Secondary VGA Passthrough, nvidia, win7: success report.

["-+= Lta =+-" <lta@akr.fm>]

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Hello xen-devel,


This is my first post on this list and as such i might be breaking some
explicit/implicit rules and i apologize if it's the case. Maybe this list
isn't the exact right kind of place where to post this kind of stuff, but i
know lots of us are browsing this list as the primary source of
documentation for xen.

I've read many times windows 7 isn't the right os to run on top of xen.
Most of the guy's who are running vga passthru are recommanding to use
windows xp, and i've never seen any success report of vga passthru on
windows 7 so i thought it was important to post mine.

Anyway, here's my hardware setup :
- Gigabyte GA-990X-UD3
- AMD Phenom II X6 1075T Processor
- MSI Cyclone NVIDIA Geforce GTX 460

On the software side i'm using :

- Debian testing as Dom0
- Xen-4.1 (debian version 4.1.2-2) with what's now referred to as "Tobias
Geiger patches" (
http://old-list-archives.xen.org/archives/html/xen-devel/2010-05/msg00441.html)
(You have to edit the patches, changing the path to some qemu source files
for them to apply)
- debian's kernel  3.1.5, compiled to include the pciback driver. Here's
the output of `cat /boot/my3.1.5config | grep -i xen`
CONFIG_XEN=y
CONFIG_XEN_DOM0=y
CONFIG_XEN_PRIVILEGED_GUEST=y
CONFIG_XEN_PVHVM=y
CONFIG_XEN_MAX_DOMAIN_MEMORY=128
CONFIG_XEN_SAVE_RESTORE=y
# CONFIG_XEN_DEBUG_FS is not set
# CONFIG_XEN_DEBUG is not set
CONFIG_PCI_XEN=y
CONFIG_XEN_PCIDEV_FRONTEND=m
CONFIG_XEN_BLKDEV_FRONTEND=m
CONFIG_XEN_BLKDEV_BACKEND=m
CONFIG_NETXEN_NIC=m
CONFIG_XEN_NETDEV_FRONTEND=m
CONFIG_XEN_NETDEV_BACKEND=m
CONFIG_INPUT_XEN_KBDDEV_FRONTEND=y
CONFIG_HVC_XEN=y
CONFIG_XEN_WDT=m
CONFIG_XEN_FBDEV_FRONTEND=y
# Xen driver support
CONFIG_XEN_BALLOON=y
# CONFIG_XEN_BALLOON_MEMORY_HOTPLUG is not set
CONFIG_XEN_SCRUB_PAGES=y
CONFIG_XEN_DEV_EVTCHN=m
CONFIG_XEN_BACKEND=y
CONFIG_XENFS=m
CONFIG_XEN_COMPAT_XENFS=y
CONFIG_XEN_SYS_HYPERVISOR=y
CONFIG_XEN_XENBUS_FRONTEND=y
CONFIG_XEN_GNTDEV=m
CONFIG_XEN_GRANT_DEV_ALLOC=m
CONFIG_XEN_PLATFORM_PCI=m
CONFIG_SWIOTLB_XEN=y
CONFIG_XEN_PCIDEV_BACKEND=y

The kernel boot options are 'nomodeset xen-pciback.passthrough=1
xen-pciback.hide=(01:00.0)(01:00.1)'

- Here's my win7 domU config file :

kernel = "/usr/lib/xen-4.1/boot/hvmloader"
builder='hvm'
memory = 3072
name = "w7"
vif = [ 'type=netfront,bridge=xenbr0, mac=00:16:3e:35:49:62']
disk = [ 'phy:/dev/w7-xen/system,hda,w', 'phy:/dev/w7-xen/appz,hdb,w']
device_model = '/usr/lib/xen-4.1/bin/qemu-dm'
boot="dc"

pci=['01:00.0','01:00.1']
gfx_passthru=1

vcpus=6
acpi=1
sdl=0
vnc=1
vncconsole=1
vncpasswd=''
serial='pty'
usbdevice='tablet'
pae=1
pci_msitranslate=0
pci_power_mgmt=0
acpi_s3 = 1
acpi_s4 = 1
on_poweroff = 'destroy'
on_reboot   = 'restart'
on_crash    = 'restart'
xen_platform_pci=1
hpet = 1
viridian=1
monitor=1
xen_extended_power_mgmt=2
hpet=1

What's important here for the Nvidia drivers to work and not give a nice
nvlddmkm.sys BSOD is:
pci_msitranslate=0
pci_power_mgmt=0

- Windows 7 32bits
- Nvidia drivers 275.33
- You have to manually run aero speed test or force aero to start by using
registry entries for the desktop not to be laggy

The windows 7 domU is running fine with no performance decrease noticeable,
although i've not yet played intensive gpu video game, i'm still pretty
confident they'll run fine.

Anyway. i've still some problems i shall report in separate posts :
- The PCI bus topology isn't preserved, and the gfx card, which is plugged
on 01:00 becomes 05:00 on domU.
- I'm passing through an RME Hdsp / hammerfall pci sound card to the domU
and while it is working fine on his own, there's a strange interaction
between it and the GPLPV network driver. When i start playing sound, the
network instantly cease working. It starts back as soon as i stop playing
audio.

That's all folks,

Cheers,
Lta

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