vmware is laggy

[Shazbot]

Hi this is my first Post to Linux.com.
I just installed vmware player and made a vm with Manjaro20. I was dissapointed with vmware. it is laggy and jumpy and not smooth at all. am I doing something wrong?
I have the open source tools installed but it's still laggy.

 

[KGIII]

What are the specs of the host OS?

Have you tried VirtualBox?

 

[Shazbot]

It's a laptop with an Intel core i7 proc with 4 logical cores, 2.6 or so ghz. 8 gigs of ram. 320gig hardrive and linux mint 20 as the host OS.

 

[Shazbot]

I tried virtual box too but that was even worse.

 

[KGIII]

Those specs should be fine for running a VM. In your BIOS, you'll have two options for virtualization. Have you turned those on?

 

[Shazbot]

Im using an HP laptop. it has a weird BIOS. It wont let me change anything accept the boot device. But I think I have virtualization on.

 

[KGIII]

Then, I've no idea why it'd be slow. Your specs are just fine for running a single¹ VM. You can try playing with the modes (in VirtualBox) to see if that helps. It's under acceleration in the system section of the settings. That's all I can think of. In VMware, you can see if ticking the option to Virtualize Intel Vt- ... in the settings helps.

¹ It won't be fast, by any stretch of the imagination - but it should run just fine, without any stutter or freezing. It's just a Manjaro instance, so not particularly demanding.

 

[Shazbot]

Well thanks for the info. I'll try to tweak it and see if I can get it to run smoothly

 

[Shazbot]

I just looked at Vmware hardware settings and Intel VT-x and IOMMU is not available to select so maybe it's disabled in my bios. that might be the problem. thanks

 

[KGIII]

I am still unsure of how you couldn't be let into the BIOS. I've owned a number of HP products over the years and never had an issue. During the boot process, try ESC and F2. F12 is (if my memory serves) the boot device menu with most HP computers.

 

[Shazbot]

You were right. I guess I just wasn't looking at the BIOS correctly. I saw that virtualization technology was enabled in my BIOS. I installed a new OS on my computer but I just never messed with the BIOS. Maybe it's my Distrobution of Linux.

 

[Shazbot]

I was messing with my settigns and I managed to get the Intel vt-x and IOMMU turned on in my virtual machine. And I increased the cpu cores form 2 to 3 and now it's a lot smoother and the cpu usage has gone way down. thanks for the help you pointed me in the right direction.