LinuxQuestions.org
Latest LQ Deal: Latest LQ Deals
Go Back   LinuxQuestions.org > Forums > Linux Forums > Linux - Virtualization and Cloud
User Name
Password
Linux - Virtualization and Cloud This forum is for the discussion of all topics relating to Linux Virtualization and Linux Cloud platforms. Xen, KVM, OpenVZ, VirtualBox, VMware, Linux-VServer and all other Linux Virtualization platforms are welcome. OpenStack, CloudStack, ownCloud, Cloud Foundry, Eucalyptus, Nimbus, OpenNebula and all other Linux Cloud platforms are welcome. Note that questions relating solely to non-Linux OS's should be asked in the General forum.

Notices


Reply
  Search this Thread
Old 08-21-2011, 07:17 AM   #1
nass
Member
 
Registered: Apr 2006
Location: Athens, Greece
Distribution: slackware, debian, ubuntu
Posts: 666

Rep: Reputation: 39
can't start guest vm after I attach a pci slot to that guest


Hello everyone,
I am trying to use the "pci passthrough" feature of Virtualbox 4.1.2. Apparently there is 'primitive' support to attach pci devices directly to the guest OSes.

I have the following pci card:

Quote:
06:00.0 Parallel controller: Aladdin Knowledge Systems AladdinCARD
Subsystem: Device 6265:7274
Kernel driver in use: parport_pc
Kernel modules: parport_pc
It is not a parallel port card (even though the parport_pc modules Identified it), but rather a license key card for a Windows application (civil engineering related). Unfortunately I haven't found a linux driver for this card and as such I want to setup a win2000 guest OS in order to use it as the license server.

I use the command
Quote:
VBoxManage modifyvm "win2k" --pciattach 06:00.0@01:05.0
to attach the pci device to the guest
but when I try to start up the guest I get:

Quote:
vbox@samothraki:~$ VBoxHeadless -s win2k
Oracle VM VirtualBox Headless Interface 4.1.2
(C) 2008-2011 Oracle Corporation
All rights reserved.

VRDE server is listening on port 3389.
Error: failed to start machine. Error message: Cannot assign non-shared host interrupt handler: VERR_RESOURCE_BUSY (VERR_RESOURCE_BUSY)

Has anyone tried and managed to get pci passthrough working?

Thank you for your help
nass
 
Old 08-23-2011, 01:23 PM   #2
scheidel21
Senior Member
 
Registered: Feb 2003
Location: CT
Distribution: Debian 6+, CentOS 5+
Posts: 1,323

Rep: Reputation: 100Reputation: 100
Try removing the driver for the device, also see if there is a way to hide the PCI device at boot. I use PCI passthrough with a XEN HVM and I have to hide the PCI device at boot and give it to the VM as a dedicated device. I think the problem is that it can't be shared by the host and the VM.
 
Old 08-23-2011, 04:11 PM   #3
nass
Member
 
Registered: Apr 2006
Location: Athens, Greece
Distribution: slackware, debian, ubuntu
Posts: 666

Original Poster
Rep: Reputation: 39
I am willing to try that, but not by blacklisting the driver (parport_pc) since other pci cards use this driver too.
If you know a way to select which cards the driver will bring up during boot, i'll try it. In fact I opened up a thread exactly for that reason: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...device-898594/

However there is a question that perhaps posses a 'theoretical' limit to whether I should not disable identification of this card during boot up.
since virtualbox needs the card's pci address in order to complete the attach process (to the guest vm), what address will I provie if the card doesn't even show up in the kernel?
 
Old 08-23-2011, 10:56 PM   #4
scheidel21
Senior Member
 
Registered: Feb 2003
Location: CT
Distribution: Debian 6+, CentOS 5+
Posts: 1,323

Rep: Reputation: 100Reputation: 100
This might be useful to you a mail thread on KVM and how to unbind a device driver from a device http://www.mail-archive.com/kvm@vger.../msg10540.html Also as a side note did you read the documentation on the feature in the manual? Ensuring that you have an IOMMU or the AMD equivalent motherboard, and processor, plus having kernel with compiled IOMMU support? Maybe unbinding it will make it work without hiding it. Pg 147 of the manual talks about the PCI passthrough http://dlc.sun.com.edgesuite.net/vir...UserManual.pdf

I can tell you you could easily do this with XEN if you are willing to go that route if VB doesn't work.
 
Old 08-24-2011, 04:05 PM   #5
nass
Member
 
Registered: Apr 2006
Location: Athens, Greece
Distribution: slackware, debian, ubuntu
Posts: 666

Original Poster
Rep: Reputation: 39
the kvm link looks promising, there are lose ends (f.e. device reset) but I'll give it a shot.
not now though i'll be away for 4 days, so i'll try it next monday and post back.


I have read the virtualbox manual, but i'm abit fuzzy about about the IOMMU stuff...
( i dont have the pc in front of me right now to check, so i'll go about guessing abit )

the MoBo is ASUS P5Q-Pro, the cpu is core 2 duo E8400 @ 3GHz

There is an option to enable virtualization extensions (Intel Virtualization Tech) in the BIOS but nothing explicitly stating IOMMU (if I remember correctly - I checked the MoBo manual and there is no reference to IOMMU).

I think the kernel is pci-passthrough 'ready', i have made sure to include the pci_stub driver and the DMAR option. dmesg doesn't seem to output prominent messages though

Quote:
root@samothraki:/usr/src/linux# dmesg | grep -i dmar
root@samothraki:/usr/src/linux#
Quote:
root@samothraki:/usr/src/linux# dmesg | grep -i pci-dma
PCI-DMA: Using software bounce buffering for IO (SWIOTLB)
root@samothraki:/usr/src/linux#
so i'm not sure if i'm hardware supported for this stuff.. what do you make of it?


I haven't tried XEN and would like to avoid it for as long as I can, I like the hierarchy of a primary OS on a system.. Still I'm not ruling it out, but I would try it elsewhere and not on a production system to begin with

Thank you for the help, i'll get back to you with results for the KVM way to unbind the card.
 
  


Reply


Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off



Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
KVM with Ubuntu guest - guest crashes when some apps are 'full screened' TonyRogers Linux - Virtualization and Cloud 0 05-15-2011 12:18 PM
Problem installing guest additions on virtualbox Centos 5.5 64bit guest eljay313 Linux - Virtualization and Cloud 1 09-03-2010 08:22 AM
KVM: Mouse under Windows Guest performs way better than under Centos Guest martdj Linux - Virtualization and Cloud 3 03-29-2010 04:20 AM
LXer: Install Guest additions and run fullscreen mode on VirtualBox Guest OS | Linux LXer Syndicated Linux News 0 01-17-2010 05:30 PM
problem installing guest additions in Fedora 11 guest (virtualbox) mia_tech Linux - Desktop 9 07-28-2009 12:15 AM

LinuxQuestions.org > Forums > Linux Forums > Linux - Virtualization and Cloud

All times are GMT -5. The time now is 06:10 AM.

Main Menu
Advertisement
My LQ
Write for LQ
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute content, let us know.
Main Menu
Syndicate
RSS1  Latest Threads
RSS1  LQ News
Twitter: @linuxquestions
Open Source Consulting | Domain Registration