Re: [Xen-users] Anyone using VT-d for GPUs on desktop/workstation?

[Gordan Bobic <gordan@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On 11/22/2013 12:24 PM, Peter Kay wrote:>   B
>
> "Mgr. Åimon TÃth" <toth@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>> At the moment, I find ATI cards are NOT a recommendable
>>> solution.
>>
>> That's really bad news for me. As far as buying modified cards go, I
>> could probably get a Quadro for less, due to shipping and import costs.
>>
>> But thanks for the info.
>
> I think it would more accurately be true to say that VGA passthrough 
is still rather bleeding edge and there are issues with many 
configurations. Xen does not help itself here, as it's very difficult to 
troubleshoot passthrough, although it's otherwise a decent 
virtualization solution.
>
> I only ever managed to get the Matrox G200e built into my S3210SHLC 
motherboard passed through in Xen and VMWare. Both a 6950 and 6450 were 
a complete failure and I did try a lot of configurations.
>
> KVM is a different matter. Alex Williams is highly motivated to 
improve passthrough and there's more debugging available. I've been able 
to get both the 6950 and 6450 passed through to a Linux VM using both 
fglrx and radeon drivers. I haven't managed it in Windows 7 yet.
>
> I'd personally prefer to use Xen for server virtualization above KVM 
- better tools and I like the idea of a type 1 hypervisor.
>
> My advice, if you want the least hassle and have the cash, is to find 
someone who has a completely solid solution and buy an identical system. 
Otherwise you're probably going to have issues..
Having spent a lot of time/effort getting my setup working, I can 
summarize in the following 3 points:
1) Get a motherboard with properly functioning IOMMU; specifically, one 
that somebody here tried and confirmed to work. Perhaps we should have a 
wiki page for listing motherboards people have has success with, just 
like we have for GPUs.
1.1) Do NOT get a motherboard featuring Nvidia NF200 PCIe bridges. This 
can be made to work with some ugly hacks and patches, but it's best 
avoided, at least until PVH support is fully implemented (for e820_host 
option support).
2) Use an Nvidia Quadro GPU explicitly listed to support "MultiOS" 
(Quadro FXx800, Quadro [2456]000, Quadro Kx000). Or get a GeForce card 
and modify it (or see if there's a pre-modified one on eBay at the time).
Gordan

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