Xen users - Dec 2012 - Vif:s stop working when USB sound is played (win7 HVM, possibly GPLPV related)

Dear list members,

I recently re-encountered a problem which I thought I had solved before,
but the former solution turned out non-replicable.

System: xen4.1 + gentoo 3.2.12, win7 as HVM guest with a radeon video card
and a Texas instruments xhci (usb3) controller passed through
xl toolstack
GPLPV 0.11.0.356 drivers installed in guest, _except_ XenUsb
Creative usb headset connected to the (passed-through) USB controller,
together with keyboard and mouse

Symptom: whenever sound is played via the USB headset, network connection
disappears entirely. Connection returns immediately when playback stops,
though.

This occurs in a fresh win7 HVM installation. However, in an earlier almost
identical installation I had the same problem, after installing all the
GPLPV drivers (including XenUsb). Back then, the problem disappeared after
removing the XenUsb driver, leading me to assume that XenUsb was source of
the problem. But apparently this is not the explanation, since the problem
shows up today even without the XenUsb driver. I can still boot up the old
HVM system in which sound and networking works, the driver configs are very
similar as far as I can see.

What I have NOT tested:
I have not managed to remove the XenNet driver - trying that gave me a
bluescreen followed by system restore at reboot. I could reinstall, but
XenNet and USB audio have successfully co-existed before.
I have not tried any non-USB audio devices - none are available to me
I have not tried installing and then removing XenUsb - I don''t see what
it
could possibly change

It is possible that I did something else at the same time as removing the
XenUsb driver last time, confounding the explanation. Since I haven''t
tried
without GPLPV, i cannot be sure that it is related to GPLPV at all. In both
installs, I configured GPLPV before trying sound. So that suspicion might
be misdirected. Any thoughts?

Thanks
/Andreas

Appendix: hvm config file

kernel = "hvmloader"
builder=''hvm''
memory = 8192
name = "w7"
uuid = "<*uuid removed*>"
vcpus=6
vif = [''type=ioemu, mac=00:16:3e:68:08:6c, bridge=xenbr0'' ]
disk = [
''phy:/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_OCZ-VERTEX4_OCZ-J2OL048KN21RJXW4,hda,w'',
''file:/usr/iso/en_windows_7_professional_x64_dvd_X15-65805.iso,hdd:cdrom,r''
]
device_model = ''qemu-dm''
boot="cd"
sdl=0
vnc=1
vncconsole=1
vncpasswd=''''
serial=''pty''
tsc_mode=0
monitor=1
localtime=0
rtc_timeoffset=7200
usb=1
usbdevice=''tablet''
keymap=''sv''
xen_platform_pci=1
pci=[ ''41:00.0'', ''42:00.0'' ]
pci_msitranslate=1
pci_power_mgmt=1
gfx_passthru=0
hpet=1
viridian=1


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> 
> Dear list members,
> 
> I recently re-encountered a problem which I thought I had solved before,
but
> the former solution turned out non-replicable.
> 
> System: xen4.1 + gentoo 3.2.12, win7 as HVM guest with a radeon video card
> and a Texas instruments xhci (usb3) controller passed through xl toolstack
> GPLPV 0.11.0.356 drivers installed in guest, _except_ XenUsb Creative usb
> headset connected to the (passed-through) USB controller, together with
> keyboard and mouse
> 
> Symptom: whenever sound is played via the USB headset, network
> connection disappears entirely. Connection returns immediately when
> playback stops, though.
> 
> This occurs in a fresh win7 HVM installation. However, in an earlier almost
> identical installation I had the same problem, after installing all the
GPLPV
> drivers (including XenUsb). Back then, the problem disappeared after
> removing the XenUsb driver, leading me to assume that XenUsb was source
> of the problem. But apparently this is not the explanation, since the
problem
> shows up today even without the XenUsb driver. I can still boot up the old
> HVM system in which sound and networking works, the driver configs are
> very similar as far as I can see.
> 
> What I have NOT tested:
> I have not managed to remove the XenNet driver - trying that gave me a
> bluescreen followed by system restore at reboot. I could reinstall, but
> XenNet and USB audio have successfully co-existed before.
> I have not tried any non-USB audio devices - none are available to me I
have
> not tried installing and then removing XenUsb - I don''t see what
it could
> possibly change
> 
> It is possible that I did something else at the same time as removing the
> XenUsb driver last time, confounding the explanation. Since I
haven''t tried
> without GPLPV, i cannot be sure that it is related to GPLPV at all. In both
> installs, I configured GPLPV before trying sound. So that suspicion might
be
> misdirected. Any thoughts?
> 
Can you see in device manager what interrupt the USB and GPLPV are using?

James

Of course, thanks, I never thought of checking the interrupts.

From the respective "resources" tabs in device manager:

Xen PCI device driver: IRQ 28
Texas I. XHCI controller: IRQ -2

The other GPLPV devices (including the vif) does not show any resources, is
this correct?

Also, I''m not sure how to interpret the -2 above. An artifact of
decimal
conversion or does win7 have problems with high IRQ numbers? If it gets
mapped onto something else maybe it could collide undetected (the machine
is dual-cpu amd).

Regards,
Andreas

2012/12/15 James Harper <james.harper@bendigoit.com.au>
> >
> > Dear list members,
> >
> > I recently re-encountered a problem which I thought I had solved
before,
> but
> > the former solution turned out non-replicable.
> >
> > System: xen4.1 + gentoo 3.2.12, win7 as HVM guest with a radeon video
> card
> > and a Texas instruments xhci (usb3) controller passed through xl
> toolstack
> > GPLPV 0.11.0.356 drivers installed in guest, _except_ XenUsb Creative
usb
> > headset connected to the (passed-through) USB controller, together
with
> > keyboard and mouse
> >
> > Symptom: whenever sound is played via the USB headset, network
> > connection disappears entirely. Connection returns immediately when
> > playback stops, though.
> >
> > This occurs in a fresh win7 HVM installation. However, in an earlier
> almost
> > identical installation I had the same problem, after installing all
the
> GPLPV
> > drivers (including XenUsb). Back then, the problem disappeared after
> > removing the XenUsb driver, leading me to assume that XenUsb was
source
> > of the problem. But apparently this is not the explanation, since the
> problem
> > shows up today even without the XenUsb driver. I can still boot up the
> old
> > HVM system in which sound and networking works, the driver configs are
> > very similar as far as I can see.
> >
> > What I have NOT tested:
> > I have not managed to remove the XenNet driver - trying that gave me a
> > bluescreen followed by system restore at reboot. I could reinstall,
but
> > XenNet and USB audio have successfully co-existed before.
> > I have not tried any non-USB audio devices - none are available to me
I
> have
> > not tried installing and then removing XenUsb - I don''t see
what it could
> > possibly change
> >
> > It is possible that I did something else at the same time as removing
the
> > XenUsb driver last time, confounding the explanation. Since I
haven''t
> tried
> > without GPLPV, i cannot be sure that it is related to GPLPV at all. In
> both
> > installs, I configured GPLPV before trying sound. So that suspicion
> might be
> > misdirected. Any thoughts?
> >
>
> Can you see in device manager what interrupt the USB and GPLPV are using?
>
> James
>
>

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Update 2 - problems solved

(My last answer didn''t show up on the web archive, I don''t
know if it ever
went on the list - either it was because I changed the subject line and
confused the thread mechanism, or because it contained an http link - both
are fixed now. The missing message in question is included below)

Now, the problem seems entirely solved. Networking with the XenNet driver
works flawlessly and I could not replicate the performance dip mentioned
below. I believe it had to do with some unoptimized vif device settings
which I have changed now.

Aftermath:
With GPLPV 0.11.0.357 signed by Bendigo, XenNet driver works well with USB
sound
With GPLPV 0.11.0.356 signed by Uninvention, USB sound kills network
temporarily, but only during playback
- Windows 7 HVM on gentoo 3.2.12 dom0, xen 4.1,passed-through pci usb
controller.

Hopefully the information is of use for someone. Also, thanks to James
Harper for providing these drivers in the first place!

Regards,
Andreas

2012/12/15 Andreas Falck <falck.andreas.lists@gmail.com>
> Update: I checked the older, working installation. The devices had the
> same IRQ configurations, but the GPLPV drivers was the 357 version, not the
> 356 one as I had installed in the new system. After updating to 357 the
> problem disappeared. I remember now doing the same upgrade when setting up
> the last system, I started out with the 356 driver signed by Uninvention
> (believing that other options would require test-signing) before upgrading
> to the 357 version from meadowcourt dot org. I did not attribute the
> solution of the problem to the upgrade last time, however - though it is
> reasonable that this was the real reason why the problem went away.
>
> However, there still seems to be some interaction between audio playback
> and network performance. If I ping my gateway without playing sound I get
> ping times of 1-2ms, but during sound playback I get this plus occasional
> longer ping times, up to 50ms/ping, sometimes during a few seconds in a
> row. I does seem to hit copying over the (host-internal) network, in the
> single test I just did I got 20ish Mb/sec during sound playback compared to
> 70ish Mb/sec without playback.
>
> I haven''t yet tweaked the network settings according to the
> recommendations, though. I''ll have a look later if I can reproduce
this
> performance difference in my old install.
>
> Regards,
> Andreas
>
> 2012/12/15 Andreas Falck <falck.andreas.lists@gmail.com>
>
>> Of course, thanks, I never thought of checking the interrupts.
>>
>> From the respective "resources" tabs in device manager:
>>
>> Xen PCI device driver: IRQ 28
>> Texas I. XHCI controller: IRQ -2
>>
>> The other GPLPV devices (including the vif) does not show any
resources,
>> is this correct?
>>
>> Also, I''m not sure how to interpret the -2 above. An artifact
of decimal
>> conversion or does win7 have problems with high IRQ numbers? If it gets
>> mapped onto something else maybe it could collide undetected (the
machine
>> is dual-cpu amd).
>>
>> Regards,
>> Andreas
>>
>>
>> 2012/12/15 James Harper <james.harper@bendigoit.com.au>
>>
>>> >
>>> > Dear list members,
>>> >
>>> > I recently re-encountered a problem which I thought I had
solved
>>> before, but
>>> > the former solution turned out non-replicable.
>>> >
>>> > System: xen4.1 + gentoo 3.2.12, win7 as HVM guest with a
radeon video
>>> card
>>> > and a Texas instruments xhci (usb3) controller passed through
xl
>>> toolstack
>>> > GPLPV 0.11.0.356 drivers installed in guest, _except_ XenUsb
Creative
>>> usb
>>> > headset connected to the (passed-through) USB controller,
together with
>>> > keyboard and mouse
>>> >
>>> > Symptom: whenever sound is played via the USB headset, network
>>> > connection disappears entirely. Connection returns immediately
when
>>> > playback stops, though.
>>> >
>>> > This occurs in a fresh win7 HVM installation. However, in an
earlier
>>> almost
>>> > identical installation I had the same problem, after
installing all
>>> the GPLPV
>>> > drivers (including XenUsb). Back then, the problem disappeared
after
>>> > removing the XenUsb driver, leading me to assume that XenUsb
was source
>>> > of the problem. But apparently this is not the explanation,
since the
>>> problem
>>> > shows up today even without the XenUsb driver. I can still
boot up the
>>> old
>>> > HVM system in which sound and networking works, the driver
configs are
>>> > very similar as far as I can see.
>>> >
>>> > What I have NOT tested:
>>> > I have not managed to remove the XenNet driver - trying that
gave me a
>>> > bluescreen followed by system restore at reboot. I could
reinstall, but
>>> > XenNet and USB audio have successfully co-existed before.
>>> > I have not tried any non-USB audio devices - none are
available to me
>>> I have
>>> > not tried installing and then removing XenUsb - I
don''t see what it
>>> could
>>> > possibly change
>>> >
>>> > It is possible that I did something else at the same time as
removing
>>> the
>>> > XenUsb driver last time, confounding the explanation. Since I
haven''t
>>> tried
>>> > without GPLPV, i cannot be sure that it is related to GPLPV at
all. In
>>> both
>>> > installs, I configured GPLPV before trying sound. So that
suspicion
>>> might be
>>> > misdirected. Any thoughts?
>>> >
>>>
>>> Can you see in device manager what interrupt the USB and GPLPV are
using?
>>>
>>> James
>>>
>>>
>>
>

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