Re: [Xen-users] Identifying graphics cards for passthrough

[Paul Stimpson <paul@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 15/04/13 12:39, Peter Maloney wrote:
> On 2013-04-15 13:09, Paul Stimpson wrote:
> > Hi Peter,
> > > > I am already passing other PCI devices through to the guest
> > > > successfully. Say for example 00:06:00.0.
> > > >
> > > > How do I write this for the conf file please. I tried things like:
> > > >
> > > >       gfx_passthru=1
> > > >       pci=['0000:04:00.0','0000:04:00.1','0000:06:00.0']
> > > # 0 is secondary passthrough; 1 is primary passthrough
> > > gfx_passthru=0
> > > # without the 0000: (not sure if it is a problem though)
> > > pci=['04:00.0','04:00.1','06:00.0']
> > I tried this (I put the other card in /etc/modprobe.d/pciback.conf to
> > hide it) but Xen says the card is not assignable. When I run the
> > machine up, there is what looks like Linux boot logging on the second
> > monitor that stays there after the machine comes up.
> >
> > I'm obviously doing something wrong but, right now, I'm not sure what
> > it is.
> I'm not sure about using modprobe.d for this... modprobe would rely on
> the device being unbound before it would work. The boot line method
> works because nothing is bound before the boot. But modprobe would need
> an unbind too, not just a list of devices.
>
> What I use is this script I wrote (which is simple to use, because you
> don't need to edit your boot lines, or rebuild your kernel):
> http://wiki.xen.org/wiki/Bind_lib.bash
>
> As it says on the top of that page, xl has this functionality built in.
> I wrote that for xm.
Thank you for all your help.

We are using xl. I had some major progress yesterday. I did the following:

    * echo "0000:05:00.0" > 
/sys/bus/pci/devices/0000\:05\:00.0/driver/unbind
    * pci-assignable-add 05:00.0
    * pci-attach Windows-guest 05:00.0

The card then appeared in Windows. I had to access the VM via VNC as the 
AMD Catalyst driver has a wonderful feature that you can't install it 
unless the hardware is already in the machine and detected by the driver 
installer. It installed and, after a guest reboot, I got a lovely 
full-res Windows desktop on the right card's output.
My next challenge is to make it all work automatically. I tried adding 
"xen_pciback" to /etc/initramfs-tools/modules then doing an 
"update-initramfs -vu". After that I added "xen-pciback.passthrough=1 
xen-pciback.hide=(0000:00:1a.0)(0000:00:1d.0)(0000:05:00.0)(0000:05:00.1)(0000:06:00.0)(0000:08:00.0)" 
to the end of GRUB_CMDLINE_XEN in /etc/default/grub and fired off an 
update-grub. I did this because a colleague said this should work. It 
didn't so I added the matching pciback hide to 
/etc/modprobe.d/pciback.conf just in case as pciback was still a module. 
This also didn't work.
I feel like I'm making progress as I at least have it working manually. 
Was my colleague correct that adding the module to initramfs works or 
should I blow the cobwebs out of my brain and try to remember how to 
roll a custom kernel please?
Thanks,
Paul.






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