Re: [Xen-users] [REQUEST] Request for Xen Users to Attempt Jean David Techer's Xen 4.2-unstable VGA Passthrough Documentation

["Teo En Ming (Zhang Enming)" <singapore.mr.teo.en.ming@gmail.com>]

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On 30/03/2012 05:29, Casey DeLorme wrote:
> David,
>
> XenServer VGA Passthrough requires a paid/licensed copy, which costs 
> $2500, a bit out of my price range for experimentation.  Important to 
> note that the feature is not a part of the 30-day trial license.
>
> However, Citrix recently visited my college and I was able to preview 
> hardware access on a laptop one of the employees had, where they 
> swapped between Ubuntu and Windows with a hotkey, and various hardware 
> components including onboard GPU and the WebCam were accessible.
>
> In testing XenServer, I can say that if I had a business, that's the 
> product I would use.  In the past month having tried Xen and ESXi, I 
> was astonished with the ease of use for XenServer.
>
> As for Catalyst, version 12.2 (the latest currently) worked for me.
>
> Important to note that until I followed Andrews advice to omit the 
> Catalyst Control Center, the installation resulted in a BSOD.
>
> The solution, select "Custom" installation and uncheck the CCC.  After 
> the installation your first reboot should run some follow-up updates 
> via cmd, you need to reboot a second time for fully functional drivers.
>
> Also, I had underscan on my monitor so I went out on a limb and re-ran 
> the setup for Catalyst, and was able to get CCC installed with a 
> second run through, which allowed me to fix my underscan issue.
>
> My conclusion is that the CCC requires some driver functionality that 
> isn't available until after you install the drivers, this could be on 
> all systems or it might be related to how HVM's handle the PCI 
> devices, that much I can't say.
>
>
>
> Teo,
>
> I could be spouting nonsense, and if so I'm sure Wei can correct me, 
> but I am pretty sure AMD engineers have been contributing to Xen for a 
> while, and some patches have already been applied.  Obviously it isn't 
> flawless, I myself haven't gotten video at boot time, only at the 
> login screen.
>
> Mine works on 4.1.2, but it is possible that 4.1.0 had less of these 
> "patches" hence Sebastien's post.
>
> Also, I apologize as I did not properly word my opinion before.  VGA 
> Passthrough is new "for consumer components".  In 2010 the number of 
> desktop (not server) boards boasting VT-d functionality could probably 
> be counted on one hand.  To my understanding that means the technology 
> is at most 3 years old, still a baby in my opinion.
>
> I didn't mean that the technology hadn't been implemented into various 
> Hypervisors, just that it is clearly not a perfected feature.  If you 
> consider 3 years of consumer availability, dates become important when 
> researching.  Sebastien's post was May 2011, just shy of one year ago, 
> and Thomas's was in 2010.
>
> There are newer patches still for ATI in Xen 4.2, which I intend to 
> test over the next week.  I have NOT gotten ATI to work at boot time, 
> video starts at the login screen.

Dear Casey DeLorme,

I am sorry to say that I don't quite understand by what you say when you 
state that you haven't got ATI VGA card to work at boot time, video 
starts at the login screen. I am puzzled.

Do you think you could record your Xen VGA Passthrough computer with a 
video camera and upload your video to Youtube so that I can watch it?

Thank you very much.

-- 
Yours sincerely,

Mr. Teo En Ming (Zhang Enming)
Singapore


>
> I agree with Wei that drivers can contribute to BSOD's and errors, but 
> when an install doesn't fail but the hardware reacts the same as 
> before, I would like to assume the driver is irrelative.
>
>
> ~Casey
>
> On Thu, Mar 29, 2012 at 4:11 PM, Wei Huang <wei.huang2@amd.com 
> <mailto:wei.huang2@amd.com>> wrote:
>
>     On 03/29/2012 01:35 PM, Teo En Ming (Zhang Enming) wrote:
>>     Dear Casey DeLorme,
>>
>>     This guy, Sebastien Gauthier, also has the same problems as us.
>>     He was using Xen 4.1.0 and an ATI Radeon 4550. He applied Mr. Wei
>>     Huang's patch. After installing the latest ATI/AMD Catalyst
>>     drivers, he got a BSOD with Xen VGA Passthrough to Windows 7.
>>
>>     Please read Sebastien Gauthier's case here:
>>
>>     http://readlist.com/lists/lists.xensource.com/xen-users/11/59090.html
>>
>>     Hence Sebastien Gauthier reported Xen VGA Passthrough with
>>     PARTIAL SUCCESS, like us.
>>
>>     Dear Tobias Geiger,
>>
>>     You were saying that with ATI VGA cards, you do not need to apply
>>     any Xen VGA Passthrough patches. But this guy Sebastien Gauthier
>>     applied Mr. Wei Huang's patches to Xen 4.1.0 and got a BSOD after
>>     installing ATI Catalyst drivers. Sebastien Gauthier did not get
>>     100% success with Xen VGA Passthrough to Windows 7 using an ATI
>>     VGA card.
>>
>     Hi Teo,
>
>     The VBIOS patch I sent out did not work for all ATI cards. The
>     patch itself assumed certain behavior of GPU VBIOS. But this
>     doesn't apply to every GPU generation. From this perspective, my
>     patch isn't universal. Also there are many factors, some of which
>     are not in control by us (like graphics driver), can contribute to
>     BSOD you mentioned. I am not in a position to debug it for
>     everyone's card (as I don't have all cards).
>
>     Thanks,
>     -Wei
>
>>     -- 
>>     Yours sincerely,
>>
>>     Mr. Teo En Ming (Zhang Enming)
>>     Singapore
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>     On 29/03/2012 23:50, Teo En Ming (Zhang Enming) wrote:
>>>     On 29/03/2012 12:29, Casey DeLorme wrote:
>>>>     My mistake for not hitting "Reply to All", sorry.
>>>
>>>     No worries Casey.
>>>
>>>>
>>>>     It might be of some value to mention that my tests were with
>>>>     Windows 7, I have no interest in using XP anymore.  Also, I did
>>>>     all of my testing through remote VNC, not once did I actually
>>>>     get video, even 2D, working.
>>>
>>>     I bought 2 copies of Windows XP Home Edition in the past because
>>>     it is cheap, at S$145. I did not buy Windows 7 because it is
>>>     expensive. I got video working all right, but only 2D. I cannot
>>>     get 3D graphics working.
>>>
>>>>     However, my errors are exactly as you described:
>>>>
>>>>     1.  Windows recognizes the model (GTX 460), not "unknown PCI
>>>>     device".
>>>>     2.  Device code 43.
>>>>     3.  No resources assigned to the device.
>>>
>>>     We have the same set of errors.
>>>
>>>>
>>>>     Might be worth mentioning, I was able to run the latest nVidia
>>>>     driver installation without errors, but after rebooting there
>>>>     was no change, same error code, still no video.
>>>
>>>     Same situation here with the latest NVIDIA drivers. But I only
>>>     have 2D video working. I can't get 3D video to work.
>>>
>>>>      To me this would be evidence that driver version isn't a
>>>>     problem, but then again I didn't have anything actually working.
>>>
>>>     I agree that driver version isn't a problem. Something is wrong
>>>     somewhere.
>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>     I am an IT student in college, so my experience is limited to
>>>>     mostly programming with very little knowledge of the
>>>>     inner-workings of hardware.  So, forgive me for being unable to
>>>>     help with regards to memory addresses on the cards.
>>>
>>>     I am hoping that Intel engineers and Xen developers would be
>>>     able to help.
>>>
>>>>
>>>>     I've been using *nix for about 4 years, and Windows since I my
>>>>     age was a single digit.  I have had experience setting up
>>>>     server features such as web, database, and application servers
>>>>     but I am still green when it comes to kernel or hardware
>>>>     configuration.
>>>
>>>     I started learning Linux/UNIX since the year 2005, that is about
>>>     7 years ago. I started using Windows when it was version 3.1. I
>>>     love compiling the latest Linux kernel and assembling my own
>>>     computer hardware.
>>>
>>>>
>>>>     My Xen adventure began 35 days ago, and it is no exaggeration
>>>>     to say that in those 35 days I have learned more about linux
>>>>     than I had in the past two years.  I like challenges as much as
>>>>     the next IT person, but I ran out of time and ideas for
>>>>     debugging my nVidia problems.  The nVidia stretch of my
>>>>     adventure lasted for 24 days through 54 fresh linux
>>>>     installations accompanied by over 200~ pages worth of
>>>>     documented failures and not a single pixel sighted.
>>>
>>>     Why not make your documentation into PDF? It is a very popular
>>>     document format.
>>>
>>>>
>>>>     The ATI card took me a day, less than 12 hours of relatively
>>>>     easy debugging by comparison to the aforementioned testing.  I
>>>>     do fully understanding financial constraints, but it is a
>>>>     working solution and worth mentioning.  I do not know what the
>>>>     prices are like in Singapore, but in the states I was able to
>>>>     buy an ATI Radeon HD 6870 for $160.  For me it came down to
>>>>     weighing my objectives against my curiosity.
>>>
>>>     That ATI Radeon HD 6870 would cost me $279, I think.
>>>
>>>>
>>>>     If you do continue your nVidia endeavors I wish you success,
>>>>     but as in my former email VGA passthrough is a new frontier,
>>>>     not even Guru's like David may not be able to help beyond their
>>>>     own hardware experiences.
>>>
>>>     I don't think VGA passthrough is a new frontier. Oracle
>>>     VirtualBox and Linux KVM supports VGA passthrough as well. Xen
>>>     ATI VGA Passthrough works out of the box, as Tobias Geiger
>>>     suggested, but NVIDIA requires patches.
>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>     Documentation is one problem I agree with you on 100%.  I came
>>>>     into this knowing relatively little about Linux & hardware, and
>>>>     nothing about Xen, and most every guide I found assumed I had
>>>>     been in a deep relationship with Linux for many years and had a
>>>>     basic understanding of Xen commands.
>>>
>>>     I started learning Xen since the year 2007, which is about 5
>>>     years ago.
>>>
>>>>
>>>>     Like you, I intend to use those documented failures as well as
>>>>     my recent success to create a comprehensive guide with
>>>>     photographs, screen captures, and perhaps even videos going
>>>>     from "assembled computer" to "Complete Xen Dom0 /w HVM & VGA
>>>>     Passthrough".  Provided the wiki will allow me to upload the
>>>>     screenshots, I'll be certain to post it there.
>>>
>>>     I will be looking forward to your documentation and videos.
>>>     Right now Xen wiki allows uploading image files and PDF files.
>>>     Why not create a PDF document and share it with all of us? It is
>>>     known as portable document format and is very popular, but it
>>>     appears that xen mailing lists don't like PDF format.
>>>
>>>     _*I don't like wiki pages because anybody can edit and
>>>     fundamentally mess up the wiki pages, even providing bogus and
>>>     erroneous information. That's why I don't like creating wiki
>>>     pages. Anybody can edit and mess up the information you have
>>>     painstakingly created on the wiki pages. So please take note.*_
>>>
>>>     -- 
>>>     Yours sincerely,
>>>
>>>     Mr. Teo En Ming (Zhang Enming)
>>>     Singapore
>>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>>     ~Casey
>>>>
>>>>     On Wed, Mar 28, 2012 at 10:21 PM, Teo En Ming (Zhang Enming)
>>>>     <singapore.mr.teo.en.ming@gmail.com
>>>>     <mailto:singapore.mr.teo.en.ming@gmail.com>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>         Dearest Casey DeLorme,
>>>>
>>>>         Thank you very very much for your kind feedback and input.
>>>>         I would also like to thank Mr. Tobias Geiger, again, for
>>>>         providing his suggestion on exposing the fourth memory
>>>>         region in tools/firmware/hvmloader/acpi/dsdt.asl. _In any
>>>>         case, either exposing the first 3 memory regions only or
>>>>         exposing all the 4 memory regions does not work._ Sadly,
>>>>         Tobias Geiger is unable to help me further.
>>>>
>>>>         I have asked Jean David Techer, what about the 4th PCI
>>>>         memory region? Why only expose the first 3 PCI memory
>>>>         regions? I don't understand, of course. Jean David Techer
>>>>         did not reply to my question.
>>>>
>>>>         I have decided to post your prompt reply to the xen-users
>>>>         and xen-devel mailing lists, in case people think that I am
>>>>         finding fault with Jean David Techer, or trying to irritate
>>>>         him, or trying to make him angry, or trying to aggravate
>>>>         him. Jean David Techer replied me with an email saying that
>>>>         I _spent too much time_ and _too bent_ on solving the
>>>>         yellow exclamation mark glitch for my NVIDIA Geforce 8400GS
>>>>         in Device Manager in Windows 8 Consumer Preview and Windows
>>>>         XP Home Edition, and that I sent *_stupid_* requests.
>>>>         Stupid requests? Did he read my emails carefully, word by word?
>>>>
>>>>         Casey DeLorme, please, can I confirm with you again that
>>>>         you are getting the following errors after applying Jean
>>>>         David Techer's Xen 4.2-unstable VGA Passthrough patches:
>>>>
>>>>         *_(1) Yellow exclamation mark besides your NVIDIA GTX 460
>>>>         in Device Manager
>>>>         (2) Windows has stopped this device because it has reported
>>>>         problems. (Code 43)
>>>>         (3) This device isn't using any resources because it has a
>>>>         problem._*
>>>>
>>>>         Jean David Techer insists that our technical issues are due
>>>>         to a NVIDIA driver problem. He insists that you have to
>>>>         install NVIDIA driver versions 275.33 WHQL and 275.50 BETA.
>>>>         Any other NVIDIA driver versions (above 280.XX) will not
>>>>         work, according to Jean David Techer. *_However, I have
>>>>         tried installing NVIDIA driver versions 275.33 and 275.50
>>>>         from www.softpedia.com <http://www.softpedia.com>, as he
>>>>         suggested, but it caused my Windows XP Home Edition HVM
>>>>         virtual machine to be destroyed/terminated/crash after a
>>>>         few minutes and my dom0 to crash as well._* NVIDIA driver
>>>>         versions 275.33 and 275.50 for Windows XP 32-bit is not
>>>>         available from the official NVIDIA website.
>>>>
>>>>         So it is definitely not a NVIDIA driver problem. I suspect
>>>>         that the technical issue has to do with *_MMIO BARs
>>>>         pBAR:vBAR 1:1 matching_*. I don't think there is any
>>>>         problem with vgabios-pt.bin extracted out from our NVIDIA
>>>>         VGA cards, because I have performed a "hexdump -C" on my
>>>>         extracted VGA BIOS EEPROM, or Electrically Erasable
>>>>         Programmable Read Only Memory.
>>>>
>>>>         Secondly, it does seem strange that Jean David Techer was
>>>>         able to attain *_100%_*, ie. *_perfect success_* with Xen
>>>>         4.2-unstable VGA Passthrough to his Windows XP 32-bit and
>>>>         64-bit HVM domU. Have you watched his Youtube video? It is
>>>>         only 4 minutes. Please do watch Jean David Techer's Youtube
>>>>         video at the following URL:
>>>>
>>>>         Jean David Techer's Xen 4.2-unstable VGA Passthrough to
>>>>         Windows XP x64 HVM domU Youtube video link:
>>>>         *_http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SaYO0ERW44_*
>>>>
>>>>         I am *_appalled_* and *_baffle__d_* that he has attained
>>>>         *_100% success_* while both of us have only attained
>>>>         *_partial succes__s_* (*_i.e. less than 100%_*) on Xen
>>>>         4.2-unstable VGA Passthrough to Windows 8 Consumer Preview
>>>>         and Windows XP.
>>>>
>>>>         *_Solving the yellow exclamation mark issue is important
>>>>         because we would not be able to run 3D graphics benchmarks
>>>>         and play 3D games without solving it. I am not sending
>>>>         silly emails about some yellow marks, as Jean David Techer
>>>>         suggested. I can't even run Unigine Heaven DX11, and
>>>>         3dmark11 3D display benchmarks, because of the yellow
>>>>         exclamation mark for NVIDIA Geforce 8400 GS in Device
>>>>         Manager._*
>>>>
>>>>         Casey DeLorme, with your report on relatively easy success
>>>>         with ATI VGA cards, I think I would go the ATI way, but I
>>>>         would have to spend a few hundred dollars compared to my
>>>>         cheap SGD$44 NVIDIA Geforce 8400 GS card. And while
>>>>         deciding to go the ATI way, I would also like to continue
>>>>         troubleshooting with the NVIDIA problem, because I consider
>>>>         it to be a technical challenge.
>>>>
>>>>         In essence, Jean David Techner is considered to be a
>>>>         "boss", or business owner, or proprietor, or technopreneur,
>>>>         or entrepreneur, or technical support officer, or customer
>>>>         support officer, or IT helpdesk engineer, providing
>>>>         services like his forward-ported Xen 4.2-unstable VGA
>>>>         Passthrough patches and the documentation on his blog. I
>>>>         repost Jean David Techer's official website here:
>>>>
>>>>         Jean David Techer's Xen 4.2-unstable VGA Passthrough blog:
>>>>         *_http://www.davidgis.fr/blog/index.php?2011/12/07/860-xen-42unstable-patches-for-vga-pass-through_*
>>>>
>>>>         Jean David Techer's official website is his business venture.
>>>>
>>>>         Basically, I am Jean David Techer's *_"customer"_*, trying
>>>>         to obtain technical support from him. Of course, he is
>>>>         *_not obliged_* to provide technical support to me since he
>>>>         is providing *_free_* services. It is, after all, an open
>>>>         source software project. Nobody is obliged to provide
>>>>         anybody with technical support. *_To do Jean David Techer
>>>>         justice, he replied most of my questions while avoiding
>>>>         some of my questions._*
>>>>
>>>>         Finally, I have also failed to obtain technical support
>>>>         from Xen developers like Ian Campbell from *_Citrix
>>>>         Corporation_* and Konrad Wilk from *_Oracle Corporation_*.
>>>>         _*I have always provided all the steps which I have taken,
>>>>         the configuration files and necessary documentation, and
>>>>         kernel messages and error logs*_ to xen-users and xen-devel
>>>>         mailing lists, but they keep insisting I did not provide
>>>>         the information they required. I wondered why. I think they
>>>>         did not read my emails carefully. They told me they would
>>>>         not reply to me any more if I do not provide the
>>>>         information they requested. _*But the problem is that I
>>>>         have always provided information they requested!*_ I think
>>>>         they missed some of my emails, or did not read my emails
>>>>         carefully enough. I am an *_ardent supporter_* and
>>>>         *_SERIOUS software tester_* for open source Xen
>>>>         virtualization/hypervisor but they treated me lightly. _*I
>>>>         always read my emails WORD BY WORD.*_ I have even went to
>>>>         the point of making a video on the *_BUG_* and uploading my
>>>>         video to Youtube. The video is only THREE minutes.
>>>>
>>>>         _*As everybody says, a picture is worth a thousand words. A
>>>>         video is worth a BILLION words!*_
>>>>
>>>>         I have also failed to obtain technical support from Xen
>>>>         developers regarding Xen 4.2-unstable VGA Passthrough.
>>>>
>>>>         I am hoping Xen 4.2 would have official support for Xen VGA
>>>>         Passthrough for both NVIDIA and ATI cards.
>>>>
>>>>         Casey DeLorme, thank you very much once again. I will be
>>>>         making changes to my Xen, Linux Kernel and Xen VGA
>>>>         Passthrough Documentation and will be releasing Version 1.7
>>>>         shortly. Jean David Techer's documentation assumes some
>>>>         level of advanced Linux technical knowledge, so I am
>>>>         writing documentation on my own so that everybody, not just
>>>>         advanced Linux and Xen users, can follow. I have made
>>>>         references to Jean David Techer's documentation in my own
>>>>         documentation.
>>>>
>>>>         I would be very happy if people would use my documentation.
>>>>         Of course, it satisfies my ego and my vanity. Haha.
>>>>
>>>>         I have been un-employed for nearly three years now, and I
>>>>         would hesitate to spend a few hundred dollars on an ATI VGA
>>>>         card. I quit my job as an IT engineer 3 years ago because
>>>>         my father suffered from lacunar infarct, or more commonly
>>>>         known as stroke. My NVIDIA Geforce 8400 GS costs only S$44.
>>>>         Please understand why I hesitate to buy an ATI VGA card.
>>>>         The cheapest one costs SGD$279.
>>>>
>>>>         I have a diploma in Mechanical+Electronics engineering from
>>>>         Singapore Polytechnic and a Bachelor's degree in Mechanical
>>>>         Engineering from the National University of Singapore. But
>>>>         I do not have qualifications in Computer Science or
>>>>         Information Technology. I have worked as an Information
>>>>         Technology engineer in Defense Science and Technology
>>>>         Agency, Ministry of Defense, Singapore, National Computer
>>>>         Systems Pte Ltd, Asiasoft Online Pte Ltd, and Ishinemax
>>>>         Singapore Pte Ltd.
>>>>
>>>>         Google search terms: Frenchman Jean David Techer,
>>>>         Singaporean Teo En Ming's Xen, Linux Kernel and Xen VGA
>>>>         Passthrough Documentation, Xen 4.2-unstable VGA Passthrough
>>>>         to Windows 8 Consumer Preview and Windows XP HVM Virtual
>>>>         Machines
>>>>
>>>>         Thank you very much for reading my lengthy email. I am
>>>>         always courteous, saying "Please help me. Please. Please.
>>>>         Please." and "Thank you very much for your kind assistance"
>>>>         in my emails.
>>>>
>>>>         Thank you very much.
>>>>
>>>>         -- 
>>>>         Yours sincerely,
>>>>         Mr. Teo En Ming (Zhang Enming)
>>>>         Singapore Citizen
>>>>
>>>>         cc: His Excellency The Prime Minister Mr. Lee Hsien Loong,
>>>>         Prime Minister's Office, Republic of Singapore
>>>>
>>>>         On 29/03/2012 03:53, Casey DeLorme wrote:
>>>>>         Hi Teo,
>>>>>
>>>>>         I tried David's patch files a while ago *_without
>>>>>         success_*.  I had Xen compiled with the patch files and my
>>>>>         GTX 460 VGA BIOS rom, _*but I got the same as you, either
>>>>>         a BSOD or Code 43 in Device Manager.*_
>>>>>
>>>>>         You sound plenty competent, but it's important to remember
>>>>>         that you are pioneering a technology that for consumers is
>>>>>         still in its infancy.  Very few people are testing this
>>>>>         with consumer equipment, so finding results seems to be a
>>>>>         rarity.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>         _______________________________________________
>>>>         Xen-users mailing list
>>>>         Xen-users@lists.xen.org <mailto:Xen-users@lists.xen.org>
>>>>         http://lists.xen.org/xen-users
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>
>



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