VMDirectPath and ATI Radeon

[taylorjonl]

I am using VMware ESXi and I am trying to setup a guest that is Windows 7 that will have an ATI Radeon video card passed through to it.  I actually had this working on a previous system but I had to reinstall.  Now when I do this the guest fails to start and I get the following:

Error message from localhost.XXXXXXXXXXX:
PCIPassthru 004:00.0: Guest tried to (null)map
32 device pages (with base address of 0xb5d20)
to a range occupied by main memory. This is
outside of the PCI Hole. Add pciHole.start =
"2909" to the configuration file and then power
on the VM.
error
12/23/2010 1:04:36 PM
media
User

When I do as it asks, the guest now starts but gets an immediate BSOD concerning memory management.  Any ideas on why this is occuring and why it worked at one point but now it fails?

[roancea]

I'll just chime in here and maybe help you feel a little more sane.  I've successfully passed through a 6450, 6850, 6950, and 7970 on my esxi box running on an X79 platform.  However, I tried the same Asus EAH540 you're talking about and couldn't get it to work - continuous crashes if it'd load at all.  At the end of the day, I just gave up on this particular card as being troublesome - maybe its something else contributing to the problem, but as far as I'm concerned its an outlier on an otherwise working passthrough solution.

edit: And to ciuly above, I will say that this board (asus x79 pro) has run three passthrough's concurrently (just not with the 5450 sadly), so if that's what you're looking for, its not a bad place to start. 

[DMG210]

I usually use: http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/Pages/index.aspx

[ciuly]

thanks DMG. I've done the same, downloaded the drivers for win7x64 and winxpx32 (latest version, 12.3 from a few weeks back). none worked

The card would still come up having 1024 mb and not able to extend desktop on winxp (although this time it didn't BSDO it just froze for maybe 1 mionute (only the display, as I was keeping a ping running) and then it gave an error saying the driver failed to do seomthing (same sys as in BSOD)

if rebooting, then went into BSOD as "usual".

well, I'll try to get the card back to the shop then.

Thanks for help and suggestions.

[FuNK3Y]

I tried to achieve the same with a HD5450 and was never able to get it working correctly with ESX 5 (it was working without DXVA on 4.1 as far as I can remember...)

You might start to update your ESXi 5 to update 1 if it has not been done already (I haven't tried that at the time, this is your best chance I think):

http://www.vmware.com/support/vsphere5/doc/vsp_vc50_u1_rel_notes.html

A feedback with the updated ESXi would be very welcome.

[ciuly]

First thing I did when I saw the trouble with vga passthrough was to read their release notes. There is nothign (I could see) that realted to PCI passthrough, but I could have missed it.

I am getting my 450 replaced with another card tomorrow. Hopefully that one will work better.

If not, I'll try the update 1. will report back tomorrow sometime.

[roancea]

I don't think there's been much luck with nvidia cards, but maybe its worth trying a 6450.  You can often find these popping up for sub-$20, so its not a terrible investment.  My only complaint with the xfx I ended up grabbing was its technically a single slot, but has a wrap-around heat-sink that somewhat obstructs the slot behind it - so if that's a concern, spend an extra minute to make sure - otherwise, it was very much plug and play.

[FuNK3Y]

You won't find anything about VGA passthrough in any patchnote as it is completely not supported

From my experience, it was even worse with nvidia; the closest I came to get something working was with a HD6450 ou HD5450 (can't remember for sure) and ESXi 4.1. The hypervisor is deeply involved; update 1 may change something, this is right now your best shot.

[DMG210]

Just to confirm: I'm running ESX5.0 with a Radeon HD6450 passed through to Windows Embedded 2011 :smileygrin:

Everything works exceptionally well via HDMI @ 1080p + 7.1 TrueHD DTS (high bit-rate). Full hardware decoding, DXVA2 + UVD 3 are also working extremely well and have been since christmas! You can't actually tell it's running as a VM, even when playing Flight Sim X. The biggest bonus for me is only having one machine powered on 24/7 which saves the juice bill and keeps the misses happy

I'm running XBMC on two TV's via HDMI over ethernet. I'm also passing though a USB controller for the remote controls (USB over ethernet) aswell.

I also used an old Radeon HD4350 with success but it only supported stereo out via HDMI... Please see my previous posts for more details...

I can't wait for my quad tuner to arrive (BlackGold 3600 DVB-S2 / DVB-T2) so I can scrap the Humax boxes and VMDirectPath it for the ultimate all-in-on virtual media centre!!

[roancea]

Yea, having been successful with multiple vga passthrough under esxi 5, I may end up doing something very similar to DMG in the coming year and have a dedicated box with 4-5 vm's running with hdmi/usb over cat5 for htpc front-ends.  Yay for easy media distribution and centralized upgrades.

[GBowman]

To all those who have this running on ESXi 5, do you have any problems with the console starting up?  On both my machines I get the the cnic_register loaded succesfully part then it hangs.  The machine comes up in the background and the console is not needed once the graphics card is passed through but it concerns me something is not right.

[DMG210]

I'm afraid the vSphere Client console doesn't work when passing through a GPU if you set the graphics card as the primary display in windows. I just use VNC/RDP if I need remote access.

If you need vClient console access you should be able to extend the display onto the GPU and leave the VMware display as primary, this way you'll be able to have both. When I first configured it I had to use VNC as by default windows will install the graphics card as the primary adapter with a res my TV didn’t support…

[roancea]

GBowman - the cnic_register hang was something that concerned me as well when I was first setting this up.  In fact, the first couple times I just had assumed that the host had crashed out on start-up.  However, my best explanation (not based on anything official) is basically what you have alluded to in your observations - approximately at that point in the host start-up is where the vga is handed off, and since its no longer accessible to the host, it doesn't further update the screen.  That is, until you initalize the vm that has had the vga passed through to it, then it'll blank the screen and utilize that vga for that vm.  As far as I can tell, this can be considered "normal" behavior for passing through the primary vga - downside is you obviously lose esxi console access, but that's arguably not that critical imo.

[ciuly]

got a MSI 6450 1gb DDR3. sadly, didn't work. I got it as far as the 5450, when extending the desktop, it either crashes after 1 min (if I go to list modes and set the resolution from there), or it directly BSODs (if I dono't).

I'm gonna fish for a 3450 on ebay which all of you got working. I'll also try a vga through usb, maybe I get lucky there as anything I put over USB went through just fine.

This is gonna take a couple of weeks or so. I will psot back when I've got news.

If I have time, I'll try to downgrade to 4.1 as well.

[GBowman]

Thanks.  I gave up on 5 when I tried it because of the cnic_register hang.  ESXi 4 makes it all the way to the console and only passes off the card when you start that virtual machine.

I have given 5 a better chance now and can confirm on my setup I get no better pass through performance.  Windows works fine and I can game in 3D but DXVA is still flakey and not useable and flash player has to be set to disable acceleration.  This leads me to conclude its not an ESXi 5 benefit but the guy who has it working must have a very good motherboard or a different guest OS maybe.

Still same results with all 3 of my cards, 5450, 5770 and 6770 so I am still a firm believer its got nothing to do with the graphics card and all to do with the main board bios.

[GBowman]

ermockler:- What CPU are you using with an X58 chipset to get this to work?

[ermockler]

Intel Core i7 920 - 2.66 GHz Quad-Core Processor SLBEJ X58

ASRock X58 Extreme Intel LGA1366 Intel Motherboard DDR3 e

$300 for both on ebay

[GBowman]

Thats good to know.  I went with my setup as the I7 920 is not listed as being Vt-d compliant but if it works I might just give the X58 a try.

[ciuly]

is 4.1 still downloadable from somewhere? I can't seem to be able to find it. I noticed not even 5 is downloadable anymore. Says I'm not entitled to download it.

[GBowman]

https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/info/slug/datacenter_cloud_infrastructure/vmware_vsphere_hypervisor...

I have found there is no difference as far as direct path in using 4.0, 4.1 or 5.0, the only differences are that more of my whitebox hardware was supported by the later versions so I didnt have to mess about with NIC drivers and the SATA worked properly.

[ciuly]

I see. I tested 5.0U1 just now, no change.

thanks for the link. Will test 4.1 tomorrow if I manage to somehow find a way not to mess with my current HDD.