INTEL GRAPHICS / KDE / REMOTE DESKTOP
Intel GPU Passthrough and KRDP
I wanted a KDE virtual machine that could use the host's Intel graphics hardware and give me a usable Full HD remote desktop. It took several attempts to get the GPU, display mode and desktop session to cooperate.
Getting the Intel GPU into the VM
After the CPU upgrade and VT-d checks, I passed the Intel integrated GPU through to the Linux guest. The early attempts kept an additional virtual graphics adapter alongside the Intel device, which led to KWin hangs and page-flip timeouts.
The stable arrangement uses the passed-through Intel GPU without a competing virtual display adapter.
Why the desktop stayed at low resolution
The guest could start, but it did not get a usable Full HD display mode. The kernel logs pointed to a missing EDID firmware file. I provided an EDID for 1920 × 1080 and made sure it was available during early boot. That fixed the resolution problem.
KRDP then had two separate issues. A KWallet interaction affected login after enabling automatic desktop login, while the remote image quality setting was responsible for a poor-looking picture. Both were adjusted and the remote session worked after a reboot.
What I verified about hardware encoding
The Intel graphics device worked for the guest, and I independently tested hardware H.264 encoding through FFmpeg. KRDP also reported VA-API use, and remote desktop worked at Full HD.
There is one measurement I couldn't make inside this VM: the virtual environment did not expose the GPU video-engine counters needed to see how much of KRDP's actual encoding workload went through Quick Sync. So hardware encoding capability is confirmed; per-frame KRDP hardware utilization was not measured.
What I would do differently
Next time I would first test the guest's display mode and EDID, then check the remote desktop settings, instead of changing several graphics devices together. The current lab setup also uses a convenience-oriented desktop login, which I would not copy unchanged to a more exposed machine.