review for whonix performance

anonymityISright · December 15, 2015, 9:56pm

Continuing the discussion from Whonix performance:

as i already personal test that, whonix without hardware virtuallization & ssd disk runs very slow , so slow that is unusable . you need at least a installed host in a ssd disk connected via sata in motherboard , a cpu & motherboard thats support hardware virtualization , and ok when speak for cpu you can’t run 2 guests with a cpu that run at 1.8 Ghz for example , you need at least 2.3 Ghz , because we speak for 3 operating systems that run in the same pc at the same time. another is ram , at least total system ram for whonix is 2 Gb . And for ubuntu virtualization i have my personal story again . i have 2.9 Ghz cpu with hardware virtualization & extended page hardware virtualization , in ssd via sata , 10 Gb ram in dual channel , whonix runs very fast , i have and debian gnome guest that runs in the same time with whonix fast to . when i was install ubuntu server on virtualbox with unity it was very slow! i replace then unity with gnome classic (it is more fast shell -it have lower system requirements) it was faster than unity but defiantly notable slower that whonix guests for example! i replace again gnome classic with lxde shell , that time i success the performance , lxde is very fast desktop shell because have from the lowest system requirements , that time i run ubuntu 14.04 lxde virtualized & is very fast to .
if have not hardware virtualization and maybe system installed on ssd its bad idea to run virtual pcs ,

i write that with another user account before months , maby more than year , now i am back in new forums of whonix with new account for posting (i was dellete the old one account) So from then i make new steps and i have new tips\infos :
there is no need to have ssd for whonix if have linux host with xfce desktop environment , as i allready have that with 2.3 Ghz cpu and runs prety smooth. xfce is very configurable, have a lot apps\packages and is very lightweight. That i was write for unity belong in the reality so, unity is the most heavyweight desktop environment for linux, need 1 Ghz cpu and 1 Gb ram , even if the system is installed on ssd sata and with 2.9 ghz cpu, a guest unity inside virtualbox will run slow, with xfce will run mutch smoother. *not a good idea to runs xfce on whonix guests for security reasons but can do on host. Another new comparing is that kvm is smoother than virtualbox with whonix , note for the curent version of whonix kvm must disable surfaces on guests , otherwise will run very slower even fom virtualbox with whonix. * Always with cpu that support hardware virtualization , and enabled in bios & virtualbox.

Ego · December 15, 2015, 10:28pm

Good day,

To be honest, as far as I’m concerned, there can and will never be fixed hardware recommendations for something like Whonix. There are just to many variables.

I for one am able to use Whonix on a Celeron dual core HP Elitebook, with a clock speed of 1.7GHz, just 4GB of RAM and a lousy 5400rpm HDD, without any problems in its standard configuration, with KDE as an desktop environment, Debian as a host (I’ve faced problems with the graphics driver in Fedora and subsequently Qubes) and KVM as the hypervisor. However, other people with just slightly different system, might have a completely different experience, simply due to the fact that technology changes rapidly. The architecture used in for example CPUs has changed massively over the years, which makes it hard to really give any proper recommendation. Some systems I’ve used with Whonix, like the above mentioned, are far from powerful, yet work like a charm, while others with seemingly higher specs, were more problematic.

That is why in this case, I’d recommend to simply test the limits your machine is capable of and make a decision based on that.

Have a nice day,

Ego

anonymityISright · December 20, 2015, 7:34pm

i believe you , you have cpu with vt-x obviously ’ if you have not i don’t know if i believe you , as i didn’t personalty test kvm whonix with no hardware virtualization , i test it on virtualbox and it was defiantly unusable because of very very slow performance , and i have read for kvm that if having not cpu that support hardware virtualization will run slow . Yes there are celerons that support vt-x but not all celerons , and as for your host desktop environment you write that you use kde right ? if yes , test please the xfce there and you will see notable rise on performance kvm , i promise .
thanks for reply.

Ego · December 20, 2015, 7:41pm

Good day,

on the host, I use GNOME 3 as a desktop, have tested XFCE, though didn’t see that much of a gain to be honest and to be honest, I just enjoy the feel of GNOME far more. KDE is only used in the Whonix gateway and workstation.

Adding to that, yes, my CPU does support hardware virtualization, as like you’ve said, this otherwise probably wouldn’t work out, it is a HP Probook, so that shouldn’t wonder anyone.

Have a nice day,

Ego

anonymityISright · December 20, 2015, 7:54pm

Ego you have right , there is not mutch diference in gnome 3 from xfce , they have allmost the same require for hardware . As for cpu , probably guests can run with lower hardware requirements compare with when runs physical (not virtualized) , for that can runs whonix in a system with 1.7 Ghz cpu.