[Xen-devel] VGA Passthrough Experience

[Jeff Mercer <jeff.mercer@xxxxxxxxx>]

This is my first time posting to the mailing list, so I hope I post everything that is needed.  I built a new computer to play around with VGA Passthrough and I got it working.  The wiki (http://wiki.xen.org/wiki/Xen_VGA_Passthrough_Tested_Adapters) said post details here.

The computer:

Motherboard: ASRock 890FX Deluxe5
CPU: AMD Phenom(tm) II X6 1090T Processor
Kernel: 3.0.6-gentoo (pvops)
Xen: 4.1.2
DomU Video Card:

Sapphire RADEON HD 6570 Graphics
07:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Device 6759
07:00.1 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc Device aa90

The ATI card is secondary to the computer (I have an Nvidia card for linux).  The ATI was passed through as a primary to the DomU
I passed through both PCI Id's since I wanted audio through the HDMI out as well.
Guest: Windows XP
Driver: Windows says the video is driver is 8.840.0.0 from 3/9/2011

Windows says the sound driver is 5.0.40001.9 from 7/13/2007

It was a bit of a pain to get working.  The Catalyst Drivers won't install (it hangs at 'Checking for Hardware').  I tried the version on the cd bundled with the card and the latest on AMD's website.  Neither would work.  I decided to click 'Update Driver' in Device Manager and point it down the expanded Catalyst path and it was able to find the driver and install it.  That got video to go out of the HDMI but not audio.  The same trick did not work with the audio device.  I ended up reverting to a snapshot prior to installing any drivers.  I allowed Windows to connect to the internet to find the audio drivers before even trying video.  Windows was able to find something (know idea what) and sound started working.  I then 'installed' the video drivers and both audio and video were working.  I was able to set the screen to 1920x1080.  The computer is hooked up to a 42" LCD TV in my living room.

I was able to install and play Spore and Star Wars: Empire at War.  Star Wars: Battlefront 2 installed and started but I was not able to actually play the game.  It would crash as soon as I started a game.  I have not tried any other games yet, but I am planning to.  Let me know if you need any other details or have any questions

-Jeff


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