[corrsfan]

Hey alex, ive been reading your blog, and made a start already. if this works i could sell on at least one of the nucs ive got.
Ill stick to ubuntu server as thats what im comfortable with, but ill use that as a guide to getting things going.
My names also alex. In my work there happens to be three of us alex's in a line back to back/facing each other. Gets a bit confusing when someone shouts "alex"!

[asa79]

Looks very similar to the linuxmce server and terminal client type set up

[Kamerat]

Just got my ESXi box to run a Ubuntu 13.10 VM with AMD open source drivers with VDPAU support. The drawbacks are that you have to patch and recompile the kernel and extract your graphic card bios.

https://communities.vmware.com/message/2326762#2326762
(The HD 2400 XT is only UVD 1, so no VDPAU support. I'm now running a HD 6450 and can confirm that VDPAU works.)

[maelstromm]

After several weeks of hair pulling i was able to get the following working with Esxi 5.0 update 2. Once i get some freetime i will post the hardware I’m running

VM1— HTPC
Windows 7 running XBMC
Passthrough device(HD7750 and Apple IR receiver)

VM2— Nas
Synology DSM
Passthrough device(Onboard sata controller and PCI ethernet card)

Newbie to ESXi. Would like to know your setup and if you have any instructions for how you got all the VMs setup. I am looking for exactly the same kind of setup.

[Inexistence]

I have built a new VMware ESXI server and installed 32 gigs of ram inside. I also purchased a PCIE 4x video card for passthrough. I have been trying hard to get the buntuXBMC installed and running but I think I might have to use windows 7. Thats where I am. But I should have results soon. Like maybe this weekend.

[anemby]

Hi,
thanks for this thread.
It brings me up to a wonderful idea.
I am very new to esxi, vmware and xmbc.

Trying to do the following Setup

ESXI on Dell T3500 with 24GB RAM, Nvidia Quadro 2000 passthrough to Win7 x64
Installation of xbmc on this machine worked. Running very well.
I will now try to connect the output of the quadro to a hdmi - network transmitter so I may be able to transfer this inhouse to the tv
Second idea is to connect a second hdmi-network transmitter to the other port of the quadro and put the same picture to another tv
Don't know if this will work

Next issue will be to find a nice solution for a remote control. I don't like it to do this with my smartphone.
Any idea for this?

[xavor]

I've been putting this off, but one of my esxi hosts has the hardware to probably get this going. I'm on vacation this week and I was going to downsize my windows gaming machine to a vm anyway. Here's a website where a guy essentially did this already centralized gaming with his parts list.

Xeon X3460 w/ 24 GB ECC
Supermicro X8SIL
Radeon HD 5750

This is connected to a FreeNAS storage array among other systems.

[jang430]

Hello All,

I am very excited this thread is still up. Since this thread started, I think there have been significant changes already in the Xen/ VMware space. I read a lot of Xen able to passthrough VGA with 60 fps, no problem. Hope you guys can find a way to get it to work. As of the moment, sorry I can't chip in since i'm not very knowledgeable with linux.

My current setup.
Desktop PC - Windows 7 64-bit, with extended display (via hdmi) to receiver, then to TV. XBMC plays on the LCD TV.
2nd XBMC- AMD Bulldozer processor running on a separate physical box, connected to TV via hdmi.
Both machines streaming from my Unraid, which has the Holy Trinity :-) (sabnzbd, sickbeard and couchpotato).
Last thing this unraid does is it serves as a Plex server. When both TVs are busy, users stream movies from the same unraid box to iPad and Iphone.
I have another TV :-) hence, the interest.

If my understanding is correct, each TV doesn't have to have a pc (or any wdtv like device) to stream content from server. Extend a long display/ audio/ data signal cable to each TV and start playback. Someone please confirm this. There is also the advantage of having your XBMC available always as soon as you turn on TV to a certain input. No more waiting for it to boot since server will always be up. (I'd also like a confirmation on this.)

Thanks, keep up the good work guys!

[zamo]

Hi,

I hope people are still coming back to this post...

Is it necessary to use a PCIx card for this purpose?

Since USB3-to-HDMI adapters are available, is it at all possible for ESXi to recognize them as display adapters in which to passthrough to VMs?

And has anyone done this by which using USB3-to-HDMI adapters with an ESXi configuration?

Please confirm before I spend my life savings.

Thanks.