Hi everyone, Sorry if this gets asked over and over again, but I just joined the list and wanted to ask what the current status of the VGA-passthrough possibilities is. Today I set up my new workstation that has a Kepler card in it and compiled XEN 4.2.1 on Ubuntu 12.04. The first problem I ran into was that the system just hung up after the login screen, which (after quite some google-research) seems to be a common problem caused by proprietary nvidia drivers used (I am using the experimental 310 binaries, which are required by CUDA 5.x). What I want to achieve is the following: Being able to spawn several VMs such that I am not required to mess around with my base OS if I am working on university assignments. Therefore, it can be assumed, that only one VM will the GPU at a time. At the same time, close to native performance would be nice. I have read list entries from aprox. 2 years ago covering the topic (applying patches, extracting the card''s BIOS,...) - but is there something more recent that someone could point me to? Is there anyone who successfully runs a Kepler card + CUDA in his/her VM? Any help would be much appreciated. Happy new year & Regards, Paul Mayer _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xen.org http://lists.xen.org/xen-users
I have had great success with an AMD consumer card. Some minor issues with FLR that aren''t well explained, but I put together a comprehensive tutorial on Debian (similar to Ubuntu I''m sure) with a video walkthrough as well: http://wiki.xen.org/wiki/Comprehensive_Xen_Debian_Wheezy_PCI_Passthrough_Tutorial To my understanding nVidia takes a bit of extra effort, generally involving some Xen source patching, but I do not know whether that is required for their server grade cards (which I believe are built to support IOMMU). For patching details check out David Techer''s Blog: http://www.davidgis.fr/blog/index.php?Xen Maybe someone else can supply their experience with nVidia Server cards? On Sun, Dec 30, 2012 at 5:47 PM, Paul Mayer <equilibrium87@gmail.com> wrote:> Hi everyone, > > Sorry if this gets asked over and over again, but I just joined the list > and wanted to ask what the current status of the VGA-passthrough > possibilities is. > Today I set up my new workstation that has a Kepler card in it and > compiled XEN 4.2.1 on Ubuntu 12.04. The first problem I ran into was that > the system > just hung up after the login screen, which (after quite some > google-research) seems to be a common problem caused by proprietary nvidia > drivers used > (I am using the experimental 310 binaries, which are required by CUDA 5.x). > > What I want to achieve is the following: Being able to spawn several VMs > such that I am not required to mess around with my base OS if I am working > on > university assignments. Therefore, it can be assumed, that only one VM > will the GPU at a time. At the same time, close to native performance would > be > nice. > > I have read list entries from aprox. 2 years ago covering the topic > (applying patches, extracting the card''s BIOS,...) - but is there something > more recent > that someone could point me to? Is there anyone who successfully runs a > Kepler card + CUDA in his/her VM? > > Any help would be much appreciated. > Happy new year & Regards, > Paul Mayer > > _______________________________________________ > Xen-users mailing list > Xen-users@lists.xen.org > http://lists.xen.org/xen-users >_______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xen.org http://lists.xen.org/xen-users
Paul, Apart from their high end workstation cards, such as the Quadro 2000, Nvidia cards aren''t known to be Xen friendly. On the other hand, even mid-range AMD Radeon cards have been reported to support VGA-passthrough. (See http://wiki.xen.org/wiki/XenVGAPassthroughTestedAdapters) So to save yourself many headaches, I recommend that you invest in a mid-range (or better) AMD Radeon card. In my case, I found that a GigaByte AMD Radeon HD 6670 (about $60 on sale) supported VGA-passthrough with an HVM domU. For a well-written and very detailed tutorial describing something similar to what are describing, have a look here: http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=112013 Best regards, GizmoChicken On Sun, Dec 30, 2012 at 6:03 PM, Casey DeLorme <cdelorme@gmail.com> wrote:> I have had great success with an AMD consumer card. Some minor issues > with FLR that aren''t well explained, but I put together a comprehensive > tutorial on Debian (similar to Ubuntu I''m sure) with a video walkthrough as > well: > > http://wiki.xen.org/wiki/Comprehensive_Xen_Debian_Wheezy_PCI_Passthrough_Tutorial > > To my understanding nVidia takes a bit of extra effort, generally > involving some Xen source patching, but I do not know whether that is > required for their server grade cards (which I believe are built to support > IOMMU). For patching details check out David Techer''s Blog: > http://www.davidgis.fr/blog/index.php?Xen > > Maybe someone else can supply their experience with nVidia Server cards? > > > On Sun, Dec 30, 2012 at 5:47 PM, Paul Mayer <equilibrium87@gmail.com>wrote: > >> Hi everyone, >> >> Sorry if this gets asked over and over again, but I just joined the list >> and wanted to ask what the current status of the VGA-passthrough >> possibilities is. >> Today I set up my new workstation that has a Kepler card in it and >> compiled XEN 4.2.1 on Ubuntu 12.04. The first problem I ran into was that >> the system >> just hung up after the login screen, which (after quite some >> google-research) seems to be a common problem caused by proprietary nvidia >> drivers used >> (I am using the experimental 310 binaries, which are required by CUDA >> 5.x). >> >> What I want to achieve is the following: Being able to spawn several VMs >> such that I am not required to mess around with my base OS if I am working >> on >> university assignments. Therefore, it can be assumed, that only one VM >> will the GPU at a time. At the same time, close to native performance would >> be >> nice. >> >> I have read list entries from aprox. 2 years ago covering the topic >> (applying patches, extracting the card''s BIOS,...) - but is there something >> more recent >> that someone could point me to? Is there anyone who successfully runs a >> Kepler card + CUDA in his/her VM? >> >> Any help would be much appreciated. >> Happy new year & Regards, >> Paul Mayer >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Xen-users mailing list >> Xen-users@lists.xen.org >> http://lists.xen.org/xen-users >> > > > _______________________________________________ > Xen-users mailing list > Xen-users@lists.xen.org > http://lists.xen.org/xen-users >_______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xen.org http://lists.xen.org/xen-users