Another successful story about XEN VGA passthrough - hardware can be added to wiki article

[Martin Behnke <martin.xenfan@gmail.com>]

Dear XEN community,

I would like to send you some informations about my used hardware to
passthrough a ATI graphics adapter.
Please update the article
http://wiki.xen.org/wiki/XenVGAPassthroughTestedAdapters with this
adapter.

I have to say:
GREAT!!! XEN 4.1.2 runs now since 8 weeks without any problems. (like
kernel oops or hanging Dom0s or DomUs).

I decided to use a  ATI HD5450 adapter because my first try with a
NVIDIA adapter failed completely. It was a
NVIDIA Geforce GT430 1GB RAM PCIe. I nearly tried all hints and how
to's - all without success. I could not figure out why. I have to say
that I liked nvidia and Linux, but now I switched to ATI.
My Dom0 uses the primary graphics adapter - Intel integrated graphics
- to provide a graphical interface to Dom0 to use the tool
virt-manager for managing all Dom0's.
The secondary graphics adapter is used for my home-used XEN all-in-one
NAS - VDR - DLNA Homeserver with xen-pciback :-)
The ATI HD5450 runs 'out of the box'. I had nothing special to do for
it - just compile and solve any compile errors.

My problems while installing:
- libpci-dev and pci-utils are mandatory for debian
- resolve all python-bindings for use xm list (python-xml)
- on 64Bit platforms all libs are located in /usr/lib64  - but all xen
related tools look at /usr/lib
(I had to move all xen libs to /usr/lib and symlink /usr/lib64 to /usr/lib )
- kernel bootoptions:
 multiboot /xen-4.1.2.gz dom0_mem=2048M iommu=1 xen-pciback.permissive
xen-pciback.passthrough=1
xen-pciback.hide=(0000:01:00.0)(0000:01:00.1)(0000:02:00.0)
- I had to pciback both PCI IDs to passthrough this ATI device


A short overview:

Dom0 host operating system:
Debian Wheezy 64bit with self compiled kernel 3.3.0-rc7

xen version:
XEN 4.1.2

Motherboard:
INTEL  DQ67OW (Intel Vt-d enabled)

CPU:
Intel Core i5 2400S (4 core)

lspci -v

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee
ATI Cedar PRO [Radeon HD 5450] (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
        Subsystem: PC Partner Limited Device e164
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 16
        Memory at d0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
        Memory at fe520000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=128K]
        I/O ports at e000 [size=256]
        Expansion ROM at fe500000 [disabled] [size=128K]
        Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 3
        Capabilities: [58] Express Legacy Endpoint, MSI 00
        Capabilities: [a0] MSI: Enable+ Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+
        Capabilities: [100] Vendor Specific Information: ID=0001 Rev=1
Len=010 <?>
        Capabilities: [150] Advanced Error Reporting
        Kernel driver in use: pciback

01:00.1 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI Cedar HDMI
Audio [Radeon HD 5400/6300 Series]
        Subsystem: PC Partner Limited Device aa68
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 17
        Memory at fe540000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
        Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 3
        Capabilities: [58] Express Legacy Endpoint, MSI 00
        Capabilities: [a0] MSI: Enable+ Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+
        Capabilities: [100] Vendor Specific Information: ID=0001 Rev=1
Len=010 <?>
        Capabilities: [150] Advanced Error Reporting
        Kernel driver in use: pciback


02:00.0 Multimedia controller: Philips Semiconductors SAA7146 (rev 01)
        Subsystem: KNC One Device 0022
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 16
        Memory at fe400000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=512]
        Kernel driver in use: pciback


Communication between DomU's:
- networkshares with samba and nfs
- bridged network based on a Intel e1000 NIC

+++++++++ DomU-01:

Windows7 32 bit, 4GB Ram, 50GB HDD imagefile

Hardware:
ATI Radeon HD5450

Catalyst Control Center:
Version: 2012.0611.1251.21046


+++++++++ DomU-02:
Ubuntu 32 bit, 2Gb RAM, 40 GB HDD imagefile

Hardware:
Satelco EasyWatch DVB-C





Regards,

Martin