Re: Nvidia 9500GT Xen VGA passthru

["Pasi Kärkkäinen" <pasik@iki.fi>]

On Sun, Jan 30, 2011 at 12:42:56AM -0500, Peter van der Maas wrote:
> I really have not played with too much after the proof of concept.  I do recall something eventually breaking the config, perhaps a Xen update.  I've since put the hardware to better use, although I am still intrigued by Xen.  At the time, I was working with a team that was giving serious consideration to virtualizing their platform, and what better way to learn than dig in and get my hands dirty.
> 
> I tried to include as much detail at the time, with the plethora of different Xen builds, BIOS's updates, etc.
> 
> If someone has something specific I can try to help, but doubtful I will be of any use.  For example, I did not realize Xen 4.x was even released.  Recent projects I've been working on do not lend themselves well to virtualization; however, I might have to give Xen 4.0 shot - just to play, of course.  There were some serious changes happening with Xen, the Linux kernel, and KVM when I stopped playing. 
> 

Ok.

I mainly meant if you remember what custom patches did you have to use/create? 
Most probably you had to do some vBar=pBar hacking, right? 

I guess I'll have to try this myself one day and document the process
with current Xen versions..

-- Pasi


> Sorry I could not be of more help.
> 
> Peter van der Maas
> peter&pjv-c.com
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Pasi Kärkkäinen [mailto:pasik@iki.fi] 
> Sent: Saturday, January 29, 2011 2:04 PM
> To: Peter van der Maas
> Cc: xen-users@lists.xensource.com; anish.mailing.list@gmail.com; xen-devel@lists.xensource.com
> Subject: Nvidia 9500GT Xen VGA passthru
> 
> 
> Hello Peter,
> 
> Some people have been asking for tips about Nvidia Xen VGA passthru,
> so maybe you could help? 
> 
> Could you post the exact steps you did? 
> 
> Have you tried with Xen 4.0.x after your initial experiments in 2009? 
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> -- Pasi
> 
> On Mon, Jan 26, 2009 at 02:16:32PM -0500, Peter J. van der Maas wrote:
> >    I am happy to announce that I have successfully (and finally!) been able
> >    to pass a PCIe graphics card via VT-d to a Windows XP HVM DomU.
> > 
> > 
> > 
> >    About time!
> > 
> > 
> > 
> >    Config:
> > 
> >    -Intel Q6600 Core 2 Quad-Core, G0 stepping (I think)
> > 
> >    -Intel DQ35JO Motherboard, Q35 Chipset, BIOS v.991 (1/9/09), VT and VT-d
> >    enabled
> > 
> >    -nVidia 9500GT (for VT-d passthrough - DomU)
> > 
> >    -nVidia GeForce2 MX200 (Dom0 console)
> > 
> >    -Xen (build: xen-unstable, recent as of ~ 1/25/09 1:00AM-EST)
> > 
> >    -Dom0: Linux-2.6.18.8-xen (via xen-unstable.hg)
> > 
> >    -DomU: Windows XP (pro, sp3, 32-bit)
> > 
> > 
> > 
> >    Once the VT-d bugs were recently corrected (thank you, xen-devel!),
> >    everything went fairly smoothly.  Still very buggy yet (its
> >    xen-unstable!), but overall it works.
> > 
> > 
> > 
> >    Make sure support for the PCI-backend is compiled into the kernel (not
> >    just a module) and that you have your pciback.hide options in grub
> >    (late-binding may work, but I haven't tried).
> > 
> > 
> > 
> >    Good luck!
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> >    -Peter van der Maas
> 
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