[Xen-users] Re: Exporting the graphics card to a domU

["Christopher Isip" <cmisip@xxxxxxxxx>]

Well, it seems what I am trying to achieve which is basically X11 in a
domU is not possible at this time with nvidia drivers anyway.  I tried
with both Ubuntu Hardy  and Centos 5 domU's.  With ubuntu, the nvidia
driver compiles but cannot load due to missing kprot symbols.  With
Centos5, it comiles and loads but I get :
Fatal server error:
xf86MapVidMem: Could not mmap framebuffer (0x000a0000,0x20000) (Bad address)

and a quick flash on the screen.

I cant even run a nvidia driver in dom0.  Everything seems ok and I
have a graphical boot, but as soon as the sytem tries to autologin,
then the computer crashes.

I think this is related to what I see in my other machine that runs
the mythtv backend domU.  For some reason, If I log in physically at
the machine, the mythtv domU crashes when I start it.  If I log in
remotely and start the mythtv domU, it starts fine.  Also If I start
my asterisk domU first, it fails to allocate memory to eth0 ( a
pciback ethernet card ).  So I start the mythtv domU and then the
asterisk domU and then the rest of the other domU's which having no
pciback devices, will boot up ok in any order.

This is what I still dont understand with xen configuration.  I
believe it has something to do with swiotlb.  One of my aims for
xenifying things is to be able to replicate the servers easily on
another machine should I have a catastrophic hardware failure, but I
feel that not knowing the nuances of swiotlb would impede this.  I
cant guarantee that I could replicate exactly the same memory
environment in a new machine, If I dont understand how things work in
the current machine.   Perhaps some xen gurus could provide insights.

Thanks
Chris


On 6/5/08, Christopher Isip <cmisip@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On Thu, Jun 5, 2008 at 6:01 PM, Christopher Isip <cmisip@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>>  I have a dual core mythfrontend only sytem with an nvidia graphics card.
>> There are no other video cards in the machine.  I am thinking of hiding
>> the
>> video card from dom0 so a domU could use it for mythfrontend output.  Is
>> this possible?
>>
>> I realize that the dom0 kernel needs to boot without a graphics card.  I
>> am
>> thinking If I need to do any dom0 work, I can  ssh to it or perhaps use
>> vnc.
>> Having mythtv encapsulated in a domU allows me  to upgrade without risk in
>> the future.  I already have the mythtv backend running happily in another
>> machine in a domU.
>>
>> Furthermore, I plan to add a domU in this machine that runs Windows XP so
>> I
>> can use a usb printer as a samba printer.  The printer is not supported in
>> linux.   I still dont know how I would be able to do this as from what
>> I've
>> read, you cant export a usb port to a xen domain.  I have the following in
>> /sbin/lspci:
>>
>> 00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82G33/G31/P35/P31 Express DRAM
>> Controller (rev 02)
>> 00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82G33/G31/P35/P31 Express PCI
>> Express
>> Root Port (rev 02)
>> 00:19.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82562V-2 10/100 Network
>> Connection (rev 02)
>> 00:1a.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI
>> Controller #4 (rev 02)
>> 00:1a.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI
>> Controller #5 (rev 02)
>> 00:1a.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI
>> Controller #6 (rev 02)
>> 00:1a.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB2 EHCI
>> Controller #2 (rev 02)
>> 00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) HD Audio
>> Controller (rev 02)
>> 00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI
>> Controller #1 (rev 02)
>> 00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI
>> Controller #2 (rev 02)
>> 00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI
>> Controller #3 (rev 02)
>> 00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB2 EHCI
>> Controller #1 (rev 02)
>> 00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev 92)
>> 00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801IR (ICH9R) LPC Interface
>> Controller (rev 02)
>> 00:1f.2 RAID bus controller: Intel Corporation 82801 SATA RAID Controller
>> (rev 02)
>> 00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) SMBus Controller
>> (rev
>> 02)
>> 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation G72 [GeForce 7300
>> LE]
>> (rev a1)
>>
>> Which makes me think that I could pciback just one of the usb controllers
>> to Windows XP and another one to the Mythtv domU (because I have a usb
>> remote).
>>
>> Is this going to work?
>>
>> Thanks
>> Chris
>>
>>
>
> Oh yeah, the audio device would have to be exported as well.
>
> Thanks
> Chris
>

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