-manager

4

I’m working on the same issue. I have streaming working from the guest to my laptop using bridging, but I can’t stream to the host. I’m wondering if this might be a limitation of steam or just requires a different network configuration.

5

Unfortunately I haven’t made any progress on this. I’ve been focused on getting various games to work with Wine and DXVK, but still have to use the VM for some games. I will either need to gain a better understanding of how bridged networking works under Linux, or try to get Project Looking Glass to work.

6

For Host <–> Guest communication you can use an isolated network. I’ve written down some instructions here.
However I am not sure if you can redirect a game stream over this network. Remember to disable the firewall on both sides while testing.

7

https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_enterprise_linux/6/html/virtualization_host_configuration_and_guest_installation_guide/app_macvtap