HOW-TO make dual-boot obsolete using XEN VGA passthrough

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powerhouse
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Re: HOW-TO make dual-boot obsolete using XEN VGA passthrough

Post by powerhouse »

khagar wrote:Hi,


after upgrading ubuntu (dom0) from 13.04 to 13.10 my Windows domU didn't boot anymore (it just freezes at load; no error messages ). However, I switched back to the xm toolstack by running

Code: Select all

sudo sed -i 's/TOOLSTACK=.*\+/TOOLSTACK="xm"/' /etc/default/xen
and rebooting after that. Now everything works again :)
Thanks for sharing the information! It looks like I won't get around adding a Linux Mint 15 tutorial (Ubuntu 13.10 equivalent). The problem is I haven't got the time now.

Can you please tell me which exact version of Xen you are running? You can open a terminal window and use:

Code: Select all

sudo xm dmesg
The first line will give you the Xen version in brackets - in my case it says (Ubuntu 4.1.3-3ubuntu1).

Thanks in advance.
Subjects of interest: Linux, vfio passthrough virtualization, photography
See my blog on virtualization, including tutorials: https://www.heiko-sieger.info/category/ ... alization/
Greebo77

Re: HOW-TO make dual-boot obsolete using XEN VGA passthrough

Post by Greebo77 »

hello!

I read this Post an try to get a running Xen-VGA-System.

but i can´t get it with Mint 13 or Mint 15.
(PCI-Passthrough works, Guest is running, VGA-Passthough is broken)



so i get back to openSUSE 12.3 and get a try with this system.

I get a successful 3D accelerated windows 7 guest.

I know this is a Mint forum, but i think i have to give something back to you.

So i will post my hardware, OS, kernel and xen-version, maybe this information will be helpful.

Motherboard:
Gigabyte Z77MX-D3H (onboard vga is using for the server)
GPU
Gigabyte AMD Radeon HD7850 2GB OC version
CPU
Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-3550 CPU @ 3.30GHz

OS
OpenSUSE 12.3 64bit

kernel: (uname-r)
3.7.10-1.1-xen

XEN
4.2.1_06-1.1.1

Guest-VGA-driver
Catalyst Software Suite 13.11 Beta

after pci-passthrough (i still have some problems with that)
Windows 7 64 bit run "out of the box"

successful 3D Benchmark with Unigine Heaven Benchmark
powerhouse
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Re: HOW-TO make dual-boot obsolete using XEN VGA passthrough

Post by powerhouse »

@Greebo77: Thanks for sharing your success story with openSUSE 12.3. It's good to know that openSUSE works with Xen VGA-passthrough - yet another option for those who wish to try.

I can't exactly tell you the reason for Linux Mint 13 and 15 not working for you, but my guess is that you may have updated Xen to the latest release (4.1.3-3ubuntu1.7 for Linux Mint 13, I don't know the version for Linux Mint 15). In both Linux Mint 13 and Linux Mint 15 these updates may break VGA passthrough.

I have explained how to work around these bugs - see the very beginning of the how-to, before the actual step by step instructions. I really was hoping that this gets fixed soon, but I was mistaken and the problems still exist.

If you are happy with openSUSE there is absolutely no need to move to Linux Mint or any other distribution. However, if you would rather prefer Linux Mint, you could give it another try (please follow the how-to EXACTLY word by word!!!). I suggest you use Linux Mint 14 Mate 64 bit (I know Cinnamon is very popular, but a little more prone to bugs) and force the Xen version to 4.1.3-3ubuntu1.

Should you decide to give it another try, please report back. Again thanks for the update and I hope that some readers here will benefit from your post.
Subjects of interest: Linux, vfio passthrough virtualization, photography
See my blog on virtualization, including tutorials: https://www.heiko-sieger.info/category/ ... alization/
khagar

Re: HOW-TO make dual-boot obsolete using XEN VGA passthrough

Post by khagar »

powerhouse wrote:[...]

Thanks for sharing the information! It looks like I won't get around adding a Linux Mint 15 tutorial (Ubuntu 13.10 equivalent). The problem is I haven't got the time now.

Can you please tell me which exact version of Xen you are running? You can open a terminal window and use:

Code: Select all

sudo xm dmesg
The first line will give you the Xen version in brackets - in my case it says (Ubuntu 4.1.3-3ubuntu1).

Thanks in advance.

Hi,

Code: Select all

sudo xm dmesg
does print a lot of temperature warnings but no version number.

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sudo xm info
prints the following, so i guess i am using xen version 4.3.0:

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xen_major              : 4
xen_minor              : 3
xen_extra              : .0
Synaptic states that version 4.3.0-1ubuntu1 of the xen-hypervisor-4.3-amd64 package is installed.
powerhouse
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Re: HOW-TO make dual-boot obsolete using XEN VGA passthrough

Post by powerhouse »

khagar wrote:
powerhouse wrote:[...]

Thanks for sharing the information! It looks like I won't get around adding a Linux Mint 15 tutorial (Ubuntu 13.10 equivalent). The problem is I haven't got the time now.

Can you please tell me which exact version of Xen you are running? You can open a terminal window and use:

Code: Select all

sudo xm dmesg
The first line will give you the Xen version in brackets - in my case it says (Ubuntu 4.1.3-3ubuntu1).

Thanks in advance.

Hi,

Code: Select all

sudo xm dmesg
does print a lot of temperature warnings but no version number.

Code: Select all

sudo xm info
prints the following, so i guess i am using xen version 4.3.0:

Code: Select all

xen_major              : 4
xen_minor              : 3
xen_extra              : .0
Synaptic states that version 4.3.0-1ubuntu1 of the xen-hypervisor-4.3-amd64 package is installed.
Thanks for the information. This is very helpful. Too bad I haven't got the time to try it out myself now. I will link to your post for reference so that other people can try it.
Subjects of interest: Linux, vfio passthrough virtualization, photography
See my blog on virtualization, including tutorials: https://www.heiko-sieger.info/category/ ... alization/
Nesousx

Re: HOW-TO make dual-boot obsolete using XEN VGA passthrough

Post by Nesousx »

Hello all,

In order to avoid any "bad surprise", I highly suggest you pin the xen packages. You can do this by creating the following file:

/etc/apt/preferences.d/xen

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Package: libxen-4.1
Pin: version 4.1.3-3ubuntu1
Pin-priority: 1001

Package: libxenstore3.0
Pin: version 4.1.3-3ubuntu1
Pin-priority: 1001

Package: xen-hypervisor-4.1-amd64
Pin: version 4.1.3-3ubuntu1
Pin-priority: 1001

Package: xen-utils-4.1
Pin: version 4.1.3-3ubuntu1
Pin-priority: 1001

Package: xen-utils-common
Pin: version 4.1.3-3ubuntu1
Pin-priority: 1001

Package: xenstore-utils
Pin: version 4.1.3-3ubuntu1
Pin-priority: 1001
Then you shouldn't get any xen update as long as the packets are pinned. However the pin might not take hold if you do major updates such as release upgrade. I forgort to do it and had myself the same problem as many users heres (error 22 thing). However I was running under Debian, but the fix was the same. Rollback to previous working packet, and pin it until you know for sure a new version works. Then keep pinning working versions and be very cautious with updates, and remember that most of us do not require latest versions and/or fix, we just want something that works.
GizmoChicken

Re: HOW-TO make dual-boot obsolete using XEN VGA passthrough

Post by GizmoChicken »

powerhouse wrote:@GizmoChicken: Thanks for your response! I updated my how-to and put a link to both the Xen forum and your post here. I really hope Asus fixes this IOMMU issue in their next BIOS release. It would be also nice to see that they take Linux users more serious and invest a little in it (e.g. Linux support). I'm sure it will pay back many times.
ASUS recently released an updated BIOS (v2005) for the ASUS M5A99FX PRO R2.0 motherboard. Under that updated BIOS, IOMMU works flawlessly for me. And although I haven't tested it myself, I'm told that IOMMU also works well with the ASUS Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 motherboard under the latest BIOS (v2005) for that motherboard.

GizmoChicken

P.S. GPU passthrough to my Nvidia GTX550Ti GPU is working great for me using KVM-VFIO under Ubuntu 13.10 with Kernel 13.11. Have a look here: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php ... 7#p1313007 I imagine it will also work well with soon-to-be released Mint 16, which will also use Kernel 13.11.
powerhouse
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Re: HOW-TO make dual-boot obsolete using XEN VGA passthrough

Post by powerhouse »

@GizmoChicken: Thanks very much for your update on the Asus BIOS - once again I added a link to your post. I'm really glad to hear that Asus is doing something about it. Let's hope they keep serving us virtualization freaks.

As to KVM, I'd love to give it a try but I'm now extremely short on time. At the time I wrote this how-to, I felt that Xen was much more stable and offered much better documentation when compared to KVM. However, things are changing and the "new kid in town" as I call KVM looks like as if it has come of age. I hope to be able to try it once Linux Mint 16 comes out. I also hope that some of the readers here that gave KVM a try will report back, or even better, will find the time and inclination to write their own how-to for KVM. If anyone has done so with Linux Mint (or Ubuntu), please post a link here.
Subjects of interest: Linux, vfio passthrough virtualization, photography
See my blog on virtualization, including tutorials: https://www.heiko-sieger.info/category/ ... alization/
tigerdyr

Re: HOW-TO make dual-boot obsolete using XEN VGA passthrough

Post by tigerdyr »

This is such a good thread and it convinced me to give Linux another go on the desktop after a 10 year break and Xen-issues aside, so far I'm as impressed with Mint as I'm unimpressed with Unbuntu.

Now as for Xen, it took some swearing, but eventually I got a win7 guest up'n'running under "Mint 16 Cinnamon RC" using pci-passthrough to a gfxcard and I'm really happy with the results so far. As there is alot of advice in this thread to use older versions of Mint, I thought it might be worth mentioning that I've had success with the latest one.

For reference, here's the hardware:

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ASRock Z87 extreme6/ac
Sapphire RADEON HD 7750 1GB GDDR5 Ultimate
Intel i7-4771
Prolimatech Black Series Genesis CPU-cooler
G.Skill DDR3 32GB PC 1600 CL9 Sniper
Samsung SSD 840 EVO 500GB 2,5" SATA
Western Digital 3.0TB SATA RED
Seasonic Platinum-760 - 760W
Corsair ATX Midi Obsidian 550D
The host uses the onboard gfx which I've also chosen as primary display adapter in the bios.

I had to blacklist both radeon and snd-hda-intel drivers on the kernel cmdline in order for pciback to grab the gfxcard. On the downside, that means the onboard sound which also uses snd-hda-intel now does not work. Anyone know of any options to the driver telling it to ignore the gfxcard or some other workaround?

I was stuck for a while with the dreaded "parallel0 console" message on vncviewer after I had initially created and installed the win7 guest without using pci-passthrough. Finally I tried "xm destroy" followed by "xm create" again, and lo and behold, that did the trick.
powerhouse
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Re: HOW-TO make dual-boot obsolete using XEN VGA passthrough

Post by powerhouse »

tigerdyr wrote:This is such a good thread and it convinced me to give Linux another go on the desktop after a 10 year break and Xen-issues aside, so far I'm as impressed with Mint as I'm unimpressed with Unbuntu.

Now as for Xen, it took some swearing, but eventually I got a win7 guest up'n'running under "Mint 16 Cinnamon RC" using pci-passthrough to a gfxcard and I'm really happy with the results so far. As there is alot of advice in this thread to use older versions of Mint, I thought it might be worth mentioning that I've had success with the latest one.

For reference, here's the hardware:

Code: Select all

ASRock Z87 extreme6/ac
Sapphire RADEON HD 7750 1GB GDDR5 Ultimate
Intel i7-4771
Prolimatech Black Series Genesis CPU-cooler
G.Skill DDR3 32GB PC 1600 CL9 Sniper
Samsung SSD 840 EVO 500GB 2,5" SATA
Western Digital 3.0TB SATA RED
Seasonic Platinum-760 - 760W
Corsair ATX Midi Obsidian 550D
The host uses the onboard gfx which I've also chosen as primary display adapter in the bios.

I had to blacklist both radeon and snd-hda-intel drivers on the kernel cmdline in order for pciback to grab the gfxcard. On the downside, that means the onboard sound which also uses snd-hda-intel now does not work. Anyone know of any options to the driver telling it to ignore the gfxcard or some other workaround?

I was stuck for a while with the dreaded "parallel0 console" message on vncviewer after I had initially created and installed the win7 guest without using pci-passthrough. Finally I tried "xm destroy" followed by "xm create" again, and lo and behold, that did the trick.
Thanks for sharing your experience. I will include a link to your post so others can benefit from it. It gives me great pleasure to see that people like you return to Linux, running Windows only as a guest. I personally feel that VGA passthrough gives the best of both worlds. Linux Mint is a great distribution, and Clement (the project leader) and his team are very responsive. It's also easy enough to be suitable for newcomers.

Regarding the onboard sound and snd-hda-intel, I'm afraid I can't help now (1 week to the final exams, need to study). Here a link that might help for further research: [url]http://www.alsa-project.org/main/index.php/Matrix:Main[/url]. Just for reference, I have a Sapphire Radeon 7770 and had no issues with sound at all. In fact, I now have also an Asus Xonar Essence STX audio card, plus an USB audio stick (for Windows) and I can use all of them. I blacklisted the onboard sound as I have no need for it since I'm using the Asus Xonar Essence (a huge difference to the onboard sound, when using lossless audio files and playing over a decent stereo or studio grade headphones). I also managed to get bit-perfect output and removed pulseaudio, which means no more resampling when playing music files (I digitized my entire CD library). Good luck with getting your sound work!

EDIT: Which tool stack did you use? xm or xl ?

EDIT 2: Have you followed step 8 in the how-to? See here: [url]http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=112013#p628768[/url]. You need to specify two PCI IDs for your graphic card in both the pciback.conf file (step 9) and the Windows guest configuration file (step 12), like here:

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0000:02:00.0
0000:02:00.1
for the pciback.conf file and

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pci=[ '02:00.0', '02:00.1' , ... ]
in the win.cfg guest config file.
The second PCI ID (here 02:00.1) should prevent your snd-hda-intel driver to attach itself to the graphics card.
Subjects of interest: Linux, vfio passthrough virtualization, photography
See my blog on virtualization, including tutorials: https://www.heiko-sieger.info/category/ ... alization/
tigerdyr

Re: HOW-TO make dual-boot obsolete using XEN VGA passthrough

Post by tigerdyr »

powerhouse wrote:EDIT: Which tool stack did you use? xm or xl ?
xm
powerhouse wrote:EDIT 2: Have you followed step 8 in the how-to? See here: [url]http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=112013#p628768[/url]. You need to specify two PCI IDs for your graphic card in both the pciback.conf file (step 9) and the Windows guest configuration file (step 12), like here:

Code: Select all

0000:02:00.0
0000:02:00.1
for the pciback.conf file and

Code: Select all

pci=[ '02:00.0', '02:00.1' , ... ]
in the win.cfg guest config file.
The second PCI ID (here 02:00.1) should prevent your snd-hda-intel driver to attach itself to the graphics card.
I did do that, but it appears (from dmesg) that the sounddriver is loaded into the kernel long before the pciback script is executed and as such grabs a hold of it first. I suppose that would be fixable by moving it up in priority compared to alsa.
mbalino

Re: HOW-TO make dual-boot obsolete using XEN VGA passthrough

Post by mbalino »

My PC
System: Host: Bolso Kernel: 3.11.0-12-generic x86_64 (64 bit, gcc: 4.8.1) Desktop: Gnome Distro: Linux Mint 16 Petra
Machine: Mobo: ASUSTeK model: SABERTOOTH X79 version: Rev 1.xx Bios: American Megatrends version: 4302 date: 08/29/2013
CPU: Quad core Intel Core i7-4820K CPU (-HT-MCP-) cache: 10240 KB flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx) bmips: 29616.8
Clock Speeds: 1: 3700 MHz
Graphics: Card: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Tahiti XT [Radeon HD 7970/R9 280X] bus-ID: 01:00.0
X.Org: 1.14.3 drivers: ati,fglrx (unloaded: fbdev,vesa,radeon) Resolution: 1920x1080@59.9hz
GLX Renderer: AMD Radeon HD 7900 Series GLX Version: 4.2.12337 - CPC 13.101 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio: Card-1: Intel C600/X79 series chipset High Definition Audio Controller driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1b.0
Card-2: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Tahiti XT HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 7970 Series] driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 01:00.1
Card-3: KYE Systems (Mouse Systems) driver: USB Audio usb-ID: 0458:708c
Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture ver: k3.11.0-12-generic
Network: Card-1: Intel 82579V Gigabit Network Connection driver: e1000e ver: 2.3.2-k port: f040 bus-ID: 00:19.0
Card-2: Ralink Device 5592 driver: rt2860 bus-ID: 05:00.0
Drives: HDD Total Size: 2128.4GB (0.7% used) 1: id: /dev/sda model: ST2000DM001 size: 2000.4GB
2: id: /dev/sdb model: Corsair_Force_GS size: 128.0GB
Partition: ID: / size: 120G used: 6.1G (6%) fs: jfs ID: /boot size: 141M used: 44M (34%) fs: ext4
ID: /home size: 1.4T used: 8.7G (1%) fs: jfs
Info: Processes: 234 Uptime: 11 min Memory: 1221.9/32118.1MB Runlevel: 2 Gcc sys: 4.8.1 Client: Shell inxi: 1.8.4

ATI Driver installed manually from new version released on Nov 22nd 2013.

I am planning to install Xen to delete my Window 7 partition ONCE FOR ALL once I can have STEAM & other games running on my Xen Win7U64bit

Questions:
1. I did not installed LM16 with LVM --> is there a problem?
if yes --> how can I find a solution?
2. All your steps are up to date? --> Means that I ave to create scripts, change the sudo, etc?
3. Can I use my current windows ntfs partition with Xen, so I don't have to re-install everything?

Thank you very much in advance an for all your work.

Marcel 8)
tigerdyr

Re: HOW-TO make dual-boot obsolete using XEN VGA passthrough

Post by tigerdyr »

mbalino wrote:My PC
Questions:
1. I did not installed LM16 with LVM --> is there a problem?
if yes --> how can I find a solution?
You don't have to use LVM if you don't want to. As I just wanted to see if things worked before investing a lot of time, I skipped many of the steps.
mbalino wrote:2. All your steps are up to date? --> Means that I ave to create scripts, change the sudo, etc?
Most of it applies to LM16 also. I had to specify "blacklist=<module>,<module>" instead of "radeon.blacklist=1" which the radeon driver complained was an unrecognized option.
mbalino wrote:3. Can I use my current windows ntfs partition with Xen, so I don't have to re-install everything?
It might be possible, but I would probably rather re-install OS and apps, mount the old drive in windows and copy over whatever data I wanted. Certainly for a first attempt, you'd be better off following the guides as closely as possible and if it works, you can try to do it again and then adjust it more to your needs. You should also be aware that you may run into licensing problems - certainly if using an OEM license because eventhough it's the same machine, the windows running in the VM will not see the real BIOS and therefore also not be able to find the keys it expects. There seem to be hacks around that, but they require a bit of effort and I havn't tested that just yet - and if you are one of those using the so-called 'Windows Loader', I'm afraid it won't work with Xen either.
mbalino

Re: HOW-TO make dual-boot obsolete using XEN VGA passthrough

Post by mbalino »

tigerdyr wrote:
mbalino wrote:My PC
Questions:
mbalino wrote:3. Can I use my current windows ntfs partition with Xen, so I don't have to re-install everything?
It might be possible, but I would probably rather re-install OS and apps, mount the old drive in windows and copy over whatever data I wanted. Certainly for a first attempt, you'd be better off following the guides as closely as possible and if it works, you can try to do it again and then adjust it more to your needs. You should also be aware that you may run into licensing problems - certainly if using an OEM license because eventhough it's the same machine, the windows running in the VM will not see the real BIOS and therefore also not be able to find the keys it expects. There seem to be hacks around that, but they require a bit of effort and I havn't tested that just yet - and if you are one of those using the so-called 'Windows Loader', I'm afraid it won't work with Xen either.
Soo, if I am one of the lucky guys that I have a license for W8.1Pro but I hate it :twisted: and I wish ti downgrade to W7-WAT Removal tool-(or Windows loader)-Edition :oops: , this windows "copy" on Xen will not work/install??

Since you can have an ISO with "patch" included, that will work/install in Xen?? :roll:

By the way, thank you for this tutorial, Xen will be my project for this weekend.
I am trying to acquire all the knowledge that I can find.

Regards
Marcel
powerhouse
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Re: HOW-TO make dual-boot obsolete using XEN VGA passthrough

Post by powerhouse »

mbalino wrote:My PC
System: Host: Bolso Kernel: 3.11.0-12-generic x86_64 (64 bit, gcc: 4.8.1) Desktop: Gnome Distro: Linux Mint 16 Petra
Machine: Mobo: ASUSTeK model: SABERTOOTH X79 version: Rev 1.xx Bios: American Megatrends version: 4302 date: 08/29/2013
CPU: Quad core Intel Core i7-4820K CPU (-HT-MCP-) cache: 10240 KB flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx) bmips: 29616.8
Clock Speeds: 1: 3700 MHz
Graphics: Card: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Tahiti XT [Radeon HD 7970/R9 280X] bus-ID: 01:00.0
X.Org: 1.14.3 drivers: ati,fglrx (unloaded: fbdev,vesa,radeon) Resolution: 1920x1080@59.9hz
GLX Renderer: AMD Radeon HD 7900 Series GLX Version: 4.2.12337 - CPC 13.101 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio: Card-1: Intel C600/X79 series chipset High Definition Audio Controller driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1b.0
Card-2: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Tahiti XT HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 7970 Series] driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 01:00.1
Card-3: KYE Systems (Mouse Systems) driver: USB Audio usb-ID: 0458:708c
Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture ver: k3.11.0-12-generic
Network: Card-1: Intel 82579V Gigabit Network Connection driver: e1000e ver: 2.3.2-k port: f040 bus-ID: 00:19.0
Card-2: Ralink Device 5592 driver: rt2860 bus-ID: 05:00.0
Drives: HDD Total Size: 2128.4GB (0.7% used) 1: id: /dev/sda model: ST2000DM001 size: 2000.4GB
2: id: /dev/sdb model: Corsair_Force_GS size: 128.0GB
Partition: ID: / size: 120G used: 6.1G (6%) fs: jfs ID: /boot size: 141M used: 44M (34%) fs: ext4
ID: /home size: 1.4T used: 8.7G (1%) fs: jfs
Info: Processes: 234 Uptime: 11 min Memory: 1221.9/32118.1MB Runlevel: 2 Gcc sys: 4.8.1 Client: Shell inxi: 1.8.4

ATI Driver installed manually from new version released on Nov 22nd 2013.

I am planning to install Xen to delete my Window 7 partition ONCE FOR ALL once I can have STEAM & other games running on my Xen Win7U64bit
Hardware:
Motherboard - I got the same, but I hope Asus fixed the BIOS bug by now that appeared in BIOS releases 2002 and 2104 (if you have problems enabling/using VT-d, post here and also contact Asus customer support) - I'm very curious as I'm still with BIOS 1203
CPU - OK
Graphics cards: Hardware OK - but you need one for Linux and one for Windows - no crossfire or whatever it's called.

Your questions:
mbalino wrote:1. I did not installed LM16 with LVM --> is there a problem?
There is no need to have LVM for installing Xen. However, it's strongly advised to use LVM for your guests (Windows), for various reasons, one being performance. You would need a drive or partition and set up LVM, but you don't format it - no ext4 or whatever (it should be described in the how-to). In addition to better performance it will be very easy to backup and restore. See my script somewhere at the start of this thread, after the how-to.
mbalino wrote:2. All your steps are up to date? --> Means that I ave to create scripts, change the sudo, etc?
Yes and no. The how-to was specifically written for Linux Mint 13 and 14. However, I have also added notes for Linux Mint 15, based on user feedback. I'm using Linux Mint 14 right now and haven't found the time nor the reason to update. Check out the most recent posts where users posted successful Linux Mint 16 installs. Here is what I suggest:

- Follow the how-to to install Xen. But before you reboot into Xen, open a terminal window and enter the following:

Code: Select all

sudo sed -i 's/TOOLSTACK=.*\+/TOOLSTACK="xm"/' /etc/default/xen
Then continue following the how-to.

- At step 17 of my how-to you may encounter a problem in that your second graphics card is not listed as assignable device (your second graphics adapter won't bind to pciback). In that case follow the instructions in this link [url]http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=112013&start=120#p711782[/url].

- Other than that I don't foresee any particular problems. However, read the most recent posts (last 2-3 pages) for tips on Linux Mint 15 and 16.
mbalino wrote:3. Can I use my current windows ntfs partition with Xen, so I don't have to re-install everything?
No. You have to reinstall as described in this how-to. Your Windows will see a totally different hardware, except the graphics card and one of the USB hosts you may pass through.

Note: There is a way to boot Windows from disk, by passing through the SATA controller where the Windows disk is connected. Here is a short description (scroll down for subsequent posts related to DUET): [url]http://www.overclock.net/t/1205216/guide-create-a-gaming-virtual-machine/460#post_19067895[/url]. But this also requires a new installation of Windows, as far as I understand. In short, it's best to follow the how-to and reinstall.

A last note: Back up - both Windows and Linux - before going through the how-to. Better safe than sorry.

Good luck!
Subjects of interest: Linux, vfio passthrough virtualization, photography
See my blog on virtualization, including tutorials: https://www.heiko-sieger.info/category/ ... alization/
powerhouse
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Re: HOW-TO make dual-boot obsolete using XEN VGA passthrough

Post by powerhouse »

@mbalino: About Windows licenses, here is what I understood:

OEM license: no, this license is only good for an installation on the bare metal hardware it came with. Even if you run the Windows VM on the same original hardware, it's not covered by the license.

Retail license: This is a full, perpetual license for running a copy of Windows on hardware or as a VM. This is what I bought.

There are more options I can't remember, but my conclusion was that I had to bite the bullet and pay for the expensive retail license. It's best to check if Microsoft is offering more or better options for us now.

@tigerdyr: Thanks for your instructions on blacklisting, e.g. "blacklist=<module>,<module>".

Incidentally that blacklisting option may also be the key to solve your problem with the sound driver. Instead of blacklisting the PCI ID of your graphics card and sound module via the pciback script as described in my how-to, add this line to the end of the /etc/default/grub file:

Code: Select all

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_XEN_REPLACE_DEFAULT="xen-pciback.hide=(<your_pci_id_1>)(<your_pci_id_2>)"
for example: GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_XEN_REPLACE_DEFAULT="xen-pciback.hide=(02:00.0)(02:00.1)"

This should hide the specified PCI devices from the radeon and snd-hda-intel drivers and allow you to use the snd-hda-intel driver for the other sound module on your motherboard.
Subjects of interest: Linux, vfio passthrough virtualization, photography
See my blog on virtualization, including tutorials: https://www.heiko-sieger.info/category/ ... alization/
tigerdyr

Re: HOW-TO make dual-boot obsolete using XEN VGA passthrough

Post by tigerdyr »

mbalino wrote: Soo, if I am one of the lucky guys that I have a license for W8.1Pro but I hate it :twisted: and I wish ti downgrade to W7-WAT Removal tool-(or Windows loader)-Edition :oops: , this windows "copy" on Xen will not work/install??

Since you can have an ISO with "patch" included, that will work/install in Xen?? :roll:
While I'm not an expert in the matter, I believe the Windows Loader works by intercepting ACPI calls from the OS in order to return the some kind of OEM license key which is stored in the BIOS in an OEM system, and for some reason the BIOS used by Xen (as well as the one used by KVM) are incompatible with this (but it does work with BIOS used by VMware, for example). As the BIOS'es used by Xen and KVM are open source, you can find various patches to get around the problem, but they require some effort and preferably a bit of programming-knowledge. The patches I've seen simply involve adding the license data to a specific ACPI entry type that Windows will be looking for, nothing terribly fancy, but I've seen no automated user-friendly method of doing it I'm afraid. If your real BIOS does contain a valid key, you can find it in Linux in /sys/firmware/acpi/tables/, the file called SLIC, and that's what needs to be inserted in the VM's BIOS as well as I've understood it. This file won't exist though if you just bought your motherboard retail.

You can install Windows normally, but activating the Windows Loader will, as far as I've read, cause you to not be able to boot the VM because of this incompatibility. But hey, there's no harm in trying - one of the great things of running stuff in VM's is that you can ruin stuff with no consequences if you backup your VM.
FastRealm

Re: HOW-TO make dual-boot obsolete using XEN VGA passthrough

Post by FastRealm »

Hi, i want to clarify
" @tigerdyr: Thanks for your instructions on blacklisting, e.g. "blacklist=<module>,<module>". "
- Does this mean "blacklist=01:00.0,01:00.0" if not can you please give me an example.


" Incidentally that blacklisting option may also be the key to solve your problem with the sound driver. Instead of blacklisting the PCI ID of your graphics card and sound module via the pciback script as described in my how-to, add this line to the end of the /etc/default/grub file:
CODE: SELECT ALL
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_XEN_REPLACE_DEFAULT="xen-pciback.hide=(<your_pci_id_1>)(<your_pci_id_2>)"

for example: GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_XEN_REPLACE_DEFAULT="xen-pciback.hide=(02:00.0)(02:00.1)" "
- Does this mean i don't need to use this script "/etc/xen/pciback.conf" anymore?

The problem i faced so far with LM16 and Xen4.3.
I did fresh install of LM16 and Xen 4.3(XM), using the instructions here i can't get the VGA to passthrough, but if i upgrade from LM14 and Xen 4.1 with vga passthrough to LM16 and Xen 4.3(XM) the VGA passthrough work without needed to change anything. End result, I got no idea what makes it work, it just work. If anyone can get it work from fresh install LM16 please share what you did to get the VGA passthrough.

Thanks in advance.
tigerdyr

Re: HOW-TO make dual-boot obsolete using XEN VGA passthrough

Post by tigerdyr »

FastRealm wrote: " @tigerdyr: Thanks for your instructions on blacklisting, e.g. "blacklist=<module>,<module>". "
- Does this mean "blacklist=01:00.0,01:00.0" if not can you please give me an example.
In my case, it means I added: "blacklist=radeon,snd-hda-intel"
FastRealm wrote: GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_XEN_REPLACE_DEFAULT="xen-pciback.hide=(<your_pci_id_1>)(<your_pci_id_2>)"

for example: GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_XEN_REPLACE_DEFAULT="xen-pciback.hide=(02:00.0)(02:00.1)" "
- Does this mean i don't need to use this script "/etc/xen/pciback.conf" anymore?
I believe so, but I have not yet tested this. I used the pciback script from the instructions in this thread. I'll probably try the xen-pciback.hide cmdline param later today.
FastRealm wrote: The problem i faced so far with LM16 and Xen4.3.
I did fresh install of LM16 and Xen 4.3(XM), using the instructions here i can't get the VGA to passthrough, but if i upgrade from LM14 and Xen 4.1 with vga passthrough to LM16 and Xen 4.3(XM) the VGA passthrough work without needed to change anything. End result, I got no idea what makes it work, it just work. If anyone can get it work from fresh install LM16 please share what you did to get the VGA passthrough.
I did so using a fresh install and I've never used LM or Xen before. My VM config has gfx_passthru=0, so using just normal pci passthrough.
FastRealm

Re: HOW-TO make dual-boot obsolete using XEN VGA passthrough

Post by FastRealm »

Ok, when i use LM16 Xen4.3 the PCI doesn't get unbind. I will try the "blacklist=<module>" later when i get back and see if it works or not.
Thanks for the feedback.
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