ESXI 6 - PCI passthrough for Intel Sky Lake chipset onboard VGA, SATA

[invinciblesingh]

My Project goal is to build Home Server/Desktop with ESXi, where I could run my Windows, Ubuntu Linux and NAS VMs.

Build Specs

Intel i5-6500, Gigabyte H170 Mini-Itx motherboard, 16GB DDR4 2133 Memory

There is only 1 PCIe slot which is used by additional SATA card.(so cannot use additional VGA card)

I have installed ESXi 6.0 U2 and tried creating Windows 8.1 x 64 bit VM and Windows 10 VM.

VMkernel DEEP 6.0.0 #1 SMP Release build-3620759 Mar  3 2016 18:41:52x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 ESXi

So far I have successful at PCI passthrough of onboard SATA controller and Wireless Controller. Which tells me Vt-d is working without issues.

Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H AHCI Controller

This needed addition of this line in /etc/vmware/passthrough.map

# INTEL Sunrise Point-H AHCI Controller

8086  a102  d3d0     false

But somehow when i assign onboard VGA(Intel HD 530) for passthrough; VMs get stuck after booting.

Everytime VMs hang right after

2016-04-05T22:36:50.967Z| vcpu-0| I120: pciBridge4:7: ISA/VGA decoding enabled (ctrl 0004)

2016-04-05T22:36:50.967Z| vcpu-0| I120: pciBridge4:6: ISA/VGA decoding enabled (ctrl 0004)

2016-04-05T22:36:50.967Z| vcpu-0| I120: pciBridge4:5: ISA/VGA decoding enabled (ctrl 0004)

2016-04-05T22:36:50.967Z| vcpu-0| I120: pciBridge4:4: ISA/VGA decoding enabled (ctrl 0004)

2016-04-05T22:36:50.967Z| vcpu-0| I120: pciBridge4:3: ISA/VGA decoding enabled (ctrl 0004)

2016-04-05T22:36:50.967Z| vcpu-0| I120: pciBridge4:2: ISA/VGA decoding enabled (ctrl 0004)

2016-04-05T22:36:50.967Z| vcpu-0| I120: pciBridge4:1: ISA/VGA decoding enabled (ctrl 0004)

2016-04-05T22:36:50.967Z| vcpu-0| I120: PCIBridge4: ISA/VGA decoding enabled (ctrl 0004)

2016-04-05T22:36:50.967Z| vcpu-0| I120: pciBridge7:7: ISA/VGA decoding enabled (ctrl 0004)

There is no errors shown, so I don't have much to go on here.

I have tried different combinations of below parameters but still nothing.

pciHole.start="2200"

pciPassthru1.opromEnabled=TRUE

pciPassthru1.msiEnabled = "FALSE"

smc.present = "TRUE"

I have even tried disabling Intel HD530 in Safe Mode and reboot. Enable it later from device manager, while i am in Remote Desktop. But VM just gets stuck right there and my Remote Desktop shows black screen. [Ping still responds]

Also tried disabling and uninstalling VMWare SVGA 3D,

It seems like ESXi is not letting full control of Intel HD530 graphics.

I know Integrated gfx passthrough is not recommended by Vmware; But ideally I would also like to use the same machine Graphics output, so that I don't have to access my VMs remotely when needed. (I could get rid of my old machines)

This setup works fine with XenServer and I am able to see my VM display from Host machine HDMI output.

[But again XenServer cannot do a USB or Bluray Drive passthrough]

I am attaching vmware logs here and my vmx file. Could anyone please see if you can find any error or settings that I could work with to fix the issue.

Note: VM works fine without graphics passthrough or in Safe mode.

Let me know if anything else is needed.

Appreciate your time.

Regards

Deep

[moenster]

Did you ever get it to work? I'm facing similar issues with the NUC6i3 and the Intel HD 520.

I can make the graphics adapter show in Windows 10, but when I try and install the Intel driver, Windows crashes, and even the console goes blank.

Regards Henrik

[ivanerben]

This seem to be still be live problem. HDMI output on IGD is not working. Re: ESX 6.7 with HDMI pass through - partly working.

[AllNicksUsed]

I have the same issue with Intel NUC and Intel Iris 540 on ESXi 6.7 U1. Guest OS (Win 10) shows that everything is ok. I've installed intel graphic driver but unfortunately no HDMI output.

[Hamilton11]

Hi, several years later:

I tested much differents things to do it (by HDMI) with a WINDOWS VM  and it still doesnt work !

BUT! ... With a Lnx like Ubuntu its worked immediatly (of course you need to activate the passthourgh, add the PCI on the VM, and put "FALSE" the the SVGA param.

But, its work.

IMPORTANT NOTE : RESTART the HOST after the configuration! If you dont do it, the VM make a loop restart.