Using a Raspberry Pi as a Thin Client for Proxmox VMs

In this video, I setup a Raspberry Pi 2 as a thin client for virtual machines running in Proxmox Virtual Environment.

The method I use relies on the SPICE protocol, as opposed to VNC, RDP (Windows Remote Desktop), or any proprietary solutions. By using the SPICE display driver in Proxmox, we get a more feature-rich experience than VNC, and the session is handled entirely by the hypervisor, so it isn’t dependent on the operating system. Basic functionality should work without installing any drivers in the guest.

Combining this with a Raspberry Pi, and I have the building blocks for a low cost virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) solution.

Read the blog post on my website for all of the scripts and commands used to set this up:

I tested with both Ubuntu and Windows 10 guests, and performance was acceptable for everything but video playback. Windows also struggled during desktop animations, but without any graphical acceleration the Windows UI isn’t smooth on higher powered SPICE clients either. With Ubuntu guests and the Pi 2, performance is perfectly adequate for basic desktop tasks including web browsing, text editing, etc, but not low latency or smooth video. With Windows guests, full screen animation such as the login screen can cause noticeable stuttering of the thin client, but many programs are still usable. This could be improved with a newer Pi, but I don’t have any Pi 4’s to spare and they have been out of stock for months at this point. I’ll certainly revisit this topic once I can get a spare Pi 4.

I’ve taken steps to reduce the usability of the Raspberry Pi outside of its role as a thin client by running without a desktop environment and using kiosk mode of remote-viewer, but it shouldn’t be considered totally secure. It’s still possible for a user of the thin client to get to the Pi user’s shell, so you should take steps to further secure the installation if you’re using this in a scenario where the users are completely untrusted.

SPICE also supports other features I didn’t examine in this video but may in the future, including audio and USB passthrough. It should also work (without automatic display resizing or mode switching) without guest driver support, but I found that Windows 10 came with an incomplete driver and I needed to load the proper SPICE driver for the display/keyboard/mouse to work at all.

I apologize for the camera’s exposure during the Video Streaming segment, the camera started to struggle as the sun went down.

Timestamps:
00:00 – Intro
00:31 – VM Setup in Proxmox
03:25 – User Permissions in Proxmox
05:47 – Raspberry Pi Setup
09:07 – Thin Client Setup and Ubuntu Testing
15:09 – Windows Testing
15:49 – SPICE Video Streaming
17:32 – Start On Boot
19:13 – Conclusions

#proxmox
#raspberrypi
#thinclient
#vdi
Raspberry Pi is a trademark of Raspberry Pi Trading
Proxmox is a trademark of Proxmox Server Solutions GmbH

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