Re: [Xen-users] Does xen-fbfront on a DomU make use of a hardware GPU on Dom0?

[Roger Pau Monné <roger.pau@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On Tue, Aug 09, 2016 at 03:34:45PM -0700, Drew Sabelhaus wrote:
> Hello Xen folks!
> 
> Does the Xen project framebuffer driver (xen-fbfront, I believe?) on a DomU
> make use of a hardware GPU, if one is present, on Dom0? Or does this
> framebuffer driver do all the graphics rendering in software on the Dom0
> side of things?

No, the Xen frame-buffer backend is implemented in software on the Dom0, no 
GPU functionality will be used.

> I'm running a paravirtualized ubuntu linux guest on top of an ubuntu Dom0.
> I have a graphics card installed in the machine, and since I know that VGA
> PCI passthrough is not supported for PV guests (
> http://wiki.xenproject.org/wiki/XenVGAPassthrough), I'm using the
> xen-fbfront module to get an X11 environment on my guest.
> 
> If Xen can be coerced into using a hardware GPU for rendering for a
> framebuffer, how might I do that? (Please let me know if this question does
> not make sense, and I'll try to explain better.)

The easiest way probably is to turn your PV guest into a HVM guest (which 
will also improve performance) and then try to do PCI-passthrough of a 
graphics card, although I'm not expert on GFX passthrough, so others might 
have better advice.

Roger.

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