Esxi 5.1 pci passthrough broken

[HellMind]

I got a purple screen when I start up a vm with a pci device

With Esxi5 was working fine.

I tested it with 2 vm on different hosts ( but same hardware)

i7 2600 32gb

mb: dq67sw

What can I try

[yeehawjared]

My experience with 5.5:

Good:

PCI passthrough options in vSphere survives reboot to esxi host and I can assign PCI passthrough to VMs.

Bad:

My linux images don't recognize connected USB devices.  It sees the USB controller, but not the devices attached to it.  I'm trying to plug in USB wifi cards (alfa awus036h).

imgur screenshots:

Photo Album - Imgur

edit:

added:  firmware = "efi" to my vmx file

added:  GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="intel_iommu=on" to my /etc/grub/grub.cfg and then running update-grub

still can't figure out how to "see" my USB devices in ubuntu.

[srwsol]

Have you tried adding "pciPassthru0.msiEnabled=False" to the VMs configuration?

[AndySavage]

Hi srwsol,

Thanks for the reply.

Yeah I've tried setting the pciPassthru config but it doesn't make a difference.

I'm beginning to think my controller will only work with v5.

I'm close but still far.

[Vith]

For the people who are getting a code 10 error with usb 2.0 passthrough (or in linux if it just doesn't work), you may want to try installing the OS in a vm that is using EFI mode. It has been proved to work for some (all?) people, including me, but I didn't test linux. It all started with this post -> https://communities.vmware.com/message/2291987#2291987

[wenlez]

"pciPassthru0.msiEnabled=False"  is a must for my case.  I also need to disable Multiple Monitor on iGPU. I have a ASRock Z77 motherboard and I can only select "PCIE" as the dedicated video instead of selecting "ONboard".

Now, i have another issue, that the outputted Video from my HD7850  doesn't reach full screen. Even at 1080p, the viewable area is shrinked dramatically.  Anyone see this problem?

[wenlez]

Has any one try the 5.0 U3 build yet? i'm on 5.1U1 and it's really frustrating that I can't get a keyboard and mouse, or USB controller to passthrough.

ESXi 5.5 can passthrough USB controller, but onboard SATA passthrough doesn't work.

[yeehawjared]

update:

I got Kali Linux (debian) to run in EFI mode in vsphere.  I can still "see" the USB controllers, but cannot access the USB devices connected to them.  Frustrating!

screenshots:

http://imgur.com/a/4DHJY

I do see an error during booting which says:

usb 2-1: device not accepting address 2, error -110

usb 2-1: device not accepting address 3, error -110

usb 2-1: device not accepting address 4, error -110

usb 2-1: device not accepting address 5, error -110

Those errors only appear when I add the pci passthrough of a USB controller.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[wenlez]

Good news!  The 5.0U3 ISO is working flawlessly. I can passthrough the USB controller and restart the host without loosing the config; I can passthrough my Radeon HD7850 to a Windows 7 VM.

[r0ck]

hi guys

i have exactly the same error like yeehawjared with vsphere 5.5.

tried all your suggetions. no luck.

everytime i see this error:

usb 2-1: device not accepting address 2, error -110

usb 2-1: device not accepting address 3, error -110

usb 2-1: device not accepting address 4, error -110

usb 2-1: device not accepting address 5, error -110

[NexcesThreed]

Hi Everybody,

Looks like I'm the first here to report back since the 5.1 Update 2. And I am very happy to let you all know that it finally works as expected!

Onboard USB 3.0, Intel ICH10 (in BIOS mode), AMD graphics, ... all can be successfully passed through to a VM, and all the devices stick through restarts.

Have fun

[srwsol]

I finally got back to the site where the original problem occurred and I just upgraded from the 5.1 version that sort of worked to 5.5 build 1331820 (the latest on the download page).  So far everything works just fine.  The USB 3 controller assigns correctly to a VM, and the settings survive multiple reboots, including a full power off.   I also note that it looks like this version does a much better job of identifying the PCI devices on the bus, as the correct names for everything are present in the display where you choose the PCI devices to pass through.

I haven't tested trying to pass through a USB controller on the motherboard, as in the previous versions that seemed to cause all USB ports on the motherboard to quit working, even though there are two separate USB controllers on the motherboard and I only tried passing through one of them.  The old version seemed to get confused about which USB ports were on which controllers, so I've been using an add-in USB 3 card for my [ass through USB 3 devices.  If you intend to experiment with passing through USB controllers on the motherboard be aware that if it doesn't work you might have to re-install.  I found that out before, but fortunately the box wasn't live yet.  Also, if it gets screwed up, even the Intel AMT stuff doesn't work (i.e. no keyboard access from Intel AMT) as long as ESXi is up and running, which must mean that the Intel AMT stuff is trying to feed the keystrokes into the USB port by some back door method, which gets compromised if ESXi tries to pass through that port. 

[kd_ca]

ESXi grabs the entire bus for USB Passthrough, so when ESXi is running, only ESXi and it's guests have access to the USB devices on the selected bus. 

So you will notice after ESXi boots , if the keyboard and mouse are hung off a passthrough bus, Intel AMT and also Dell DRAC Virtual Console will not respond to keyboard/mouse.  Most of the Uni and Dual socket intel server mother boards I have seen only have 2 USB buses.  

[srwsol]

It's screwy because in my case the motherboard has two USB controllers in addition to the NEC USB 3 controller that I added and am using for passthrough.  If I enable either (but not both) of the host USB controllers for passthrough, I lose Intel AMT functionality and a physical keyboard and mouse don't work no matter which USB port I plug them into.

[Krede]

I was running 5.5 GA (build 1331820) and everything worked. (Radeon HDMI with audio and PCI USB3 controller). But now - after updating to 5.5 U1 my audio is broken.

Device manager now show a yellow exclamation mark in front of "High Definition Audio Controller".

Have any of you Guys tried upgrading to 5.5 U1 ?

😞

[kd_ca]

I will go out on limb here and suggest things, relating to bus contention, without knowing the details of your system:

a) If your onboard USB controllers are hung off the same bus, then that may be a consideration. You can  use the lsusb command to find the details or if you have access to the details of the motherboard. I do not have the links for the ESXi lsusb commands but you can search for them

b) Intel AMT KVM is probably trying to assert both USB Controllers before proceeding ?

c) The add in USB card is sitting on a separate bus, thus Passthru should not have contention issues ?

Anyways, if the add in card is working for your USB passthrough then that is a better solution.

[kikistan]

I have the same issue.

ESXI 5.5 latest version from december.

ICH10 in AHCI

PAssthrough is OK

As soon as I start a VM with the PCi SATA attached ... purple screen of death Exception 14

Any idea ?

Thanks

[wenlez]

YOu got the screen of death?  what motherboard / chipset are you using?    I have Z77, and I can start the VM with the passthroughed SATA controller, BUT, the VM doesn't recognize any of them.  Where do you get the 5.5 from December? i only see the initial release of 5.5 in October.

[kikistan]

Yes a purple screen if you prefer

I have a rather old motherboard : GA-EQ45M-S2

Intel^® Q45 + ICH10DO chipset

For the sata to be recognized the host has to have the drivers ... is this your case ? or is not enumerated at all ?

Go here: https://www.vmware.com/patchmgr/findPatch.portal for the last ESXI patches

[technobro1]

HI everyone...

As mention by others everything works except usb in linux specifically (Kali and suse+ubuntu ), in Win8 and OSX usb woks fine

I am wondering is anyone found the solution for the  passtough of usb into linux in 5.5

when i do lsusb i got

unable to initialize libusb: -99

-------------------------------

# cat /var/log/dmesg | grep -i usb

[    0.815539] ACPI: bus type usb registered

[    0.815564] usbcore: registered new interface driver usbfs

[    0.815574] usbcore: registered new interface driver hub

[    0.815882] usbcore: registered new device driver usb

[    0.816392] ehci_hcd: USB 2.0 'Enhanced' Host Controller (EHCI) Driver

[    0.816637] ehci_hcd 0000:03:00.0: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1

[    0.816872] ehci_hcd 0000:03:00.0: USB bus 1 deregistered

--------------------------------

# lspci | grep USB
03:00.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #2 (rev 04)

-----------------

EDIT:

~# cat /var/log/dmesg | grep -i ehci

[    0.456601] pci 0000:03:00.0: EHCI: unrecognized capability 00

[    0.803543] ehci_hcd: USB 2.0 'Enhanced' Host Controller (EHCI) Driver

[    0.803649] ehci_hcd 0000:03:00.0: EHCI Host Controller

[    0.803662] ehci_hcd 0000:03:00.0: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1

[    0.803697] ehci_hcd 0000:03:00.0: can't setup

[    0.803764] ehci_hcd 0000:03:00.0: USB bus 1 deregistered

[    0.803807] ehci_hcd 0000:03:00.0: init 0000:03:00.0 fail, -19

[GabrielMoga]

Hello VMware Community,

Has anyone succeeded to passthrough an Aladdin HASP?

I want to virtualize a server which uses the HASP but after a successful P2V migration I am not able to passthrough the USB Dongle.

Any thought or advice much appreciated!

I am running ESXi 5.5 with vCenter 5.5