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[Xen-devel] [PATCH] xl.cfg: gfx_passthru documentation improvements


  • To: xen-devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • From: Pasi Kärkkäinen <pasik@xxxxxx>
  • Date: Sun, 2 Sep 2012 08:35:49 +0300
  • Delivery-date: Sun, 02 Sep 2012 05:36:26 +0000
  • List-id: Xen developer discussion <xen-devel.lists.xen.org>

Hello,

xl.cfg.pod.5 documentation improvements:

- gfx_passthru: Document gfx_passthru makes the GPU become primary in the guest
  and other generic info about gfx_passthru.


Signed-off-by: Pasi Kärkkäinen <pasik@xxxxxx>

--- docs/man/xl.cfg.pod.5.orig1 2012-09-02 07:16:39.316782158 +0300
+++ docs/man/xl.cfg.pod.5       2012-09-02 08:26:40.081639087 +0300
@@ -968,7 +968,43 @@
 
 =item B<gfx_passthru=BOOLEAN>
 
-Enable graphics device PCI passthrough. XXX which device is passed through ?
+Enable graphics device PCI passthrough. This option makes the passthru
+graphics card become primary graphics card in the VM, so the Qemu emulated 
+graphics adapter is disabled, and the VNC console for the VM won't have
+any graphics output. All graphics output, including boot time Qemu BIOS
+messages from the VM, will go to the physical outputs of the passed thru
+physical graphics card.
+
+Graphics card PCI device to passthru is chosen with B<pci> option, 
+exactly in the same way as normal Xen PCI device passthru/assignment is done. 
+Note that gfx_passthru doesn't do any kind of sharing
+of the GPU, so you can only assign the GPU to one single VM at a time.
+
+gfx_passthru also enables various legacy VGA memory ranges, BARs, MMIOs, 
+and ioports to be passed thru to the VM, since those are required
+for correct operation of things like VGA BIOS, text mode, VBE, etc.
+
+Enabling gfx_passthru option also copies the physical graphics card 
+video bios to the guest memory, and executes the vbios in the guest 
+to get the graphics card initialized.
+
+Most graphics adapters require vendor specific tweaks for properly
+working graphics passthru. Xen currently includes necessary tweaks
+for Intel IGD (Integrated Graphics Device) GPUs.  
+
+Support for AMD/Nvidia gfx_passthru is not yet merged to Xen,
+but there are out-of-tree patches available.
+
+gfx_passthru is currently only supported with the qemu-xen-traditional
+device-model. Upstream qemu-xen device-model currently doesn't have
+support for gfx_passthru.
+
+Note that some graphics adapters (AMD/ATI cards, for example) don't
+necessarily require gfx_passthru option, so you can use the normal
+Xen PCI passthru to assign the graphics card as a secondary graphics card
+to the VM. Qemu emulated graphics card stays as the primary graphics card, 
+and you get VNC output from the Qemu-emulated primary adapter.
+
 
 =item B<nomigrate=BOOLEAN>

Attachment: xl.cfg.pod.5-gfx_passthru.patch
Description: Text Data

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