Just FYI, I did manage a
‘working’ gdm+x.org desktop up on my nvidia
card using the nv driver in
the past. A snippet
from my past posting to the list.
I then added -sharevts
vt1 to all of the X command lines in /usr/share/gdm/defaults.conf
X and gdm
start perfectly!
But. Xorg uses 99+% of the cpu, all the time.
It's completely unusable.
Unfortunately
I haven’t been able to work on the problem any further, due to time
constraints.
From:
xen-users-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:xen-users-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Emre Erenoglu
Sent: November 13, 2007 8:50 AM
To: Xen
Users
Subject: Re: [Xen-users]
Exported PCI video to domU. Need another video cardfor console?
OK now I understood. Good
use :)
Which also means that you don't actually use the exported
PCI-X card in your DomU to display user interface and
play fancy Compiz and 3D games.
I tried once, nvidia module failed to load with some
memory map error, didn't try after...
Emre
On Nov 13, 2007 3:46 PM, Paul Waldo <pwaldo@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hi Emre,
I'm doing it to speed up graphic operations in general, and for specific
programs. pfstools
generates tone-mapped images from high-dynamic-range images, but it is a slow
process. The developers are working on the ability to use the video
card's GPU to do some of the complex calculations. I can't recall what
the exact numbers reported were, but my recollection is that using the GPU
reduced the calculation time by at least one, if not two or three, orders of
magnitude.
Another reason is that the nVidia card is PCI-X, and
this particular box is the only one I have with PCI-X. I hate to see good
hardware go to waste... :-)
Paul
Emre Erenoglu wrote:
Hi Paul,
I didn't really understand why you're trying to hide your PCI card. In your NX
based setup, the KDE or KDM on the remote DomU (if I
understand right) does not need a physical graphic card anyway. They run
without it very well. You can still use NX to have the user interface of KDE
running inside a DomU. (Dom0 also)
So why are you doing it?
Best regards,
Emre
On Nov 13, 2007 3:10 PM, Paul Waldo <pwaldo@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Paul Waldo wrote:
Hi all,
I'm exporting my nVidia video card to one of my domUs. It works great, but I am unable to get a
console on the dom0. I'm assuming this is because the video card is in
use by the domU. Does this make sense and, if
so, can I solve this by adding abother PCI video card
and connecting the monitor to that? Thanks for helping!
Paul
Hi all,
I have receive numerous requests for how I did this,
so I'm glad to give back!
I do have to provide a caveat, so don't get your hopes up yet... My setup
is that I have a 4 CPU Xeon box. It is a big, loud, hot unit, so it is in
the computer closet. I am using a low-end machine on my desk as a fancy xterminal. The idea is that KDE runs on the Xen box, and I interact with it via the open source version
of NX from nomachine.com,
running on my low-end machine. NX allows desktop sharing as well as sound
and printers to be seamlessly piped to the desktop box. The only thing I
haven't figured out is how to get peripherals attached to the desktop box (like
a CF card reader or a USB DVD writer) to be automatically recognized on the Xen box... The idea behind getting the domU to use the nVidia card is
not necessarily for games and such, although that may work OK...
So anyway, here is what I did to make this all work:
The first thing to do is hide the video card from the dom0. Here is the
stanza from my GRUB menu.lst:
title
Xen 3.1 / Ubuntu 7.10,
kernel 2.6.22-14-xen
root
(hd0,0)
kernel
/xen-3.1.gz dom0_mem=262144
module
/vmlinuz-2.6.22-14-xen root=/dev/mapper/hydra-root ro xencons=xvc
console=xvc0 console=tty1 pciback.hide=(05:00.0)
module
/initrd.img-2.6.22-14-xen
quiet
The key here is "pciback.hide=(05:00.0)".
The number is obtained using the lspci command on
dom0:
root@hydra:~# lspci|grep -i nvidia
05:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV38GL [Quadro
FX 1300] (rev a2)
So, once the changes are made to the GRUB config,
reboot the machine. Be prepared to SSH
into the box, as you won't get a console!!! The reason for
this is that as far as the dom0 is concerned, the video card doesn't
exist. Actually, it may not be that dire. IIRC, I was still able to
get a console at this point, and it is the next step that prevented the
console. I know my memory, and would not rely on it too much if I were
you. Just make sure that sshd is running before
you do any of this... :-)
OK, so now the video card has been unshackled from the dom0. How do you
get a domU to claim it? Here is my domU's config file:
#
# Configuration file for the Xen
instance gutsy, created
# by xen-tools
3.5 on Mon Nov 5 13:39:24 2007.
#
#
# Kernel + memory
size
#
kernel =
'/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22-14-xen'
ramdisk = '/boot/initrd.img-2.6.22-14-xen'
memory = '1024'
vcpus = '4'
extra = 'xencons=xvc'
pci
= ['05:00.0']
#
# Disk device(s).
#
root = '/dev/sda1 ro'
disk = [
'file:/root/domains/gutsy/disk.img,sda1,w', 'file:/root/domains/gutsy/swap.img,sda2,w'
]
#
# Hostname
#
name = 'gutsy'
#
# Networking
#
dhcp = 'dhcp'
vif = [ '' ]
#
# Behaviour
#
on_poweroff = 'destroy'
on_reboot = 'restart'
on_crash = 'restart'
The key line here is "pci =
['05:00.0']". This tells the domU to claim the video card. Reboot the domU and you should then be able to see the video card:
$ lspci
00:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV38GL [Quadro
FX 1300] (rev a2)
At this point, you can use it just like a normal machine. Change your
driver in xorg.conf from "nv"
to "nvidia", "apt-get install nvidia-glx-new" to get the nVidia
drivers, maybe do a reboot, and you are up and running!
As pointed out in the caveat, I DO NOT get graphical output from the video
card, nor am I even able to log into the box from the console. I am going
to try putting an additional PCI video card into the machine for console
logins, but I'm pretty happy with the setup.
Feel free to let me know if you have questions, and by all means let me know if
you have success. Good luck!
Paul
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