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author: Prefetch 2019-06-08 20:01:43 +0000
committer: Prefetch 2019-06-08 20:01:43 +0000
commit: fe4bd53f01c469ad62848fbc85b06185b9f1e653 (patch)
tree: 38d9731003cf2d98ac4000eeff86fc55a17ec093 /public/software
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diff --git a/public/software/index.html b/public/software/index.html
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+<!DOCTYPE html>
+<html>
+<head>
+<meta charset="utf-8">
+<title>
+	Prefetch | Software
+</title>
+<link rel="stylesheet" href="/main.css">
+</head>
+<body>
+<div class="navbar">
+<div class="navitem navhome"><b><a href="/">PREFETCH</a></b></div>
+
+<div class="navitem"><a href="/articles/">Articles&nbsp;&nbsp;</a></div>
+
+<div class="navitem"><a href="/software/">Software</a></div>
+
+<div class="navitem"><a href="/sheats/">Sheats</a></div>
+
+</div>
+<hr>
+<div class="content">
+
+	<p>Software made by me:</p>
+<ul>
+<li><a href="https://prefet.ch/software/winvm.sh">winvm.sh</a>: a QEMU-launching shell script
+I used to emulate Windows for gaming. Since
+<a href="https://www.mesa3d.org/">Mesa</a> has matured so much and
+<a href="https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton/">Proton</a>
+is in great shape, I won't update it anymore.</li>
+<li>More coming soon!</li>
+</ul>
+<p>Apart from that, here's a <a href="/software/recommended">list</a> of software I recommend.</p>
+
+
+</div>
+<hr>
+&copy; &quot;Prefetch&quot;. &nbsp; Licensed under <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>.
+</body>
+</html>
diff --git a/public/software/recommended/index.html b/public/software/recommended/index.html
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+<!DOCTYPE html>
+<html>
+<head>
+<meta charset="utf-8">
+<title>
+	Prefetch | Recommended software
+</title>
+<link rel="stylesheet" href="/main.css">
+</head>
+<body>
+<div class="navbar">
+<div class="navitem navhome"><b><a href="/">PREFETCH</a></b></div>
+
+<div class="navitem"><a href="/articles/">Articles&nbsp;&nbsp;</a></div>
+
+<div class="navitem"><a href="/software/">Software</a></div>
+
+<div class="navitem"><a href="/sheats/">Sheats</a></div>
+
+</div>
+<hr>
+<div class="content">
+
+	<center><h3> Recommended software </h3></center>
+	<ul>
+<li><a href="https://www.archlinux.org/">Arch Linux</a>,
+the no-nonsense Linux distribution. It's not perfect,
+but it has the best reward-to-effort ratio for me.
+Mainly its spectacular wealth of available packages
+(11000 main + 53000 AUR!) make it the king.</li>
+<li><a href="https://alpinelinux.org/">Alpine Linux</a>,
+the featherlight distribution powering this server.</li>
+<li><a href="https://voidlinux.org/">Void Linux</a>,
+another nice lightweight distribution. It has
+a great package management system with good 
+support for both binary packages and 
+<a href="https://gentoo.org/">Gentoo</a>-style
+customizable source builds.</li>
+<li><a href="https://i3wm.org/">i3</a>, a mature, lightweight,
+responsive tiling window manager without all the fuss.
+I'll move to its successor-in-progress
+<a href="https://swaywm.org/">Sway</a> as soon as I find it mature enough.</li>
+<li><a href="https://neovim.io/">Neovim</a>, which I use instead of its
+venerable ancestor <a href="https://www.vim.org/">Vim</a> because
+it's faster, cleaner, and more future-facing
+(<a href="https://geoff.greer.fm/2015/01/15/why-neovim-is-better-than-vim/">source</a>).
+With plugins, of course:
+<ul>
+<li><a href="https://github.com/junegunn/vim-plug">vim-plug</a>
+for simple and effective plugin management.</li>
+<li><a href="https://github.com/wincent/terminus">terminus</a>
+to noticeably improve integration with the window manager.</li>
+<li><a href="https://github.com/joshdick/onedark.vim">onedark.vim</a>,
+because it looks great and is easy on the eyes.</li>
+<li><a href="https://github.com/itchyny/lightline.vim">lightline.vim</a>
+for no real reason. Just eye candy I guess.</li>
+<li><a href="https://github.com/sheerun/vim-polyglot">vim-polyglot</a>,
+because its syntax definitions are much better.</li>
+<li><a href="https://github.com/justinmk/vim-sneak">vim-sneak</a>
+to make movement less of a hassle.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+<li><a href="https://github.com/jwilm/alacritty">Alacritty</a> as terminal emulator,
+for its speed, minimalism, ease to configure, and native Wayland support.
+I used to use <a href="https://st.suckless.org/">st</a>,
+but it was too annoying to reconfigure.</li>
+<li><a href="https://github.com/eXeC64/imv">imv</a>,
+a command-line image viewer that I've found to be
+much simpler and snappier than its more popular cousin
+<a href="https://feh.finalrewind.org/">feh</a>.</li>
+<li><a href="https://git.pwmt.org/pwmt/zathura">zathura</a>,
+a fantastic modular viewer for PDFs and similar formats.
+It remembers your position in a document after closing or reloading,
+which is great when using LaTeX, and the main reason
+I prefer it over <a href="https://mupdf.com/">MuPDF</a>.</li>
+<li><a href="https://mpv.io/">mpv</a>, a great terminal-friendly media player.
+If you have <a href="https://youtube-dl.org/">youtube-dl</a> installed
+you can watch videos you would otherwise need a web browser for.</li>
+<li><a href="https://nginx.org/">nginx</a>,
+the most popular HTTP server in the world.
+And for good reason: it's lightweight, fast, secure,
+flexible and straightforward to configure.</li>
+<li><a href="https://www.getzola.org/">Zola</a> to generate static webpages,
+including the one you're reading right now.</li>
+<li><a href="https://www.qemu.org/">QEMU</a>,
+the Swiss army knife of emulation, and a damn fast one at that,
+albeit with absolutely terrible documentation.
+My old Windows launch script is <a href="../winvm.sh">here</a>.</li>
+<li>The <a href="https://www.musl-libc.org/">musl</a> C standard library,
+the only one that remembers it's supposed to stick to the
+official specification rather than pursuing every crazy idea.</li>
+<li><a href="https://busybox.net/">BusyBox</a> bundles the
+most important Unix tools into one portable ELF.</li>
+<li><a href="https://skarnet.org/software/s6/">s6</a>,
+a nice Unix service manager and init system.
+I used it in my now long-abandoned
+<a href="http://linuxfromscratch.org/lfs/index.html">LFS</a> installation.</li>
+<li><a href="https://man.openbsd.org/doas">doas</a>,
+sudo for the 21st century, this time actually configurable.</li>
+</ul>
+
+
+</div>
+<hr>
+&copy; &quot;Prefetch&quot;. &nbsp; Licensed under <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>.
+</body>
+</html>
diff --git a/public/software/winvm.sh b/public/software/winvm.sh
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+#!/bin/sh
+
+
+# This is the script I used to use to launch QEMU, emulating
+# Windows 8 with direct physical access to a powerful GPU
+# and the Intel audio controller. This isn't a complete guide,
+# more a collection of tips for any other brave people mad
+# enough to try this. Look up "{VFIO,VGA,GPU,PCI} passthrough"
+# if you want to get proper guidance for this.
+
+# This was working on QEMU 2.12, but note that I'm not updating it anymore.
+
+
+# Create hugepage FS. Don't forget to actually populate it
+# with available RAM using kernel boot arguments or sysctl.
+# The user you run QEMU under (not root!) must be in the kvm group.
+sudo mkdir /dev/hugepages
+sudo mount -t hugetlbfs hugetlbfs /dev/hugepages
+sudo chown root:kvm /dev/hugepages
+sudo chmod 1777 /dev/hugepages # Necessary apparently
+
+
+# The block devices you use for the VM are up to you;
+# mine are at /dev/mapper/win{dows,data}.
+# I recommend refreshing udev after you've created them:
+udevadm trigger
+
+
+### USEFUL KERNEL ARGUMENTS
+# intel_iommu=on            : VFIO won't work otherwise. I don't have an AMD CPU,
+#                             but there should be a similar option for that.
+# vfio-pci.ids=XXXX:YYYY,.. : Only available if VFIO is built into the kernel
+#                             (requires custom kernel build). Reserves devices at boot.
+# hugepages=X hugepagesz=Y  : Create X hugepages at boot of size Y ("2M" or "1G").
+# nohugeiomap               : This fixed something, but I can't remember what.
+# intremap=no_x2apic_optout : Some UEFIs don't support the x2apic and disable it.
+#                             This force-enables it. Had no negative consequences for me.
+# pci=pcie_bus_peer2peer    : This was the silver bullet for me, but YMMV.
+# isolcpus=X-Y nohz_full=X-Y rcu_nocbs=X-Y : You MUST use CPU pinning if you add this.
+#                                            X-Y is an inclusive range of CPU cores to
+#                                            to reserve for the vCPUs.
+
+
+### MACHINE OPTIONS
+QEMU="-name debug-threads=on -enable-kvm -machine q35,accel=kvm,kernel_irqchip=on,vmport=off,mem-merge=off"
+# -debug-threads=on : name the vCPU threads, useful for CPU pinning.
+# -enable-kvm       : enable KVM acceleration.
+# -machine q35      : emulate the Q35 chipset, which is closer to a modern PC.
+# accel=kvm         : probably identical to -enable-kvm, but just in case.
+# kernel_irqchip=on : emulate an IRQ chip in the kernel instead of in QEMU.
+# vmport=off        : don't emulate a VMWare I/O port.
+# mem-merge=off     : disable KSM, since there is only one VM.
+
+### CPU OPTIONS
+QEMU="$QEMU -cpu host,kvm=off,hv_time,hv_relaxed,hv_spinlocks=0x1fff,hv_vpindex,hv_reset,hv_runtime,hv_crash,hv_vendor_id=NvidiaFix"
+# -cpu host : use the host CPU instead of emulating one.
+# kvm=off   : don't declare self as KVM to the guest, as Windows doesn't care.
+# hv_*      : pretend to be Hyper-V, so Windows can optimize itself for running as a guest.
+# https://www.reddit.com/r/VFIO/comments/479xnx/guests_with_nvidia_gpus_can_enable_hyperv/
+QEMU="$QEMU -smp sockets=1,cores=4,threads=1"
+# -smp ...  : processor layout to emulate.
+
+### RAM OPTIONS
+QEMU="$QEMU -m 12G -mem-path /dev/hugepages -mem-prealloc"
+# -m x          : amount of guest RAM.
+# -mem-path ... : allocate memory from this pool. Can be a file or "hugepages" (mount -t hugetlbfs).
+# -mem-prealloc : allocate all memory from -mem-path at startup rather than on demand.
+
+### EMULATION OPTIONS
+QEMU="$QEMU -vga none -nodefaults -rtc base=utc,clock=host,driftfix=none"
+# -vga none     : don't emulate a graphics card, since we're using a physical one.
+# -nodefaults   : don't emulate any of the default devices.
+# -rtc base=utc : emulate an RTC starting at host's local time.
+# clock=host    : use the host's accurate clock for VM timekeeping.
+# driftfix=none : don't fix Windows' clock drifting, as that involves injecting interrupts.
+QEMU="$QEMU -drive if=pflash,format=raw,file=/usr/share/edk2-ovmf/OVMF_CODE.fd,readonly"
+QEMU="$QEMU -drive if=pflash,format=raw,file=/usr/share/edk2-ovmf/OVMF_VARS.fd"
+# These options enable using the OVMF virtual UEFI instead of SeaBIOS.
+# The exact file locations might vary; this is for Gentoo.
+
+### PCI PASSTHROUGH
+QEMU="$QEMU -device ioh3420,chassis=1,port=1,multifunction=on,bus=pcie.0,addr=1c.0,id=pcie.1"
+# -device ioh3420      : emulate a PCIe I/O hub to attach the GPU to.
+# chassis=1,port=1     : ?
+# bus=pcie.0,addr=1c.0 : place it at 00:1c.0 on the guest.
+# id=pcie.1            : refer to this device as "pcie.1" below.
+QEMU="$QEMU -device vfio-pci,host=04:00.0,multifunction=on,bus=pcie.1,addr=00.0"
+# GPU VGA controller. 
+# multifunction=on     : this device isn't just a VGA controller.
+# bus=pcie.1,addr=00.0 : attach it to the I/O hub as function 0.
+QEMU="$QEMU -device vfio-pci,host=04:00.1,bus=pcie.1,addr=00.1"
+# GPU HDMI audio controller. 
+# bus=pcie.1,addr=00.1 : attach it to the I/O hub as function 1.
+QEMU="$QEMU -device vfio-pci,host=00:1b.0,bus=pcie.0,addr=1b.0"
+# Intel HDA audio controller. 
+# bus=pcie.0,addr=1b.0 : place the device where Intel usually puts its HDA controller.
+
+#QEMU="$QEMU -device intel-iommu,intremap=on"
+# Expose the IOMMU to the guest too. Probably useless in this case.
+
+### USB PASSTHROUGH
+QEMU="$QEMU -usb"
+# Enable USB support.
+QEMU="$QEMU -device usb-host,vendorid=0xXXXX,productid=0xYYYY"
+# If one of these can't be found, it's simply ignored. Use lsusb to find the IDs.
+
+### STORAGE OPTIONS
+QEMU="$QEMU -drive if=ide,format=raw,discard=unmap,detect-zeroes=unmap,file=/dev/mapper/windows"
+QEMU="$QEMU -drive if=ide,format=raw,discard=unmap,detect-zeroes=unmap,file=/dev/mapper/windata"
+# if=ide       : emulate an IDE (SATA) drive. NVMe is possible too, but more of a hassle.
+# format=raw   : talk directly to the drive. Take care: your guest GPT might end up inside a partition.
+# discard=unmap,detect-zeroes=unmap : send discards to the physical device if the guest asks for it.
+# file=x       : backing physical block device.
+
+#QEMU="$QEMU -cdrom ~/Windows.iso"
+# For recovery purposes. I strongly recommend keeping the ISO around.
+
+### NETWORK OPTIONS
+QEMU="$QEMU -netdev user,id=usermode"
+# -netdev user : emulate a user-mode NIC, which is more than fast enough in my experience.
+# id=usermode  : call the interface "usermode"
+QEMU="$QEMU -device e1000,netdev=usermode,mac=88:88:88:88:88:88,bus=pcie.0,addr=19.0"
+# -device e1000        : emulate a gigabit ethernet device.
+# netdev=usermode      : use "usermode" as the host backend.
+# mac=x                : set the MAC address as seen by the guest.
+# bus=pcie.0,addr=19.0 : place the device where Intel usually puts its NIC.
+
+
+# GERONIMO!
+qemu-system-x86_64 $QEMU -daemonize
+# -daemonize : fork once the VM has been initialized.
+
+QEMU_PID=`pidof qemu-system-x86_64`
+echo -e "\033[37;1mQEMU started at PID $QEMU_PID, emulating Windows in Hyper-V mode.\033[m"
+
+sleep 2 # Make sure the VM threads have been spawned.
+
+# Move kernel processes to the housekeeping core (core 0 here).
+#echo 00001 > /sys/bus/workqueue/devices/writeback/cpumask
+#echo 00001 > /sys/bus/workqueue/devices/nvme-wq/cpumask
+
+# Do CPU pinning using "taskset -pc X Y" here,
+# using /proc/$QEMU_PID/task/*/stat to find the thread name.
+# Sorry, my old script for this was so horrible that I don't want to share it.
author	Prefetch	2019-06-08 20:01:43 +0000
committer	Prefetch	2019-06-08 20:01:43 +0000
commit	fe4bd53f01c469ad62848fbc85b06185b9f1e653 (patch)
tree	38d9731003cf2d98ac4000eeff86fc55a17ec093 /public/software