CentOS - Nov 2015 - CentOS 7, new video card in server

Hi, folks,

   I've got a new Dell R730 server. My users have two Tesla K-80's in
it.
Then, they wanted to add video, for complicated reasons.

   Anyway, there's the onboard VGA; I just put in a Quadro K600 (they
require DP, and this card offers that). Plug in a VGA monirot (the card
even comes with two adaptors, one from large DP to DVI-D, and one DVI-D to
VGA. (And according to the quick start guide, there's no additional power
cable.)

   Boot the system, and no video on from the card. In the BIOS, the only
thing I see that appears to relate is enable/disable onboard video. I'm
looking at that as a last option, since I have no idea how I'd *undo* it,
if I then have zero video....

   Dell, of course, doesn't support ordinary video cards in a server....
So, anyone have clues, or pointers, to getting video coming out of the new
card? Now, I have no issues with putting the proprietary NVidia driver on,
but I'm trying to figure out if I'm missing something.

   Note that, as a server, of course, it is coming up in runlevel 3.

       mark

On Thu, November 5, 2015 12:07 pm, m.roth at 5-cent.us
wrote:
> Hi, folks,
>
>    I've got a new Dell R730 server. My users have two Tesla K-80's
in it.
> Then, they wanted to add video, for complicated reasons.
>
>    Anyway, there's the onboard VGA; I just put in a Quadro K600 (they
> require DP, and this card offers that). Plug in a VGA monirot (the card
> even comes with two adaptors, one from large DP to DVI-D, and one DVI-D to
> VGA. (And according to the quick start guide, there's no additional
power
> cable.)
>
>    Boot the system, and no video on from the card. In the BIOS, the only
> thing I see that appears to relate is enable/disable onboard video. I'm
> looking at that as a last option, since I have no idea how I'd *undo*
it,
> if I then have zero video....
>
>    Dell, of course, doesn't support ordinary video cards in a
server....
> So, anyone have clues, or pointers, to getting video coming out of the new
> card? Now, I have no issues with putting the proprietary NVidia driver on,
> but I'm trying to figure out if I'm missing something.
>
When this happens to me I first make sure that on boot I have something
connected to [an extra video card] video input. Otherwise the card is
likely to not initialize that video input. Shouldn't be necessary for DP
inputs which hot kick in when something is connected.

Next thing I would check dmesg to see the this hardware has been detected
(if there are any conflicts with interrupt numbers or address ranged to be
used, you should see these). I'll also check lspci to see if the system
sees that hardware on the bus.

In general, one shouldn't need to do anything in BIOS. On Dell
workstations when PCI express video card meant to be exclusively used as
video adapter in BIOS they make it "primary video", or sometimes
totally
disable onboard video. You can try the last, but if the box comes with no
video output at all (so you will not be able to change BIOS settings),
then you may need to use CMOS setup reset jumper to reset settings to
factory default (of course, you can change BIOS setting without video, but
you will need for that to remember all menus, and mouse the excludes, only
keyboard can be used).

But as it is Dell server, one never knows...

Good luck!

Valeri

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Valeri Galtsev
Sr System Administrator
Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics
Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics
University of Chicago
Phone: 773-702-4247
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Valeri Galtsev wrote:
> On Thu, November 5, 2015 12:07 pm, m.roth at 5-cent.us wrote:
>>
>> I've got a new Dell R730 server. My users have two Tesla K-80's
in
>> it.Then, they wanted to add video, for complicated reasons.
>>
>>    Anyway, there's the onboard VGA; I just put in a Quadro K600
(they
>> require DP, and this card offers that). Plug in a VGA monirot (the card
>> even comes with two adaptors, one from large DP to DVI-D, and one DVI-D
>> to VGA. (And according to the quick start guide, there's no
additional
>> power cable.)
>>
>>    Boot the system, and no video on from the card. In the BIOS, the
only
>> thing I see that appears to relate is enable/disable onboard video.
I'm
>> looking at that as a last option, since I have no idea how I'd
*undo*
>> it,
<snip>
> In general, one shouldn't need to do anything in BIOS. On Dell
> workstations when PCI express video card meant to be exclusively used as
> video adapter in BIOS they make it "primary video", or sometimes
totally
> disable onboard video. You can try the last, but if the box comes with no
> video output at all (so you will not be able to change BIOS settings),
> then you may need to use CMOS setup reset jumper to reset settings to
> factory default (of course, you can change BIOS setting without video, but
> you will need for that to remember all menus, and mouse the excludes, only
> keyboard can be used).
<snip>
Actually, we like Dells a lot. At any rate, that, and what I found in a
several year old thread that said the same as you, were the ticket:
   a) disable onboard video (it will work, if there's no monitor
        connected to the video card, and
   b) the monitor *must* be plugged into the card on boot.

And life is wonderful, and my users will be happy.

      mark