ISD 820 Knowledge Base

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====== VGA Passthrough ======

===== Requirements =====
====   For intel:  ====
  * CPU that supports Vt-d and Vt-x
  * Motherboard that supports Vt-d
  * Vt-d and Vt-x must be enabled in BIOS or UEFI
==== For AMD ====
  * CPU that supports IOMMU and VMX
  * Motherboard that supports IOMMU
  * IOMMU and VMX must be enabled in BIOS or UEFI
==== Video Card ====
  * Most Radeon HD cards support vga passthrough
  * Only the Quatro Nvidia cards support vga passthrough
  * Some Intel graphics work with vga passthrough

==== Software Requirements ====
  * XEN and KVM both support VGA passthrough, but XEN apparently offers much better performance

===== Examples =====
Example XEN passthrough config
<file>
# nut sure if really needed
kernel="/usr/lib/xen-default/boot/hvmloader"

builder = "hvm"
name = "win7x64-hvm"

# RAM size in MB
memory = "4096"

# number CPU cores
vcpus = 2

vif = ['type=ioemu']

# boot from cd and hdd
disk = ['phy:/dev/virtual-machines/win7x64,hda,w','file:/home/user/images/WIN_7_PROFESSIONAL.iso,hdc:cdrom,r']
boot="dc"

# boot from hdd
#disk = ['phy:/dev/virtual-machines/win7x64,hda,w']
#boot="c" 

# enable remote vnc access until video card driver is installed
vnc = 1 

acpi=1
sdl=0
serial='pty'

# list your pci devices (HD7950,HD7950,USB)
pci=['01:00.0','01:00.1','00:1a.0']
</file>

===== Sound and USB =====
  * Since the physical video output of the passed video card is used there will be no SDL/VNC screen this means that a sound card must also be passed for the vm to have sound
  * For that same reason as above you will want to pass one USB controller for input

===== Sources =====
  * http://www.overclock.net/t/1205216/guide-create-a-gaming-virtual-machine
  * http://wiki.xen.org/wiki/Xen_VGA_Passthrough_Tested_Adapters#Matrox_display_adapters
  * http://wiki.xen.org/wiki/Xen_PCI_Passthrough
  * http://wiki.xen.org/wiki/VTd_HowTo
  * http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=112013
  * http://gro.solexiv.de/2012/08/pci-passthrough-howto/
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