Re: [Xen-users] [REQUEST] Request for Xen Users to Attempt Jean David Techer's Xen 4.2-unstable VGA Passthrough Documentation

["Pasi Kärkkäinen" <pasik@iki.fi>]

On Sat, Mar 31, 2012 at 04:08:09PM -0400, Casey DeLorme wrote:
>    Hi Pasi,
>    I can confirm that their GPU Passthrough works with consumer models, they
>    visited my college and presented a 30 minute demonstration video where
>    they acknowledged this.

Yes, XenClient works with consumer models, like I wrote earlier.
XenServer GPU passthru doesn't.

>    Wei stated that XenClient ahs a "customized ATI component", and I am quite
>    certain he is aware our discussion is about consumer models.
>

Note that some/most of those "customized tweaks" to make XenClient work
are not in upstream Xen repositories and also not in XenServer. 
XenClient is a customized product for some specific chipsets/laptops.

XenClient and XenServer have totally different way of working related to graphics passthru stuff.

>    XenClient comes with XenDesktop, they market to the on-the-go businessman
>    so it was designed with laptops in mind, but I am quite sure it would run
>    on a tower.
>

I wouldn't count on that.. afaik XenClient has pretty limited hardware support/certification.

-- Pasi

>    ~Casey
>    On Sat, Mar 31, 2012 at 11:11 AM, Pasi Kärkkäinen <[1]pasik@iki.fi> wrote:
> 
>      On Sat, Mar 31, 2012 at 04:35:32PM +0200, Kristijan Le??nik wrote:
>      >    Hi,
>      >    does such patch exists?Â
>      >    i am working on this for quite some time now, and didn't came
>      across any
>      >    ATI patch, only for nvidia
>      >
> 
>      Yes it's available on the xen-devel mailinglist archives,
>      and iirc also on the xen vga passthru wiki page.
> 
>      I think the link/url was already posted to this thread once.
> 
>      >    as i understand that ATI should work out of the box or am i
>      mistaking?Â
>      >
> 
>      Some ATI cards work as *secondary* without extra patches,
>      but passing them as *primary* requires a patch to make the
>      ATI specific VBIOS stuff work properly.
> 
>      -- Pasi
> 
>      >    Best Regards,
>      >    Kristijan LeÄ*nik
>      >
>      >    On Sat, Mar 31, 2012 at 1:19 PM, Pasi KÃ*rkkÃ*inen
>      <[1][2]pasik@iki.fi>
>      >    wrote:
>      >
>      >      On Sat, Mar 31, 2012 at 01:06:37PM +0200, Kristijan Le??nik
>      wrote:
>      >      > Â  Â Hi,
>      >      > Â  Â i was looking hard to get this thing working, and i
>      somehow
>      >      manage to get
>      >      > Â  Â two ATI graphic card working under Windows 7 and Debian 6
>      DomU,
>      >      > Â  Â what i learn from all this trying, that the most important
>      thing
>      >      is the
>      >      > Â  Â motherboard!
>      >      > Â  Â i had i7 860 with VT-D, but it was hard to find working
>      VT-D
>      >      motherboard,
>      >      > Â  Â i try gigabyte P55-USB3 with beta bios from gigabyte and i
>      got
>      >      working 3D
>      >      > Â  Â drivers for a few minutes and then the DomU would crash,
>      >      > Â  Â then i wanted to try asus, but they said that P55 chipset
>      doesnt
>      >      support
>      >      > Â  Â VT-D functions, then i look what David uses and get a MSI
>      >      motherboard and
>      >      > Â  Â its default bios has got VT-D to enable/disable
>      >      > Â  Â currenty i have:
>      >      > Â  Â i7 860
>      >      > Â  Â MSI P55 GD85
>      >      > Â  Â ATI H6670 - working 3D
>      >      > Â  Â ATI H5830 - working 3D
>      >      > Â  Â Debian 6.0, custom kernel 3.1
>      >      > Â  Â Xen 4.2 unstable ( from repo 2. march? )
>      >      > Â  Â Windows 7 64bit - virtual
>      >      > Â  Â no extra patches
>      >      > Â  Â but how i get it to work is strange, if i enable
>      #gfx_passthru=1
>      >      then
>      >      > Â  Â virtual machine wont start
>      >      >
>      >
>      >      gfx_passthru=1 makes the passthru gfx card primary in the VM,
>      >      so you need the additional ATI gfx passthru patch so that the
>      VBIOS
>      >      passthru works.
>      >
>      >      without gfx_passthru=1 the virtual emulated gfx is primary.
>      >      -- Pasi
>      >
>      > References
>      >
>      >    Visible links
>      >    1. mailto:[3]pasik@iki.fi
> 
> References
> 
>    Visible links
>    1. mailto:pasik@iki.fi
>    2. mailto:pasik@iki.fi
>    3. mailto:pasik@iki.fi