Well, it all seems to be working again. After some/much frustration, my linux VM is back in prime condition.

I’m used to VirtualBox, which has its own rigmarole to installing the “tools” to get good integration with the host OS (clipboard, non-laggy mouse, host-based screen resolution not just 800x600). But, I’ve moved on and rolled the dice on Win 10 Pro, in hopes it crashes less.

Hyper-V has its own “tools”. It took a while to get them working, but here I am. My rough list of Dos, for the future:

Do

  1. get Windows 10 Pro, because the Home edition that came on that laptop ain’t gonna run “the V”, as absolutely nobody says

  2. update Windows 10 to whatever latest developer update you can get your hands on

  3. enable/install the Hyper-V Manager

  4. use the manager’s Quick Create

  5. just use the latest Ubuntu

  6. bump the RAM, choose its own separate disk if you can (I have an old SATA drive, but NVMe would be even better)

  7. sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y && sudo shutdown -r now until it’s all good

  8. sudo apt autoremove

  9. try the microsoft/linux-vm-tools off GitHub (pretty sure this is necessary)

  10. follow those weird instructions concerning /etc/xrdp/xrdp.ini (port=-1 or something, some other thing=false)

  11. shut down linux, turn on all the integration/services in settings

  12. reboot linux a few times, try turning on/off Guest Services, with no luck

  13. finally reboot Windows

  14. seems to work now

And, well, that’s about all I’ve got to say about that.

I know it seems like a bunch of random, haphazard steps, but this is the second time I’ve stumbled down the exact same path, and it all seems to work now.