XenVGAPassthroughTestedAdapters up to date?

XenVGAPassthroughTestedAdapters up to date?

[Eric Stein]

Hi,

I've been looking to virtualize a Win7 guest and a Gentoo Linux guest
side by side, each having access to one video card.  However, most of
the consumer cards I've looked at are either somewhat out of date
(Nvidia 8800 GTS) or not listed on the wiki page for VGA passthrough:

http://wiki.xensource.com/xenwiki/XenVGAPassthroughTestedAdapters

Based on my reading of the pages around VTd and IOMMU, I should be able
to use the patches to accomplish my goal if I choose a card that works
with Xen (or use one of the workarounds, for instance vBAR=pBAR).

I'm inclined to think this page is out of date as I've heard mention
that various Intel IGD onboard cards have support... is there a
different resource I should be looking to to determine which cards I
should consider buying?

Eric Stein

Re: XenVGAPassthroughTestedAdapters up to date?

[Pasi Kärkkäinen]

On Thu, Oct 07, 2010 at 01:06:31AM -0400, Eric Stein wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I've been looking to virtualize a Win7 guest and a Gentoo Linux guest
> side by side, each having access to one video card.  However, most of
> the consumer cards I've looked at are either somewhat out of date
> (Nvidia 8800 GTS) or not listed on the wiki page for VGA passthrough:
> 
> http://wiki.xensource.com/xenwiki/XenVGAPassthroughTestedAdapters
> 
> Based on my reading of the pages around VTd and IOMMU, I should be able
> to use the patches to accomplish my goal if I choose a card that works
> with Xen (or use one of the workarounds, for instance vBAR=pBAR).
> 
> I'm inclined to think this page is out of date as I've heard mention
> that various Intel IGD onboard cards have support... is there a
> different resource I should be looking to to determine which cards I
> should consider buying?
> 

Yep, that wiki page is unfortunately very out-of-date.
If you know a list of tested adapters I can add them to the wiki.

-- Pasi

Re: XenVGAPassthroughTestedAdapters up to date?

[Jean Guyader]

On 7 October 2010 08:57, Pasi Kärkkäinen <pasik@iki.fi> wrote:
> On Thu, Oct 07, 2010 at 01:06:31AM -0400, Eric Stein wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> I've been looking to virtualize a Win7 guest and a Gentoo Linux guest
>> side by side, each having access to one video card.  However, most of
>> the consumer cards I've looked at are either somewhat out of date
>> (Nvidia 8800 GTS) or not listed on the wiki page for VGA passthrough:
>>
>> http://wiki.xensource.com/xenwiki/XenVGAPassthroughTestedAdapters
>>
>> Based on my reading of the pages around VTd and IOMMU, I should be able
>> to use the patches to accomplish my goal if I choose a card that works
>> with Xen (or use one of the workarounds, for instance vBAR=pBAR).
>>
>> I'm inclined to think this page is out of date as I've heard mention
>> that various Intel IGD onboard cards have support... is there a
>> different resource I should be looking to to determine which cards I
>> should consider buying?
>>
>
> Yep, that wiki page is unfortunately very out-of-date.
> If you know a list of tested adapters I can add them to the wiki.
>

ATI HD4550, ATI HD5750 work fine with the latest catalyst driver (10-9).

Jean

Re: XenVGAPassthroughTestedAdapters up to date?

[Pasi Kärkkäinen]

On Thu, Oct 07, 2010 at 11:26:15AM +0100, Jean Guyader wrote:
> On 7 October 2010 08:57, Pasi Kärkkäinen <pasik@iki.fi> wrote:
> > On Thu, Oct 07, 2010 at 01:06:31AM -0400, Eric Stein wrote:
> >> Hi,
> >>
> >> I've been looking to virtualize a Win7 guest and a Gentoo Linux guest
> >> side by side, each having access to one video card.  However, most of
> >> the consumer cards I've looked at are either somewhat out of date
> >> (Nvidia 8800 GTS) or not listed on the wiki page for VGA passthrough:
> >>
> >> http://wiki.xensource.com/xenwiki/XenVGAPassthroughTestedAdapters
> >>
> >> Based on my reading of the pages around VTd and IOMMU, I should be able
> >> to use the patches to accomplish my goal if I choose a card that works
> >> with Xen (or use one of the workarounds, for instance vBAR=pBAR).
> >>
> >> I'm inclined to think this page is out of date as I've heard mention
> >> that various Intel IGD onboard cards have support... is there a
> >> different resource I should be looking to to determine which cards I
> >> should consider buying?
> >>
> >
> > Yep, that wiki page is unfortunately very out-of-date.
> > If you know a list of tested adapters I can add them to the wiki.
> >
> 
> ATI HD4550, ATI HD5750 work fine with the latest catalyst driver (10-9).
> 

Could you please tell more about the hardware, and also software versions used.
See the wiki page for details.

-- Pasi

Re: XenVGAPassthroughTestedAdapters up to date?

[Jean Guyader]

On 7 October 2010 11:49, Pasi Kärkkäinen <pasik@iki.fi> wrote:
> On Thu, Oct 07, 2010 at 11:26:15AM +0100, Jean Guyader wrote:
>> On 7 October 2010 08:57, Pasi Kärkkäinen <pasik@iki.fi> wrote:
>> > On Thu, Oct 07, 2010 at 01:06:31AM -0400, Eric Stein wrote:
>> >> Hi,
>> >>
>> >> I've been looking to virtualize a Win7 guest and a Gentoo Linux guest
>> >> side by side, each having access to one video card.  However, most of
>> >> the consumer cards I've looked at are either somewhat out of date
>> >> (Nvidia 8800 GTS) or not listed on the wiki page for VGA passthrough:
>> >>
>> >> http://wiki.xensource.com/xenwiki/XenVGAPassthroughTestedAdapters
>> >>
>> >> Based on my reading of the pages around VTd and IOMMU, I should be able
>> >> to use the patches to accomplish my goal if I choose a card that works
>> >> with Xen (or use one of the workarounds, for instance vBAR=pBAR).
>> >>
>> >> I'm inclined to think this page is out of date as I've heard mention
>> >> that various Intel IGD onboard cards have support... is there a
>> >> different resource I should be looking to to determine which cards I
>> >> should consider buying?
>> >>
>> >
>> > Yep, that wiki page is unfortunately very out-of-date.
>> > If you know a list of tested adapters I can add them to the wiki.
>> >
>>
>> ATI HD4550, ATI HD5750 work fine with the latest catalyst driver (10-9).
>>
>
> Could you please tell more about the hardware, and also software versions used.
> See the wiki page for details.
>

I tried on win7 32b, haven't tried XP. The hardware was an Ibex Peak Ibex.
The xen version was xen 3.4-testing.

Jean

Re: XenVGAPassthroughTestedAdapters up to date?

[Pasi Kärkkäinen]

On Thu, Oct 07, 2010 at 11:52:09AM +0100, Jean Guyader wrote:
> On 7 October 2010 11:49, Pasi Kärkkäinen <pasik@iki.fi> wrote:
> > On Thu, Oct 07, 2010 at 11:26:15AM +0100, Jean Guyader wrote:
> >> On 7 October 2010 08:57, Pasi Kärkkäinen <pasik@iki.fi> wrote:
> >> > On Thu, Oct 07, 2010 at 01:06:31AM -0400, Eric Stein wrote:
> >> >> Hi,
> >> >>
> >> >> I've been looking to virtualize a Win7 guest and a Gentoo Linux guest
> >> >> side by side, each having access to one video card.  However, most of
> >> >> the consumer cards I've looked at are either somewhat out of date
> >> >> (Nvidia 8800 GTS) or not listed on the wiki page for VGA passthrough:
> >> >>
> >> >> http://wiki.xensource.com/xenwiki/XenVGAPassthroughTestedAdapters
> >> >>
> >> >> Based on my reading of the pages around VTd and IOMMU, I should be able
> >> >> to use the patches to accomplish my goal if I choose a card that works
> >> >> with Xen (or use one of the workarounds, for instance vBAR=pBAR).
> >> >>
> >> >> I'm inclined to think this page is out of date as I've heard mention
> >> >> that various Intel IGD onboard cards have support... is there a
> >> >> different resource I should be looking to to determine which cards I
> >> >> should consider buying?
> >> >>
> >> >
> >> > Yep, that wiki page is unfortunately very out-of-date.
> >> > If you know a list of tested adapters I can add them to the wiki.
> >> >
> >>
> >> ATI HD4550, ATI HD5750 work fine with the latest catalyst driver (10-9).
> >>
> >
> > Could you please tell more about the hardware, and also software versions used.
> > See the wiki page for details.
> >
> 
> I tried on win7 32b, haven't tried XP. The hardware was an Ibex Peak Ibex.
> The xen version was xen 3.4-testing.
> 

What patches did you apply? VGA passthru was first introduced in Xen 4.0,
it wasn't in Xen 3.4. Or has it been added recently? 

Also, what dom0 kernel did you use? 
What grub settings (for device hiding etc)? 

-- Pasi

Re: XenVGAPassthroughTestedAdapters up to date?

[Jean Guyader]

On 7 October 2010 12:03, Pasi Kärkkäinen <pasik@iki.fi> wrote:
> On Thu, Oct 07, 2010 at 11:52:09AM +0100, Jean Guyader wrote:
>> On 7 October 2010 11:49, Pasi Kärkkäinen <pasik@iki.fi> wrote:
>> > On Thu, Oct 07, 2010 at 11:26:15AM +0100, Jean Guyader wrote:
>> >> On 7 October 2010 08:57, Pasi Kärkkäinen <pasik@iki.fi> wrote:
>> >> > On Thu, Oct 07, 2010 at 01:06:31AM -0400, Eric Stein wrote:
>> >> >> Hi,
>> >> >>
>> >> >> I've been looking to virtualize a Win7 guest and a Gentoo Linux guest
>> >> >> side by side, each having access to one video card.  However, most of
>> >> >> the consumer cards I've looked at are either somewhat out of date
>> >> >> (Nvidia 8800 GTS) or not listed on the wiki page for VGA passthrough:
>> >> >>
>> >> >> http://wiki.xensource.com/xenwiki/XenVGAPassthroughTestedAdapters
>> >> >>
>> >> >> Based on my reading of the pages around VTd and IOMMU, I should be able
>> >> >> to use the patches to accomplish my goal if I choose a card that works
>> >> >> with Xen (or use one of the workarounds, for instance vBAR=pBAR).
>> >> >>
>> >> >> I'm inclined to think this page is out of date as I've heard mention
>> >> >> that various Intel IGD onboard cards have support... is there a
>> >> >> different resource I should be looking to to determine which cards I
>> >> >> should consider buying?
>> >> >>
>> >> >
>> >> > Yep, that wiki page is unfortunately very out-of-date.
>> >> > If you know a list of tested adapters I can add them to the wiki.
>> >> >
>> >>
>> >> ATI HD4550, ATI HD5750 work fine with the latest catalyst driver (10-9).
>> >>
>> >
>> > Could you please tell more about the hardware, and also software versions used.
>> > See the wiki page for details.
>> >
>>
>> I tried on win7 32b, haven't tried XP. The hardware was an Ibex Peak Ibex.
>> The xen version was xen 3.4-testing.
>>
>
> What patches did you apply? VGA passthru was first introduced in Xen 4.0,
> it wasn't in Xen 3.4. Or has it been added recently?
>
> Also, what dom0 kernel did you use?
> What grub settings (for device hiding etc)?
>

I use normal device pass throught, I forgot to mentioned that was
passing it through as a secondary display adapter so no need to do any
fancy VGA tweak for that.

I used SLE 2.6.32 xen as dom0 + XCI patch queue.
I used pci back directly to hide the device from dom0 after boot (echo
the gpu BDF into sysfs).

Jean

Re: XenVGAPassthroughTestedAdapters up to date?

[hurenkam]

>> What patches did you apply? VGA passthru was first introduced in Xen 4.0,
>> it wasn't in Xen 3.4. Or has it been added recently?
>>
>> Also, what dom0 kernel did you use?
>> What grub settings (for device hiding etc)?
>>
> 
> I use normal device pass throught, I forgot to mentioned that was
> passing it through as a secondary display adapter so no need to do any
> fancy VGA tweak for that.
> 
> I used SLE 2.6.32 xen as dom0 + XCI patch queue.
> I used pci back directly to hide the device from dom0 after boot (echo
> the gpu BDF into sysfs).
> 
> Jean

I have a similar experience using Xen 4.0.1, with linux pvops kernel
(2.6.32).

Somehow, i never seemed to get the 'Bios boot' to work, however, when
passing these cards through to the DomU, then the following
combinations
seem to work fine once started:
- Ubuntu Lucid (64bit) + Catalyst (10.7 or 10.8)   (primary or
secondary)
- Windows XP (32bit) + Catalyst (10.7 or 10.8)     (primary, have not
tried as secondary)
- Windows 7 (64bit) + Catalyst 10.9                (primary, have not
tried as secondary)
Note that when trying the opensource driver on ubuntu, it exits with
errors, which seem
to indicate it can't find the Bios.

I have a Asus P7P55D-Evo mainboard, with two Asus EAH4350 graphic
cards, 
both cards are passed through to a domU, both don't show bios messages
on
boot (even when i use graphics passthru setting), but they work fine
with the installed drivers after the domains have booted.
For me, that's good enough ;-)


Regards,
Mark.