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?

[rmathis1984]

Umm ya I would hope a 4000 works. It's on the supported list for View. It's one of a very select few, that card is also WAY past the cost bracket most people are trying to do on this forum with passthru. That card is allows for a virtual GPU to a View desktop so that you can use 3d from a remote machine not local like passthru.

With that style of card switch to View and run a few desktops with 3d enabled on the pool. A single user will be hard pressed to push one of those cards to the limits unless you doing heavy CAD.

[Nathanw20111014]

Yes, you are right it is on the supported list however with 5.1 GPU passthrough even with supported cards was broken. The patch listed resolved the broken passthrough issue with 5.1. I am also aware it is better suited for vSGA, however I was only mentioning my success with something that was previously broken. It is possible that this patch also helps "unsupported" cards.

Speaking of I just tried an "unsupported" card with success. It was a AMD HD 4550.

[rmathis1984]

I never ran into the problem on 5.1 when it came to passthru on PCI-E card's USB devices. Didn't know there was an issue.. Guess I got lucky

[champagnecharly]

Strange positive findings..

Just installed W8x64 build 9200 trial .. Installed VM tools. connected GPU (4350)

board = tyan tempest i5400pw

I Didnt install cataylyst and did not use safemode monitor was connected.

Drivers were auto installed and all worked perfectly.

Installed drivers =  WDDM v1.1 .

This was exceptionally easy. I must be exceptionally lucky with this board despite my LSI 8888ELP  SAS not being recognised.

However what is curious is why in W8 these drivers work and in W7 they do not unless of course it is driver builds. 

Next steps to test sometime in the future..

linux distros

N+1 GPU

PCIE extenders(splitters) to see how much I can pass through...

[IG82]

I have been playing around with this for a while and have also just had some pretty good and simple results.

Originally I was running a 5.0 ESXi install and got an XFX 5450 and a VTX 7750 running with passthrough.  I additionally had an Asus Xonar STX sound card which worked no problems.  I ran this a while and managed to even play a few lower end games in eyefinity with the 7750.

I moved house and my setup/requirements have changed, I am now planning on placing this in my living room.  As well as a few other linux VMs the plan is to have 3x VMs using passthrough.

1.  XBMCbuntu (XFX 5450)

2. Windows 7 running Hyperspin (emulator frontend) & Steam (VTX 7750)

3. Windows 7 running Argus TV server (TBS 6281 DVB-S2 sattelite card)

I don't have the card for the 3rd yet but over the last couple of days have got the first 2 working.

The XBMCbuntu install couldn't be easier, GPU passed through from the initial setup and it boots straight into it using the 5450 HDMI output.  I expect I may need to replace the 5450 with a 6450 in order to get HD audio.

For the 2nd windows install after one failed attempt it has just worked.  Last year I had all the BSOD problems with atikmpag.sys and it looked to be the same on first attempt.  Second attempt however was as smooth as could be:

1. Install W7 in VM and update fully - including .NET 4.0 framework

2. Install  VMWare tools

3. Enable passthrough of devices

4. Install AMD 13.1 drivers

That was it, the display activated without even rebooting after the driver install.

This is all on ESXi 5.1.0 799733, other hardware specs are:

MSI Z77A-G45 motherboard

Intel i5 3550 CPU

16GB RAM

[IG82]

Well that was nice success while it lasted, plans scuppered by the removal of USB passthrough in 5.1  Could revert back to 5.0 I guess but then I cannot use vSphere Client in Windows 8.

[dc_g]

Hi guys,

Here is my success build:

Hardware:

Asrock Z77 Professional-M 1.20 BIOS

i5-3570

Radeon HD 7770

Software:

ESXi 5.0u1 + VMWare tools

W7 x64

AMD 13.1

BIOS:

VT-d: on

iGPU and Audio: off

1. Created VM - 2GB Ram

                    - Set VM Video adapter Auto ; + 3D Support

2. Installed OS; Shutdown VM

3. Passthrough Unknown VGA controller and USB controllers to VM; Power on VM

4. Installed Catalyst 13.1 - some transcoding issues reported as being unsusccesfully installed.Reboot VM

5. VM displayed on monitor.

Now there some quirks:

a. CCC posts some .net framework errors and I uninstalled it from Control Panel. (maybe because I didn't update the OS I guess)

b. After I uninstalled CCC I rebooted the VM and tried to play some youtube videos 720p works fine also 1080p but with some stuttering.

I realised that there is no HW acceleration.

Do I have to disable or enable some other stuff? Or is it the 13.1 driver?

I tried Display only on monitor but still no difference.

[dc_g]

Hm...

I restored the VM snapshot, and installed updates with .net 4 installed Catalyst again.

I tried to run W7 index but it gives an error saying it does not have some multimedia devices in order to run.

The CCC works fine now (the .net 4 was missing first).

Aero does not work. I tried an old 3D game it works. But some others don't.

The VM is on the local datastore 1 x 2TB HDD.

The VM has some choppiness very often I guess it's because of the SATA drive.

Do I need to install some other stuff in order to get rid of these issues?

How are you setups running ? Smooth?

Thanks

[GBowman]

Other than a few codecs and hardware acceleration not working my VM's are perfectly smooth and play all games and applications I have tried.  You must choose to only display on the ATI monitor and not the VMWare one if you want aero.

I have to say I have not had anything like the troubles some have.  Once I found my working hardware I have installed and re installed dozens of times, windows just works no matter what order I do things.  Install the OS, VMWare tools and CCC (although I am on an old version about 11.4) and it all just works.  Windows 8 has behaved exactly the same on all my setups.

X58 is the king though, I have a UD3R board now with 4x PCIx16 slots and they all work for passthru.  Currently have an Nvidia card for vSGA in slot 1 and 3 ATI cards for passthru.  Going to give Crossfire a go just to see if it works!

[dc_g]

Hi,

Thanks for your info, yes you are right about aero.

But I found what was the issue. I was using W7 Professional N which does not have WMP and some other stuff it seems.

I could see that my VM was crawling .

Got a W7 Pro non-N and now it's flying :smileygrin:

Index benchmark runs and everything is so smooth :smileygrin:

Happy day

[dc_g]

My guesses we're confirmed about Aero, if you still want Aero and you don't want to disable the monitor

for VM console(you need it in case something happens with the VM and you can't boot it)

I checked the 3D support checkbox for the Video Adapter of the VM and now everything works as it should

[champagnecharly]

I wonder if this beauty with its 12 pcie slots would handle GPU pass through..

FT77-B7015 - Tyan

ahh.. at its price tag i think i can keep dreaming..

[derickso]

Honestly probably not, when you add PCIe switch chips, multiplexers, etc it makes it less and less likely to work.

[spangers]

Well I put in a ASrock H77m-ITX and guess what! The the VGA passthrough now works!

BUT and its a big BUT.....

I can no longer get USB passthrough to work..............

There are 2 unknown USB devices listed (see screenie) and I have tried passing both of them through (1 at a time) and they install correctly as shown in Device Manager Screenshot but when I plug a device into any USB nothign comes up... I have triend multiple devices in all the USB slots and no love.

Does anyone know if this can be fixed? I need to get an xbox controller attached or this project is done

[dc_g]

I put them both on my Asrock

Try that and see what happens

Also I see you have ESXi 5.0.0

Update it to U1 and you're done

[IG82]

ESXi 5.1? EDIT: sorry, I didn't look at the screenshot very well   I did get USB working in 5.0 but 5.1 it stopped.

Exactly the issue I outline above.  Looks like VMWare have removed USB passthrough support, frustratingly the GPU passthrough seemed much better.

I have given up on ESXi for now and am doing what I want in Xen instead.  Have my Windows 7 VM working with my AMD 7750 and USB devices.

[dc_g]

Nope. Not ESXi 5.1, but 5.0 update 1: http://www.vmware.com/support/vsphere5/doc/vsp_esxi50_u1_rel_notes.html

On ESXi 5.1 there is only a fix but it works only for PCI passthrough which was broken.

So 5.0 update 1 works out of the box.

He could try update 2 but it breaks the onboard SATA controller passthrough but if you don't need that update 2 will be fine also.

[spangers]

I installed ESXI update 2 from the CD, atleast I am pretty sure I have update 2.

I have attached a screen shot showing 5.0.0-20121202001 in Image Profile. I am pretty sure thats update 2 right?

[dc_g]

My bad you're right.

Downgrade to 5.0 U1 , U2 has some issues like I said with the SATA controller and maybe some others.

Try U1 thats the one working for everyone.

[spangers]

How do I downgrade mate? Just patch the old u1 update?