--- 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 -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 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