Xen project Mailing List

Torsten

First of all could you CC Xen-users mailinglist each time you sent me a mail? Anyone on mailinglist could help you too :)

Xen 4.2 + VGA PassThrough (+ optionnal PVHVM) work like a charm with a Linux domU (Ubuntu Lucid 10.04)

http://www.davidgis.fr/blog/index.php?2011/12/25/867-xen-42-unstable-xen-pvhvm-on-linux-hvm-vga-pass-through-nvidia-it-works-for-linux-316

There is no problem to start, shutdown, reboot the domU whereas it is not the case for Windows. (ATI is a better choice for Windows)

Mplayer with VDPAU and VLC 2.0 with hw acceleration work well :)

However if you are a new Xen user if is a little complicated to do all required steps.

I try to put all informations here:

a) It is not worth testing (and going on ...) if your processor is not a (vt-d / iommu) capable ( see google)

Intel --> Vt-d

AMD--> IOMMU

moreover you have to be sure that your motherboard is able to support Vt-d/IOMMU. (I mean that your motherboard has a BIOS version which allows Vt-d/IOMMU option for you processor.

Please see

http://wiki.xen.org/wiki/VTdHowTo

and

http://wiki.xen.org/wiki/Xen_VGA_Passthrough

For example

my proc is i5-2400

my motherboard is H61MU-E35 B3 (7680)

I need to upgrade my BIOS/UEFI to allow Intel Vt-d feature.

if (a) is not Ok then stop here it is not worth trying b) , c) ....

if (a) = yes then let's go

b) if a= yes then you need to extract the EEPROM (VGA BIOS) from your graphic card. I did it for my GTX 560 TI. So it should work for your own card (GT530)

A few months ago I did my test for my old GT 440. So it should work for GT 530.

It implies that you have to use nvtools to extract VGA BIOS. So use google to see how to do that.

c) You have to build Xen from sources and apply the instructions from my first mail.

Kind regards.

David.

De : Torsten Vogelreuter <Torsten_Vogelreuter@xxxxxxxxx>
Ã : David TECHER <davidtecher@xxxxxxxx>
EnvoyÃ le : Lundi 27 fÃvrier 2012 22h59
Objet : AW: [Xen-users] Re : Last pachs for Xen VGA PAssthrough NVIIDA(revision >=24798)

Hi,

i am also trying to get an nvidia card (Quadro 600 or GT530) running under XCP 1.5 beta. No way ootb. IÂam new with xen so I thought at least, a good idea will be in trying latest kernel 3.2 with Ubuntu precise plus xen repo.

But when I understand you correctly, it is anyway necessary to build an nvidia bios and it is still not possible without modifikations?

I need it because I am using a yavdr distri Oneric with needs VDPAU â

Other thought was, to install Yavdr and add the repository for xen, so that the yavdr is running as DOM0 and the other systems doesnÂt need a native graficcard. Maybe this is easyer for a beginner?

Thx

Greetings

Torsten

Von: xen-users-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:xen-users-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] Im Auftrag von David TECHER
Gesendet: Montag, 27. Februar 2012 21:01
An: Tim Stowell
Cc: Xen
Betreff: [Xen-users] Re : Last pachs for Xen VGA PAssthrough NVIIDA(revision >=24798)

XP yes

Windows 7...no. to complicated when you install nvidia driver.

It should be better to use a ATI card for Windows 7.

De : Tim Stowell <stowellt@xxxxxxxxx>
Ã : David TECHER <davidtecher@xxxxxxxx>
EnvoyÃ le : Lundi 27 fÃvrier 2012 18h39
Objet : Re: [Xen-users] Last pachs for Xen VGA PAssthrough NVIIDA (revision >=24798)

Thanks for this information, will it work with a Windows 7 guest?

On Mon, Feb 27, 2012 at 9:01 AM, David TECHER <davidtecher@xxxxxxxx> wrote:

Here are the last patchs.

My personal recommendation: If you have a ATI graphic card or if you have the intention to buy one, good choice :)

I maintain patches for NVIDIA because I like to play on Linux PVHVM domU for gaming and multimedia :)

So I could have one domU for gaming and another one for multimedia

Q:Why are there new patches?
R: A few modifications was introduced from revision 24782 to 24785. A new file is tools/firmware/hvmloader/rombios.c. It implies that this file has to be patched too.

Should work with Xen revision >=24798.

As usual

a) Exrtact EEPROM for your NVIDIA graphic card (nvtools ...)

b) Download Xen 4.2 unstable

rev=24888

hg clone -r $rev http://xenbits.xensource.com/staging/xen-unstable.hg/ xen-unstable.hg-rev-${rev}

c) make a first build for tools

cd xen-unstable.hg-rev-${rev}/

./configure

cd tools

make && make clean

cd ..

d) apply patches

wget -q http://www.davidgis.fr/download/xen-4.2_rev24798_gfx-passthrough-patchs.tar.bz2 && \
tar xvjf xen-4.2_rev24798_gfx-passthrough-patchs.tar.bz2 && \
for file in $(ls xen-4.2_rev24798_gfx-passthrough-patchs/*);do patch -p1 < $file;done

e) Modify the values assigned to your graphic card to tools/firmware/hvmloader/acpi/dsdt.asl

see http://www.davidgis.fr/blog/index.php?2011/12/07/860-xen-42unstable-patches-for-vga-pass-through
Section "6. Quick instructions to install Xen with patches " - # 5

f)Copy your EEPROM for graphic gard (VGA BIOS)

cp -/path/tovgabios-pt.bin tools/firmware/vgabios/vgabios-pt.bin

g) Compil and install

make xen && make tools && make stubdom \
make xen && make tools && make stubdom

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[Xen-users] Re : AW: Re : Last pachs for Xen VGA PAssthrough NVIIDA(revision >=24798)