[Xen-users] Re: Exporting the graphics card to a domU

["Christopher Isip" <cmisip@xxxxxxxxx>]

Further on to this saga.  I found out that there are printer drivers
for the Dell 720 printer which is actually a Lexmark z600.  I decided
to follow the online howto.  I encountered the usblp error regarding
the write buf and so recompiled usblp with write buff to 4096.
Installed ghost script and cups.  I can confirm that usb printing in
domU WORKS!

Also, it seems that removing rxvt from the grub kernel line in dom0
allows it to boot into X with a patched nvidia driver.  So now I am
running the machine with Xen 3.2 and have one domU for printing.
Mythfrontend will remain in dom0 for now.

Thanks
Chris

On 6/7/08, Christopher Isip <cmisip@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Well, it seems what I am trying to achieve which is basically X11 in a
> domU is not possible at this time with nvidia drivers anyway.  I tried
> with both Ubuntu Hardy  and Centos 5 domU's.  With ubuntu, the nvidia
> driver compiles but cannot load due to missing kprot symbols.  With
> Centos5, it comiles and loads but I get :
> Fatal server error:
> xf86MapVidMem: Could not mmap framebuffer (0x000a0000,0x20000) (Bad address)
>
> and a quick flash on the screen.
>
> I cant even run a nvidia driver in dom0.  Everything seems ok and I
> have a graphical boot, but as soon as the sytem tries to autologin,
> then the computer crashes.
>
> I think this is related to what I see in my other machine that runs
> the mythtv backend domU.  For some reason, If I log in physically at
> the machine, the mythtv domU crashes when I start it.  If I log in
> remotely and start the mythtv domU, it starts fine.  Also If I start
> my asterisk domU first, it fails to allocate memory to eth0 ( a
> pciback ethernet card ).  So I start the mythtv domU and then the
> asterisk domU and then the rest of the other domU's which having no
> pciback devices, will boot up ok in any order.
>
> This is what I still dont understand with xen configuration.  I
> believe it has something to do with swiotlb.  One of my aims for
> xenifying things is to be able to replicate the servers easily on
> another machine should I have a catastrophic hardware failure, but I
> feel that not knowing the nuances of swiotlb would impede this.  I
> cant guarantee that I could replicate exactly the same memory
> environment in a new machine, If I dont understand how things work in
> the current machine.   Perhaps some xen gurus could provide insights.
>
> Thanks
> Chris
>
>
> On 6/5/08, Christopher Isip <cmisip@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>> On Thu, Jun 5, 2008 at 6:01 PM, Christopher Isip <cmisip@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>
>>>  I have a dual core mythfrontend only sytem with an nvidia graphics card.
>>> There are no other video cards in the machine.  I am thinking of hiding
>>> the
>>> video card from dom0 so a domU could use it for mythfrontend output.  Is
>>> this possible?
>>>
>>> I realize that the dom0 kernel needs to boot without a graphics card.  I
>>> am
>>> thinking If I need to do any dom0 work, I can  ssh to it or perhaps use
>>> vnc.
>>> Having mythtv encapsulated in a domU allows me  to upgrade without risk
>>> in
>>> the future.  I already have the mythtv backend running happily in another
>>> machine in a domU.
>>>
>>> Furthermore, I plan to add a domU in this machine that runs Windows XP so
>>> I
>>> can use a usb printer as a samba printer.  The printer is not supported
>>> in
>>> linux.   I still dont know how I would be able to do this as from what
>>> I've
>>> read, you cant export a usb port to a xen domain.  I have the following
>>> in
>>> /sbin/lspci:
>>>
>>> 00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82G33/G31/P35/P31 Express DRAM
>>> Controller (rev 02)
>>> 00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82G33/G31/P35/P31 Express PCI
>>> Express
>>> Root Port (rev 02)
>>> 00:19.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82562V-2 10/100 Network
>>> Connection (rev 02)
>>> 00:1a.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI
>>> Controller #4 (rev 02)
>>> 00:1a.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI
>>> Controller #5 (rev 02)
>>> 00:1a.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI
>>> Controller #6 (rev 02)
>>> 00:1a.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB2 EHCI
>>> Controller #2 (rev 02)
>>> 00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) HD Audio
>>> Controller (rev 02)
>>> 00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI
>>> Controller #1 (rev 02)
>>> 00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI
>>> Controller #2 (rev 02)
>>> 00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI
>>> Controller #3 (rev 02)
>>> 00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB2 EHCI
>>> Controller #1 (rev 02)
>>> 00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev 92)
>>> 00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801IR (ICH9R) LPC Interface
>>> Controller (rev 02)
>>> 00:1f.2 RAID bus controller: Intel Corporation 82801 SATA RAID Controller
>>> (rev 02)
>>> 00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) SMBus Controller
>>> (rev
>>> 02)
>>> 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation G72 [GeForce 7300
>>> LE]
>>> (rev a1)
>>>
>>> Which makes me think that I could pciback just one of the usb controllers
>>> to Windows XP and another one to the Mythtv domU (because I have a usb
>>> remote).
>>>
>>> Is this going to work?
>>>
>>> Thanks
>>> Chris
>>>
>>>
>>
>> Oh yeah, the audio device would have to be exported as well.
>>
>> Thanks
>> Chris
>>
>

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