[vfio-users] Hyperthreading and kvm
Blank Field
ihatethisfield at gmail.com
Sat Aug 22 18:32:05 UTC 2015
If you use gentoo - add the USE flag and emerge -N your qemu again. I can't
imagine problems with compilation harder than that(except if you're crazy
enough to run distcc on a heterogenous network to compile your QEMU, but
then you probably don't need all that virtualization stuff to keep yourself
busy).
Read the OVMF whitepaper already, please.
http://www.linux-kvm.org/downloads/lersek/ovmf-whitepaper-c770f8c.txt
> Notes about Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8:
>- QEMU should be started with the "-device qxl-vga,revision=4" option (or
a later revision, if available).
What it really does as Laszlo Ersek said a while ago:
Windows 7(and only seven and it's server counterpart!) is not 100% UEFI
compatible, it uses Video Bios Extension to render graphics after the
setup. The installation process uses GOP, the real system uses VBE. That's
why your install runs fine, and then a black screen comes, showing
absolutely nothing.
So there was a "shim" or a "stub" or whatever you call it, compatibility
layer added to OVMF and QEMU's QXL's Device Driver, making it emulate just
the needed parts of VBE for you to install the true QXL(or AMD/Nvidia GPU
in our case) drivers and forget about VBE forever.
Therefore, you do NOT need CSM for it to work, since we don't use VGA or
any legacy stuff we have in CSM, instead, we provide just a tiny shim.
Why you need it to be especially QXL? Because i remember only QXL patches.
If it works with Cirrus too - nice, it means it's patched too. My setup
works with QXL.
2015-08-22 21:03 GMT+03:00 José Ramón Muñoz <koalinux at gmail.com>:
> Hi,
>
> I still think this is misleading as long as ovmf seems to use
> seabios for
> compatibility mode, and all the vgas should then be working correctly. I
> cannot try qxl though as I have to cross build spice then to have the
> dependency build to have qxl in qemu.
>
> Any other idea?
>
> BR.
>
> José.
>
> On Saturday 22 August 2015 12:21:16 Jonathan Panozzo wrote:
> > You actually don’t need to use a spice server to use QXL. You can use
> QXL
> > as an alternative graphics adapter and still use VNC as the remote
> graphics
> > server.
> > > On Aug 22, 2015, at 12:17 PM, José Ramón Muñoz Pekkarinen
> <koalinux at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > Hi,
> > >
> > > Is it any other like vmware valid? I didn't try to install spice
> in my
> > >
> > > setup.
> > >
> > > BR.
> > >
> > > José.
> > >
> > > On Saturday 22 August 2015 20:11:01 Blank Field wrote:
> > >>> -vga cirrus
> > >>
> > >> ...
> > >> dude.
> > >> You need QXL-VGA. Cirrus is.. deprecated, i think.
> > >>
> > >> 2015-08-22 20:02 GMT+03:00 José Ramón Muñoz <koalinux at gmail.com>:
> > >>> Hi,
> > >>>
> > >>> I gave it a try today with no success. The launch command was:
> > >>> /qemu-system-x86_64 -enable-kvm -vga cirrus -cpu host -smp
> > >>> 4,cores=4,threads=1
> > >>> -m 4096 \
> > >>>
> > >>> -netdev user,id=user.0 -device e1000,netdev=user.0 \
> > >>> -usb -usbdevice tablet \
> > >>> -drive
> > >>> if=pflash,format=raw,readonly,file=/usr/share/edk2.git/ovmf-
> > >>>
> > >>> x64/OVMF_CODE-with-csm.fd \
> > >>>
> > >>> -drive if=pflash,format=raw,file=/usr/share/edk2.git/ovmf-
> > >>>
> > >>> x64/Windows_ovmf_vars_x64.fd \
> > >>>
> > >>> -drive
> > >>>
> > >>>
> file=/dev/koalita/koalitavm,format=raw,cache=none,aio=native,if=virtio
> > >>>
> > >>> I tried to launch it using the virtio disk, the ide disk, and
> > >>>
> > >>> empty disk
> > >>> with the windows 7 installer, and even without disk to see if the
> cdrom
> > >>> launchs ok.
> > >>>
> > >>> Best regards.
> > >>>
> > >>> José.
> > >>>
> > >>> On Wednesday 19 August 2015 23:23:43 Blank Field wrote:
> > >>>> The need of Q35 is overrated. Usually you need it for booting from
> sata
> > >>>> controllers or something.
> > >>>> For our use 440fx works better.
> > >>>> I've used windows 7 on my machine. All you need to do is to follow
> the
> > >>>
> > >>> OVMF
> > >>>
> > >>>> whitepaper:
> > >>>>
> http://www.linux-kvm.org/downloads/lersek/ovmf-whitepaper-c770f8c.txt
> > >>>>
> > >>>> 2015-08-19 20:35 GMT+03:00 José Ramón Muñoz <koalinux at gmail.com>:
> > >>>>> Hi,
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>> Sorry for not replying to all, I wrote from the phone and
> > >>>>> sometimes
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>> happens.
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>> About the ovmf stuff, I would give it a try just in case I
> > >>>
> > >>> didn't
> > >>>
> > >>>>> read the
> > >>>>> Alex Williamson post that explained that I need windows > win7 to
> be
> > >>>
> > >>> able
> > >>>
> > >>>>> to
> > >>>>> use it. I'm still not planning to upgrade it to windows 10.
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>> How about q35? I tried to launch it but it seems to yield a
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>> beautiful
> > >>>>> BSOD because of the ati drivers not being expanded. Do anyone uses
> it
> > >>>>> regularly?
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>> BR.
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>> José.
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>> On Wednesday 19 August 2015 20:12:23 Blank Field wrote:
> > >>>>>> Please, use the reply-all button. Include "vfio-users at redhat.com"
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>> address
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>>> in the "to:" field.
> > >>>>>>
> > >>>>>>> So, I got it right that using OVMF my setup can work reliably?
> > >>>>>>> I
> > >>>>>>> was
> > >>>>>>
> > >>>>>> considering to build it but it seems to be not so straight forward
> > >>>>>> in
> > >>>>>> Gentoo.
> > >>>>>>
> > >>>>>> I haven't tried doing this on gentoo, but you can try using
> "alien"
> > >>>
> > >>> to
> > >>>
> > >>>>> use
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>>> RPMs from kraxel.org
> > >>>>>> https://www.kraxel.org/repos/
> > >>>>>> Also, i recall there was just plain binary files builds from
> > >>>>>> jenkins,
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>> lurk
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>>> around and see if you can make yourself an ebuild with an overlay.
> > >>>>>> Also, there's a xen-tools package which has OVMF USE-flag, try
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>> researching
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>>> this.
> > >>>>>> And i think i saw an user-created portage overlay with the OVMF
> > >>>
> > >>> package
> > >>>
> > >>>>> in
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>>> there.
> > >>>>>>
> > >>>>>> I think plain libvirt and virt-manager should already be in the
> main
> > >>>>>> portage tree.
> > >>>>>>
> > >>>>>> 2015-08-19 6:16 GMT+03:00 José Ramón Muñoz Pekkarinen <
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>> koalinux at gmail.com>:
> > >>>>>>> Hi,
> > >>>>>>>
> > >>>>>>> So, I got it right that using OVMF my setup can work reliably?
> > >>>
> > >>> I
> > >>>
> > >>>>> was
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>>>> considering to build it but it seems to be not so straight
> forward
> > >>>
> > >>> in
> > >>>
> > >>>>>>> Gentoo.
> > >>>>>>>
> > >>>>>>> BR.
> > >>>>>>>
> > >>>>>>> José
> > >>>>>>>
> > >>>>>>> On Aug 19, 2015 3:09 AM, "Blank Field" <ihatethisfield at gmail.com
> >
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>> wrote:
> > >>>>>>>> Well, that sounds like the first time i've got it working.
> > >>>>>>>> Sooo, i've managed to make it work back then with just x-vga and
> > >>>>>>>> qemu.
> > >>>>>>>> It worked. Sometimes.
> > >>>>>>>> Sometimes it crashed the host.
> > >>>>>>>> Sometimes it froze the VM and messed up the GPU.
> > >>>>>>>> I did a foolish research with no results whatsoever, but i've
> > >>>>>>>> made
> > >>>>>>>> one
> > >>>>>>>> observation - if the firefox is started and it eats a ton of
> > >>>
> > >>> memory,
> > >>>
> > >>>>>>>> i
> > >>>>>>>> have
> > >>>>>>>> better chances to run the VM right.
> > >>>>>>>> However, i've dropped that way and went the OVMF way, avoiding
> > >>>>>>>> the
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>> VGA.
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>>>>> Check the dmesg, maybe you're more lucky than me with the
> > >>>
> > >>> motherboard
> > >>>
> > >>>>> and
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>>>>> it's just the GPU that freezes. Also, i'd check the
> temperatures.
> > >>>>>>>>
> > >>>>>>>> 2015-08-19 0:25 GMT+03:00 José Ramón Muñoz <koalinux at gmail.com
> >:
> > >>>>>>>>> Hi,
> > >>>>>>>>>
> > >>>>>>>>> I'm using and APU a8-7650k, and apart that from time to
> > >>>
> > >>> time
> > >>>
> > >>>>> the
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>>>>>> win7
> > >>>>>>>>> guest decides to freeze, so many times during boot time, and
> > >>>>>>>>> ocassionally
> > >>>>>>>>> during gaming, I'm fairly happy with the performance. The
> passed
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>> through
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>>>>>> gpu
> > >>>>>>>>> is a HD5670 and I managed to play games like MGS Ground Zeroes,
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>> Blades
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>>>>>> of
> > >>>>>>>>> times, and currently DAO: Origins.
> > >>>>>>>>>
> > >>>>>>>>> Best regards.
> > >>>>>>>>>
> > >>>>>>>>> José.
> > >>>>>>>>>
> > >>>>>>>>> On Wednesday 19 August 2015 00:09:09 Blank Field wrote:
> > >>>>>>>>>> Use "Reply All" button. Include the mailing list in the "to:"
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>> field.
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>>>>>>>> I'm currently running an A10-5700 with a discrete Nvidia
> > >>>>>>>>>>> card,
> > >>>>>>>>>>> and
> > >>>>>>>>>
> > >>>>>>>>> I've
> > >>>>>>>>>
> > >>>>>>>>>> got a LMDE2 install in which I'm preparing to do an
> > >>>
> > >>> experimental
> > >>>
> > >>>>> W10
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>>>>>> VM.
> > >>>>>>>>>
> > >>>>>>>>>> So, according to your experience, I shouldn't expect much with
> > >>>>>>>>>> this
> > >>>>>>>>>> processor, then?
> > >>>>>>>>>> http://pastebin.com/rEhebfQM
> > >>>>>>>>>> It will work. But it has taken a year for me to figure out how
> > >>>
> > >>> to
> > >>>
> > >>>>> make
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>>>>>> it
> > >>>>>>>>>
> > >>>>>>>>>> work.
> > >>>>>>>>>> The pastebin link is my currently working domain xml.
> > >>>>>>>>>> Two asus HD7750 on an asus F2A55+Athlon X4 750k (Trinity).
> > >>>>>>>>>> The kernel and module parameters are:
> > >>>>>>>>>> options kvm-amd npt=1 nested=0
> > >>>>>>>>>> options kvm ignore_msrs=0 allow_unsafe_assigned_interrupts=0
> > >>>>>>>>>> options vfio_iommu_type1 disable_hugepages=1
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>> allow_unsafe_interrupts=0
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>>>>>>> CMDLINE:
> > >>>>>>>>>> nofb pci-stub.ids=1022:780d,1002:683f,1002:aab0
> > >>>>>>>>>> enable_mtrr_cleanup
> > >>>>>>>>>> amd_iommu_dump=1 iommu=pt acpi_enforce_resources=lax
> > >>>>>>>>>>
> > >>>>>>>>>> Try doing it with nested=1
> > >>>>>>>>>>
> > >>>>>>>>>> If you will use libvirt, that should work 100%, as i have
> > >>>
> > >>> almost
> > >>>
> > >>>>> the
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>>>>>> same
> > >>>>>>>>>
> > >>>>>>>>>> CPU.
> > >>>>>>>>>>
> > >>>>>>>>>> 2015-08-18 23:57 GMT+03:00 ALG Bass <olorin12 at gmail.com>:
> > >>>>>>>>>>> Gotcha. So it would be better if I got the i7.
> > >>>>>>>>>>> I'm currently running an A10-5700 with a discrete Nvidia
> > >>>
> > >>> card,
> > >>>
> > >>>>> and
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>>>>>> I've
> > >>>>>>>>>
> > >>>>>>>>>>> got a LMDE2 install in which I'm preparing to do an
> > >>>
> > >>> experimental
> > >>>
> > >>>>> W10
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>>>>>> VM.
> > >>>>>>>>>
> > >>>>>>>>>>> So, according to your experience, I shouldn't expect much
> > >>>
> > >>> with
> > >>>
> > >>>>> this
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>>>>>>>> processor, then?
> > >>>>>>>>>>>
> > >>>>>>>>>>> On Tue, Aug 18, 2015 at 3:46 PM, Blank Field <
> > >>>>>>>>>
> > >>>>>>>>> ihatethisfield at gmail.com>
> > >>>>>>>>>
> > >>>>>>>>>>> wrote:
> > >>>>>>>>>>>> Hyperthreading on host means MORE cores which you can
> > >>>
> > >>> commit to
> > >>>
> > >>>>> the
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>>>>>> VM.
> > >>>>>>>>>
> > >>>>>>>>>>>> More cores = more performance.
> > >>>>>>>>>>>> It is good for you.
> > >>>>>>>>>>>> For the host it doesn't matter logical or physical. For the
> > >>>
> > >>> VM,
> > >>>
> > >>>>>>>>> you'd
> > >>>>>>>>>
> > >>>>>>>>>>>> want to pin "pairs" of cores, so there would be less CPU
> > >>>
> > >>> cache
> > >>>
> > >>>>>>>>> issues.
> > >>>>>>>>>
> > >>>>>>>>>>>> Like, assign a core and it's sibling instead of two
> > >>>>>>>>>>>> separate
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>> cores.
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>>>>>>>>> I use AMD Athlon X4 750k which is based off A10-5700, and
> > >>>
> > >>> it's
> > >>>
> > >>>>>>>>> working
> > >>>>>>>>>
> > >>>>>>>>>>>> very unstable.
> > >>>>>>>>>>>> The only way to get it working - use OVMF without VGA and
> > >>>>>>>>>>>> do
> > >>>>>>>>>>>> not
> > >>>>>>>>>>>> use
> > >>>>>>>>>>>> hugepages.
> > >>>>>>>>>>>> That's all.
> > >>>>>>>>>>>>
> > >>>>>>>>>>>> P.S.
> > >>>>>>>>>>>> Oh well, here we go again.
> > >>>>>>>>>>>>
> > >>>>>>>>>>>> 2015-08-18 22:26 GMT+03:00 ALG Bass <olorin12 at gmail.com>:
> > >>>>>>>>>>>>> Hi all, new to this list, kvm, and vfio. I've been
> > >>>
> > >>> researching
> > >>>
> > >>>>>>>>> this for
> > >>>>>>>>>
> > >>>>>>>>>>>>> about a week.
> > >>>>>>>>>>>>> I'm also going to be building a computer in the near
> > >>>
> > >>> future,
> > >>>
> > >>>>>>>>>>>>> so
> > >>>>>>>>>
> > >>>>>>>>> I've got
> > >>>>>>>>>
> > >>>>>>>>>>>>> a quick two part question:
> > >>>>>>>>>>>>> Does the hyperthreading on i7 series Intel processors make
> > >>>
> > >>> a
> > >>>
> > >>>>>>>>> significant
> > >>>>>>>>>
> > >>>>>>>>>>>>> difference in running Windows in a VM, such that it's a
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>> noticeable
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>>>>>>>>>> increase
> > >>>>>>>>>>>>> in performance over an i5? And, does anyone here run
> > >>>
> > >>> Windows
> > >>>
> > >>>>> in a
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>>>>>> VM
> > >>>>>>>>>
> > >>>>>>>>>>>>> using
> > >>>>>>>>>>>>> an AMD A-series APU like the 7700k, and how is the
> > >>>>>>>>>>>>> performance?
> > >>>>>>>>>>>>>
> > >>>>>>>>>>>>> Thank you!
> > >>>>>>>>>>>>>
> > >>>>>>>>>>>>> _______________________________________________
> > >>>>>>>>>>>>> vfio-users mailing list
> > >>>>>>>>>>>>> vfio-users at redhat.com
> > >>>>>>>>>>>>> https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/vfio-users
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > vfio-users mailing list
> > > vfio-users at redhat.com
> > > https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/vfio-users
>
>
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