CentOS docs - Mar 2010 - Closing loop: How-to for NVIDIA driver on Xen Dom0

I had a couple comments on my proposal to write a how-to
on NVIDIA on Xen Dom0:

Marcus:
  I would rather prefer if you could take care of the current Xen
  articles on the wiki, first. They are quite outdated.

---
I don't consider myself an expert on all things Xen. In reviewing the
material on the CentOS Wiki regarding Xen, I felt the articles were
pretty well done (even if they were written for an older version of
CentOS). 

---
Ralph: 

   Is there a solution by now which is stable and does not 
   spontaneously reboot your machine when you least expect it?

   Would that be more of a Tips and Tricks article? Or a longer HowTo?

---
While I've certainly had some flakey hardware cause issues, I run my
work desktop and some key servers with the NVIDIA drivers and rarely
see a problem (once you get everything installed and happy).

I was thinking my article would be a "HowTo", only because it was
a cookbook for "how to" get this configuration running. If the Wiki
moderators feel it belongs in T&T, based on length, I'm OK with that.

>From Marcus' comment, there doesn't seem to be much interest in 
this (narrowly focused) topic.  

-- 
Cris Rhea

On Mon, Mar 1, 2010 at 6:28 PM, Cris Rhea <crhea at rentaclue.com>
wrote:
> Ralph:
>
> ? Is there a solution by now which is stable and does not
> ? spontaneously reboot your machine when you least expect it?
>
> ? Would that be more of a Tips and Tricks article? Or a longer HowTo?
>
> ---
> While I've certainly had some flakey hardware cause issues, I run my
> work desktop and some key servers with the NVIDIA drivers and rarely
> see a problem (once you get everything installed and happy).
I am not talking about flakey hardware, I am talking about the first
solutions for running the nividia kernel in a dom0. Those lead to
spontaneous reboots at least twice a day ...

So if you say that it now is working and is stable - I have nothing
against that article on the wiki. If we have to slap a warning sign on
the article "This can crash your machine", I'd rather not :)
> I was thinking my article would be a "HowTo", only because it was
> a cookbook for "how to" get this configuration running. If the
Wiki
> moderators feel it belongs in T&T, based on length, I'm OK with
that.
No, was just asking - I didn't know how large that one was.

Ralph

Ralph's comments:
> I am not talking about flakey hardware, I am talking about the first
> solutions for running the nividia kernel in a dom0. Those lead to
> spontaneous reboots at least twice a day ...
> So if you say that it now is working and is stable - I have nothing
> against that article on the wiki. If we have to slap a warning sign on
> the article "This can crash your machine", I'd rather not :)
Perhaps some background is in order...

I'm a Unix/Linux system administrator and my desktop system runs Linux 
(CentOS). My motivation for this topic was twofold:

1. I wanted the ability to prototype systems and test software via
Xen-based VMs on my desktop system.

2. I also wanted reasonable graphics performance on dual, high-res flat
panels (single desktop across two 1600x1200 screens).

Obviously, if one downloads the NVIDIA driver package and attempts to
install on a Xen-enabled kernel, it says Xen is not supported and the
installer exits.

When I googled the topic, I found several articles that were either:
-- Very out of date (years)
-- Had an incomplete set of instructions that an "average user" would
not be able to follow.
-- Had a very complex/convoluted set of instructions (building entire
custom kernels, etc.)
-- Solved different problems (e.g., the one set of RPMs
rebuilding/repackaging the NVIDIA module so it would not be kernel
dot-release sensitive).

I spent a couple week weeding through all this info and came up with a
solution where I had a concrete set of (reasonable) steps and it works.
While I can't promise that it will work for everyone and every
combination of hardware, it has worked well for me. There is no voo-doo
in the mix that is tied to my specific set-up, so I would expect it to
work for others too.

[crhea at kaizen ~]$ uname -a
Linux kaizen.mayo.edu 2.6.18-164.10.1.el5xen #1 SMP Thu Jan 7 20:28:30
EST 2010 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

[crhea at kaizen ~]$ cat /etc/redhat-release 
CentOS release 5.4 (Final)

[crhea at kaizen ~]$ uptime
 10:47:40 up 35 days, 19:56,  9 users,  load average: 0.12, 0.03, 0.01

[crhea at kaizen ~]$ glxgears
70539 frames in 5.0 seconds = 14107.752 FPS
70601 frames in 5.0 seconds = 14120.141 FPS
70586 frames in 5.0 seconds = 14117.038 FPS
70616 frames in 5.0 seconds = 14123.051 FPS
70577 frames in 5.0 seconds = 14115.374 FPS
70619 frames in 5.0 seconds = 14123.761 FPS
70592 frames in 5.0 seconds = 14118.317 FPS
70752 frames in 5.0 seconds = 14150.232 FPS

What I have written so far is about 150 lines of text.

--- Cris



-- 
Cris Rhea

Yes, my Wiki account is "crisrhea".

I'm new to publishing on the CentOS Wiki, so please be specific as to
where you'd like my content.

Thanks-


-- 
Cris Rhea