RE: [Xen-devel] xci pci passthru video card flr etc

["Han, Weidong" <weidong.han@xxxxxxxxx>]

Andrew Lyon wrote:
> On Tue, Aug 18, 2009 at 9:13 AM, Han, Weidong<weidong.han@xxxxxxxxx>
> wrote: 
>> Andrew Lyon wrote:
>>> Hi,
>>> 
>>> I want to try using pci passthru to give a windows 7 hvm access to a
>>> dedicated video card, I've read all of the threads I can find about
>>> video passthru but I still have some questions:
>>> 
>>> I use rebased opensuse Xen patches to make the dom0 kernel,
>>> currently running 2.6.29 as there are networking problems with
>>> gplpv and 2.6.30, I believe it is necessary to use Function Level
>>> Reset to reset the graphics card before the hvm domU boots,
>>> otherwise it will be incorrectly initialized by the bios or dom0 ?
>>> and therefore will not function correctly, I plan to rebase the
>>> following patches to 
>>> 2.6.29/30 to enable FLR:
>>> 
>>> http://xenbits.xen.org/gitweb?p=xenclient/linux-2.6.27-pq.git;a=commit;h=50c08c0d3e499c5576e906ab5f0c9c234fba2493
>>> http://xenbits.xen.org/gitweb?p=xenclient/linux-2.6.27-pq.git;a=commit;h=b631b9005cd72b0e2e859dd1fab557a3015c8b58
>>> http://xenbits.xen.org/gitweb?p=xenclient/linux-2.6.27-pq.git;a=commit;h=36083d0755a740ed509ca9812db9576473bc4e8b
>>> 
>>> Are all 3 patches required? are any other patches required? what
>>> about patches to Xen? 
>>> 
>>> The http://xenbits.xen.org/gitweb?p=xenclient/linux-2.6.27-pq.git
>>> patchqueue includes pull's from other trees, is there anything in
>>> them that I need for FLR or other necessary new features?
>>> 
>>> I am currently running Xen 3.4 but plan to upgrade to the latest
>>> 3.4.1-rc before I try video passthru, I've already patched 3.4 to
>>> fix the problem with viridian and windows 7, I assume that fix will
>>> be included in 3.4.1 as it is in testing
>>> (http://lists.xensource.com/archives/html/xen-changelog/2009-06/msg00119.html)
>>> 
>>> My system currently has a 512mb 8600GT which I use with the nvidia
>>> binary drivers driving a pair of 1920x1200 tft's, I think I can get
>>> access to another identical 8600GT so I plan to drive one monitor
>>> with each card, has anybody had success with passthru using nvidia
>>> cards? 
>> 
>> We observed that it needs vBAR = pBAR (1:1 map memories of video
>> card in guest and host) for some Nvidia cards, such as Geforce 8400
>> GS. But some high-end Nvidia cards (e.g Quadro FX 3800) don't
>> require that, they are more virtualization friendly.   
>> 
>> Regards,
>> Weidong
>> 
>> 
> 
> I thought the purpose of the vt-d iommu was to map the virtual
> addresses to physical for just this reason?

VT-d can translate GPA to HPA.

> 
> I don't think I can run to £700 needed for a quadro just so that I can
> run windows 7 aero on my 3rd monitor :-), has anybody else had success
> with consumer nvidia cards?

Yes, the quadro cards are expensive, but they are friendly to virtualization. 
We are investigating gfx passthrough based on xen-unstable, we will post 
patches in near future.

Regards,
Weidong

> 
> I will get a ati card if necessary but I prefer to give my ££'s to
> nvidia as they have historically provided better linux support.
> 
> Andy


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