Hey all,

Just wanted to report that I still haven't received one crash after my 
adjustments yesterday. So far over 20+ hours of uptime~. I've also rebooted the 
VM/host a few times just to ensure that it is deterministically stable and so 
far zero issues. So this is pointing in a positive direction. I'm tempted to 
mark this as a stable set up but I'll need to play for longer to make that call.

Jonathan Vasquez
PGP: 34DA 858C 1447 509E C77A D49F FB85 90B7 C4CA 5279
Sent with ProtonMail Secure Email

On Sunday, September 21st, 2025 at 08:23, Jonathan Vasquez <[email protected]> 
wrote:

> System has been up for about 9h40m. Most of it idle and no crashes yet. I'm 
> gonna reboot the host and see if the stability still continues.
>
> Jonathan Vasquez
> PGP: 34DA 858C 1447 509E C77A D49F FB85 90B7 C4CA 5279
> Sent with ProtonMail Secure Email
>
> Sent from [Proton Mail](https://proton.me/mail/home) for Android.
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> On Saturday, 09/20/25 at 23:45 Jonathan Vasquez <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> Just finished beating the main story line in Cyberpunk 2077 in the VM. So 
>> far no crashes and it's been running for an hour. So this is a positive 
>> signal... we'll see what happens. I'll leave the VM running idle over night 
>> and see if it's still running in the morning. Stay safe all!
>>
>> Jonathan Vasquez
>> PGP: 34DA 858C 1447 509E C77A D49F FB85 90B7 C4CA 5279
>> Sent with ProtonMail Secure Email
>>
>> On Saturday, September 20th, 2025 at 22:28, Jonathan Vasquez 
>> <[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>>> I did a bunch of more experiments today and I was able to switch from using 
>>> the USB controller connected to the multi-functional bus that has the 
>>> integrated card, and switched to a separate USB controller that only has 
>>> USB ports. I'm hoping that this increases VM stability and that there may 
>>> have been some wires being crossed. This was the previous bus I was using 
>>> (I couldn't isolate just the USB functions, it had to be all or nothing for 
>>> it to function):
>>>
>>> vgapci0@pci0:18:0:0: class=0x030000 rev=0xc1 hdr=0x00 vendor=0x1002 
>>> device=0x164e subvendor=0x1043 subdevice=0x8877
>>> vendor = 'Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI]'
>>> device = 'Raphael'
>>> class = display
>>> subclass = VGA
>>> hdac0@pci0:18:0:1: class=0x040300 rev=0x00 hdr=0x00 vendor=0x1002 
>>> device=0x1640 subvendor=0x1043 subdevice=0x8877
>>> vendor = 'Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI]'
>>> device = 'Rembrandt Radeon High Definition Audio Controller'
>>> class = multimedia
>>> subclass = HDA
>>> none1@pci0:18:0:2: class=0x108000 rev=0x00 hdr=0x00 vendor=0x1022 
>>> device=0x1649 subvendor=0x1043 subdevice=0x8877
>>> vendor = 'Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD]'
>>> device = 'Family 19h PSP/CCP'
>>> class = encrypt/decrypt
>>> xhci1@pci0:18:0:3: class=0x0c0330 rev=0x00 hdr=0x00 vendor=0x1022 
>>> device=0x15b6 subvendor=0x1043 subdevice=0x8877
>>> vendor = 'Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD]'
>>> device = 'Raphael/Granite Ridge USB 3.1 xHCI'
>>> class = serial bus
>>> subclass = USB
>>> xhci2@pci0:18:0:4: class=0x0c0330 rev=0x00 hdr=0x00 vendor=0x1022 
>>> device=0x15b7 subvendor=0x1043 subdevice=0x8877
>>> vendor = 'Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD]'
>>> device = 'Raphael/Granite Ridge USB 3.1 xHCI'
>>> class = serial bus subclass = USB
>>>
>>> Although now I'm longer using this at all for USB functionality in the VM. 
>>> I've switched to:
>>>
>>> ppt2@pci0:13:0:0: class=0x0c0330 rev=0x01 hdr=0x00 vendor=0x1022 
>>> device=0x43f7 subvendor=0x1b21 subdevice=0x1142
>>> vendor = 'Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD]'
>>> device = '600 Series Chipset USB 3.2 Controller'
>>> class = serial bus subclass = USB
>>>
>>> Much cleaner and still contains a variety of high speed ports. Although 
>>> ultimately I'm just using one of them because I have a KVM connected to it 
>>> that allows me to plug in keyboard/mouse/3.5mm jack (audio)/ethernet all 
>>> through one USB wire. Although to remind everyone, I'm gaming in an offline 
>>> capacity to I intentionally mess up the IPv4 gateway so my VM can only 
>>> communicate internally (and I can sideload apps/games) but prevent 
>>> Microsoft from reaching my machine and collecting telemetry info, and doing 
>>> forced updates. Plus, I have no intention of moving to Windows 11 with all 
>>> of their new requirements and forced online activation (I know of the 
>>> workarounds, but I'm against on mandating a MSA on principle). People 
>>> should be able to fully use their machines even during installation/OOBE 
>>> without having to authenticate to a central server. Anyways, small rant 
>>> over lol.
>>>
>>> I'll update everyone on my progress with this re-configuration.
>>>
>>> Jonathan Vasquez
>>> PGP: 34DA 858C 1447 509E C77A D49F FB85 90B7 C4CA 5279
>>> Sent with ProtonMail Secure Email
>>>
>>> On Saturday, September 20th, 2025 at 20:02, Jonathan Vasquez 
>>> <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hey Nuno,
>>>>
>>>> - I'm not. I plugged in my monitor's HDMI cable directly into the GPU's 
>>>> HDMI port. Once bhyve starts up (if your passthrough is working correctly 
>>>> and your GPU's drivers are installed), it will output to your monitor. You 
>>>> would only need VNC for initial installation of Windows.
>>>> - I'm not sure of the NVIDIA case. I do know there is someone who blogged 
>>>> about how they got theirs working: 
>>>> https://dflund.se/~getz/Notes/2024/freebsd-gpu/
>>>>
>>>> Atm I'm currently trying to collect more info on why my bhyve VM randomly 
>>>> crashes sometimes. So far I've collected that the exit reason bhyve is 
>>>> showing is 0x60, which points to the following entries in the amd freebsd 
>>>> kernel sources:
>>>>
>>>> 0x60
>>>> https://github.com/freebsd/freebsd-src/blob/4c3a868d13c053ef173268cdfe1365978a282178/sys/amd64/vmm/amd/vmcb.h#L195
>>>> https://github.com/freebsd/freebsd-src/blob/4c3a868d13c053ef173268cdfe1365978a282178/sys/amd64/vmm/amd/vmcb.h#L128C1-L128C30
>>>>
>>>> XSETBV
>>>> https://github.com/freebsd/freebsd-src/blob/4c3a868d13c053ef173268cdfe1365978a282178/sys/amd64/vmm/amd/vmcb.h#L94
>>>>
>>>> I also asked Proton's Lumo+ AI what is 0x60 to see what it comes up with, 
>>>> it said the following:
>>>>
>>>> exit_reason[0] = 0x60 is the VM‑exit code that bhyve reports when the 
>>>> guest triggers the XSETBV instruction.
>>>> Why it happens
>>>>
>>>> XSETBV writes to the extended control register XCR0.
>>>> In Intel VMX (the virtualization technology bhyve uses on x86), execution 
>>>> of XSETBV is not allowed to run directly in the guest; the CPU forces a 
>>>> VM‑exit so the hypervisor can validate the operation.
>>>> bhyve records the exit reason as 0x60, which maps to the VMX exit reason 
>>>> “XSETBV” in the Intel specification.
>>>>
>>>> What it means for you
>>>>
>>>> The guest tried to enable or change AVX‑512 / XSAVE feature bits via 
>>>> XSETBV.
>>>> Because bhyve does not currently emulate that instruction, it aborts the 
>>>> guest’s instruction stream and reports the exit code.
>>>> In most cases the guest will continue after bhyve handles the exit, but if 
>>>> the hypervisor isn’t set up to emulate XSETBV you’ll see the VM stop or 
>>>> crash.
>>>>
>>>> Typical ways to deal with it
>>>>
>>>> Update bhyve – newer releases include basic XSETBV handling for common 
>>>> feature sets.
>>>> Adjust the guest’s CPU flags – start the VM with a CPU model that doesn’t 
>>>> expose the XSAVE/XGETBV features the guest expects (e.g., -c host vs. a 
>>>> specific model).
>>>> Patch bhyve – if you’re comfortable with C, you can add a handler for 
>>>> VMX_EXIT_REASON_XSETBV that either emulates the instruction or simply 
>>>> ignores it when the requested bits are already enabled.
>>>>
>>>> If you keep seeing the same exit repeatedly, it usually points to a 
>>>> mismatch between the guest’s expectations (often a modern Linux kernel or 
>>>> a Windows build that wants AVX‑512) and the capabilities bhyve is 
>>>> presenting. Aligning those expectations—either by tweaking the VM’s CPU 
>>>> configuration or by upgrading bhyve—generally resolves the issue.
>>>>
>>>> Jonathan Vasquez
>>>> PGP: 34DA 858C 1447 509E C77A D49F FB85 90B7 C4CA 5279
>>>> Sent with ProtonMail Secure Email
>>>>
>>>> On Saturday, September 20th, 2025 at 19:47, Nuno Teixeira 
>>>> <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Hello Jonathan!
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks for excellent quality videos on yt, I already subscribed it :)
>>>>>
>>>>> Just a quick questions:
>>>>>
>>>>> 1- Are you using freerdp3 to connect to win11pro? (Asking this because 
>>>>> vnc is very slow)
>>>>> 2- Do you know how is nvidia status compared to your use case?
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks!
>>>>>
>>>>> Jonathan Vasquez <[email protected]> escreveu (sábado, 20/09/2025 à(s) 
>>>>> 02:42):
>>>>>
>>>>>> Hey all, I've spent some time today doing a gaming demo. I've uploaded 
>>>>>> the video in 2K so you can get the maximum effect. It's been an 
>>>>>> interesting experience so far, and I'm going to try to make it my 
>>>>>> primary gaming machine. We'll see how it goes. It's definitely qwirky, 
>>>>>> and sometimes I need to reboot the VM 4-5 times before it "stabilizes" 
>>>>>> (which means the VM won't just randomly crash or have massive lag in 
>>>>>> game). I'll need to collect more data through play testing.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> You can take a look at the video here (I'll post timestamps in the video 
>>>>>> soon):
>>>>>>
>>>>>> https://youtu.be/_cz0RUAw5p8
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Jonathan Vasquez
>>>>>> PGP: 34DA 858C 1447 509E C77A D49F FB85 90B7 C4CA 5279
>>>>>> Sent with ProtonMail Secure Email
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Wednesday, September 17th, 2025 at 22:33, Jonathan Vasquez 
>>>>>> <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Alright! The YouTube Video is up. Let me know what you think. I'm 
>>>>>>> really excited about this.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> https://youtu.be/Ob4-v7dTJGs
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>>
>>>>> Nuno Teixeira
>>>>> FreeBSD UNIX: <[email protected]> Web: 
>>>>> [https://FreeBSD.org](https://freebsd.org/)

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