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CUDA on Windows Subsystem for Linux 2

devblogs.nvidia.com

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Re: CUDA on Windows Subsystem for Linux 2

#101

Post by Skunkleton »

smichel17 wrote: post #97
Skunkleton wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just to add to this: Linux is happy to work in whatever way is convenient to you. WSL2 is case and point here. Windows is less flexible. If I can get everything I want out of one environment (stable gui, business software, and a native-like linux shell), that will save me the hassle of multiple machines, traditional VMs, or dual booting. I don't think we will see the Linux Subsystem for Windows 2 ever. I also am not…

The Linux Subsystem for Windows 1, on the other hand, is called Wine and works impressively well. Better than WSL1 did, at any rate.

Yeah LSW1 is better than WSL1 ever was IMO.

Re: CUDA on Windows Subsystem for Linux 2

#102

Post by [deleted] »

dman wrote: post #68
patrec wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I personally don't get why any developer would prefer Windows over Linux Because windows now literally has all the stuff Linux has plus a lot more. The only reason for a well paid developer to prefer linux over windows for a desktop OS is that you don't need any of the extra stuff (a decent desktop experience, hardware support and a commercial end user software eco system) or that you have some fundamental objectio…

I hope they stop at extend this time.

[deleted]

Re: CUDA on Windows Subsystem for Linux 2

#103

Post by bransonf »

patrec wrote: post #65
jacquesm wrote: post #10

Pity. CUDA was/is proof positive that Linux on the desktop is perfectly feasible and that you can use it to both do a UI and do meaningful computation on the same machine without getting tied down into all kinds of licensing schemes. Opening this further up to Windows gives fewer people a really good reason to try out Linux as their daily driver. I personally don't get why any developer would prefer Windows over Linu…

> I personally don't get why any developer would prefer Windows over Linux Because windows now literally has all the stuff Linux has plus a lot more. The only reason for a well paid developer to prefer linux over windows for a desktop OS is that you don't need any of the extra stuff (a decent desktop experience, hardware support and a commercial end user software eco system) or that you have some fundamental objectio…

I'm exactly the audience Microsoft is winning over. For the last 3-5 years, I've been an avid Mac user. The primary reason has always been the familiarity of the terminal.

Now, Apple is making a lot of hardware decisions that I don't like. Having used WSL daily for several months now, it's the game changer.

My next laptop will probably be a PC, and I can only say this because of WSL.

Re: CUDA on Windows Subsystem for Linux 2

#104

Post by bransonf »

FridgeSeal wrote: post #92
anonymousDan wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I just started using Windows 10/WSL yesterday and I have to say I'm impressed. Are there any downsides/painpoints I should be aware of?

I/O performance is pretty horrific.

WSL 2 significantly increased I/O performance if you were wondering.

Re: CUDA on Windows Subsystem for Linux 2

#105

Post by AaronFriel »

0xFFC wrote: post #94
deno wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not GPU pass-through, it’s paravirtualization.

Can you explain about paravirtualization?

Yes, instead of using a virtual GPU driver that simulates the behavior of a real device, a paravirtualized driver is a shim that connects a device in the virtualized operating system to a real device on the host.

In summary:

* Full virtualization is a complete, in-software implementation of a device. Early virtualization technology was typically of this nature.

* Paravirtualization typically requires cooperation between the host and the guest, with a special communication layer (in WSL2's case, provided by Hyper-V) between a guest device driver and a host driver.

There are at least two more method of passing a host device through to a VM.

* "GPU passthrough", "PCIe passthrough", or "VFIO passthrough" depending on the source, Microsoft bucks these all and calls this direct device assignment, or DDA. In this mode, the guest OS is given exclusive access to a device or a device hierarchy (defined by the layout of the motherboard itself). This uses the MMU and IOMMU of the host to allow a VM to run a native driver, e.g.: nvidia's CUDA driver, and it will see a real physical device. (Nvidia's driver has historically blocked this by detecting that other parts of the guest OS are virtualized, because from the driver's perspective the device is a real, authentic Nvidia device, but the rest of the OS devices are virtualized and there are ways to detect that.)

* SR-IOV (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-root_input/output_virtu...) is a PCI-express native method of splitting a device into virtual functions which can be mapped into a guest. I think the first real use for this was network adapters, which allowed VMs to get 10-40GBps network adapters working at native speeds by passing through virtual functions so that hardware offloading worked. Nvidia supports this on some of their server platforms, with GPUs offering up to 7 or 8 "virtual functions" which allows a single GPU to be partitioned and assigned to separate VMs. Once split up in this fashion though, I think it can be tricky to present the full device as a unified GPU.

Re: CUDA on Windows Subsystem for Linux 2

#107

Post by hvis »

jfim wrote: post #95
jchw wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> (aka the Wayland Nightmare and DPI issues everywhere) It’s more of a pick-one. Wayland has pretty good per monitor scaling; your X11 apps will be blurry but that’s about all I’ve experienced. The Windows DPI nightmare long surpassed it anyways. On a typical Wayland desktop the usual biggest problem is the DPI being set wrong for a monitor. Even on X11 the worst you get is applications that don’t scale correctly. On…

> And that’s not all. I close my laptop lid when my laptop is docked. Windows helpfully sleeps the laptop even though external monitors, a mouse, and a keyboard are connected. There is no fix. Right click the battery icon in the system tray > Power Options > Choose what closing the lid does > Do nothing.

And yet, my Ubuntu does the right thing in both cases:

- When the lid is closed and there are no external monitors, the laptop goes to sleep. - When there is an external monitor, it switches to it entirely.

And when the external is disconnected after that (the laptop is still closed), it goes to sleep fine.

Re: CUDA on Windows Subsystem for Linux 2

#108

Post by hvis »

bransonf wrote: post #103
patrec wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I personally don't get why any developer would prefer Windows over Linux Because windows now literally has all the stuff Linux has plus a lot more. The only reason for a well paid developer to prefer linux over windows for a desktop OS is that you don't need any of the extra stuff (a decent desktop experience, hardware support and a commercial end user software eco system) or that you have some fundamental objectio…

I'm exactly the audience Microsoft is winning over. For the last 3-5 years, I've been an avid Mac user. The primary reason has always been the familiarity of the terminal. Now, Apple is making a lot of hardware decisions that I don't like. Having used WSL daily for several months now, it's the game changer. My next laptop will probably be a PC, and I can only say this because of WSL.

Your next laptop will be a personal computer?

Re: CUDA on Windows Subsystem for Linux 2

#110

Post by _cairn »

hvis wrote: post #108
bransonf wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm exactly the audience Microsoft is winning over. For the last 3-5 years, I've been an avid Mac user. The primary reason has always been the familiarity of the terminal. Now, Apple is making a lot of hardware decisions that I don't like. Having used WSL daily for several months now, it's the game changer. My next laptop will probably be a PC, and I can only say this because of WSL.

Your next laptop will be a personal computer?

I believe they meant PC as in PC (Windows) vs Mac. I've encountered a lot of people who use PC Windows Machine interchangeably.
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