Talk:Xen VGA Passthrough Tested Adapters

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Revision as of 22:52, 24 January 2013 by Zman0900 (talk | contribs) (Added username)
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Testing XFX AMD HD7770

Xen 4.2-testing (4.2.1-rc1 changeset 25927), Ubuntu Kernel 3.5.0-18.29, Passthrough as Secondary

System Hardware: Dual Xeon 5620, Supermicro X8DTH-6f, 24GB DD3-1066 UDIMM ECC, 2x XFX AMD HD7770

XM toolstack:

Windows 7 DomU - System starts and works well. When DomU reboots it does not BSOD.

XL toolstack:

Windows 7 DomU works flawlessly on first boot. I have to reset the entire system after DomU shutdown/reboot so DomU will not BSOD.

BSOD: atikmdag.sys PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA


--Foreman 06:51, 26 November 2012 (UTC)

Powercolor PCS+ AMD HD7850

Xen version 4.2.0 (mockbuild@[unknown]) (gcc (GCC) 4.7.2 20121109 (Red Hat 4.7.2-8)) Thu Dec 13 23:19:03 UTC 2012

  • dom0 OS: Fedora 18 (UEFI boot)
  • dom0 kernel (pvops): 3.7.1-5.fc18.x86_64 (rebuilt with xen-pciback built in instead of default as module)
  • motherboard: ASRock Z77 Pro 4, UEFI firmware version 1.60, primary graphics set to integrated
  • cpu: Intel i7 3770
  • mem: 16GB 1600mhz ddr3
  • domU OS: Windows 8
  • domU storage: lvm

Passed through devices:

  • 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI Pitcairn PRO [Radeon HD 7800]
  • 01:00.1 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI Device aab0
  • 00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #1 (rev 04)
  • 04:00.0 Multimedia audio controller: C-Media Electronics Inc CMI8788 [Oxygen HD Audio]
  • 04:01.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8169 PCI Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 10)

Configuration used for xl: 

builder='hvm'
memory = 6144
vcpus=8
name = "win8"
#vif = ['type=vif, bridge=br0']
disk = ['phy:/dev/vg0/Windows8x64,ioemu:hda,w','phy:/dev/vg0/steam,ioemu:hdb,w','file:/mnt/data/iso/empty.iso,hdc:cdrom,r']
acpi = 1
boot="c"
sdl=0
serial='pty'
vnc=1
vnclisten='127.0.0.1'
vncunused=1
pci=['01:00.0','01:00.1','00:1d.0','04:00.0','04:01.0']
gfx_passthru=0
viridian=1
monitor=1
pci_power_mgmt=1
xen_platform_pci=1
pci_msitranslate=1
hpet=1
acpi=1
apic=1
pae=1

Experience:

domU only works with gfx_passthru=0, won't boot at all otherwise. The gfx drive win8 install automatically works fine. Attempting to install catalyst from amd freezes vm during "detecting graphics card" step. Using hdmi output, it for some reason scales display to 90%. I was able to fix this by extracting the catalyst installer and locating and running just the catalyst control center installer then using that to adjust scaling. I have the same problem as Foreman above where graphics driver causes a BSOD on the second boot of the vm if I don't reset the whole system in between. I have not tested the xm tool kit, but I will if time allows.

I installed the GPLPV drivers which worked well for the storage, but not so well for networking. I was using the standard realtec ioemu network card with no major issues except for slowness. After installing GPLPV and booting with /GPLPV, both it and the Xen nic showed up, but the ioemu nic was disable due to a resource error. The xen nic would work for anywhere from 10 seconds to 10 minutes, then start dropping all packets. Nothing short of reinstalling windows could get rid of the GPLPV drivers, so I just disabled the virtual nic and bought a real one to pass through which works perfectly.

Performance wise, it is great. For example, I was able to run Fallout New Vegas at Ultra settings close to 60 fps while also compiling a kernel in the dom0 using all cores. Stability is great too, vm has currently been running without any crashes for a little over 8 days.

--Zman0900 23 January 2013

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