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[Xen-users] Problem with VT-d on Mainboard Intel DQ45CB

To: xen-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, Franz.Regensburger@xxxxxxxx
Subject: [Xen-users] Problem with VT-d on Mainboard Intel DQ45CB
From: Franz Regensburger <Franz.Regensburger@xxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 23 Oct 2008 09:25:04 +0200
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Hello all,

this mail is related to a post by  Axel Schöner that I found at
        http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.emulators.xen.user/40621
when I was searching the WEB about solutions to my problem.

I would like to confirm that VT-d with XEN 3.3 kernel 2.6.18.8 on mainboard
Intel DQ45CB seems to be broken.

Survey (details are down below)
---------------------------------------

Whenever I boot my Xen 2.6.18.8 (Xen 3.3) with kernel parameter iommu=1
the boot process freezes.

I see:
...
(XEN) Intel VT-d has been enabled
...
(XEN) HVM: VMX enabled
...
(XEN) I/O virtualisation enabled
(XEN) I/O virtualisation for PV guests disabled
Here the boot process freezes

Does anybody else suffer from the same problem (VT-d with Intel board DQ45CB)?
Any suggestions about a solution?

Regards,

Franz

Details about my setup
----------------------------

Hardware:
Mainboard  Intel DQ45CB
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad 9550
RAM: 8GB

OS: Debian Linux Etch 4.0 R3
      The plain standard with kernel 2.6.18, the 64bit flavour

XEN: (compiled from the soruces)

Mercurial:
dpkg -i ./mercurial-common_1.0.1-5.1~bpo40+1_all.deb
dpkg -i ./mercurial_1.0.1-5.1~bpo40+1_amd64.deb

Xen source:
wget http://bits.xensource.com/oss-xen/release/3.3.0/xen-3.3.0.tar.gz

Xen kernel tree:
hg clone http://xenbits.xensource.com/linux-2.6.18-xen.hg

Kernel Config:
Defaults apart from
make linux-2.6-xen-config CONFIGMODE=menuconfig
        change XEN->"PCI-device backend driver" from "M" to "*".

According to messages on the WEB compiling the backend driver fixed into the 
kernel is required
in order to get pciback.hide running via kernel parameter.

GRUB config:

title           Xen 3.3.0 / kernel 2.6.18.8-xen backhide the ATI Radeon
root            (hd0,0)
#kernel          /xen-3.3.0.gz console=vga noreboot max_loop=128 dom0_mem=1024M 
iommu=1
kernel          /xen-3.3.0.gz console=vga noreboot max_loop=128 dom0_mem=1024M
module          /vmlinuz-2.6.18.8-xen root=/dev/mapper/RootVG-root ro 
console=tty0 pciback.hide=(01:00.0)(01:00.1)
module          /initrd-2.6.18.8-xen.img
savedefault

Output of 'xm dmesg' after booting without 'iommu=1'

 susi:/boot/grub# xm dmesg
 __  __            _____  _____  ___
 \ \/ /___ _ __   |___ / |___ / / _ \
  \  // _ \ '_ \    |_ \   |_ \| | | |
  /  \  __/ | | |  ___) | ___) | |_| |
 /_/\_\___|_| |_| |____(_)____(_)___/

(XEN) Xen version 3.3.0 (root@xxxxxxxxx) (gcc version 4.1.2 20061115 
(prerelease) (Debian 4.1.1-21)) Tue Oct 21 16:22:47 CEST 2008
(XEN) Latest ChangeSet: unavailable
(XEN) Command line: console=vga noreboot max_loop=128 dom0_mem=1024M
(XEN) Video information:
(XEN)  VGA is text mode 80x25, font 8x16
(XEN)  VBE/DDC methods: none; EDID transfer time: 0 seconds
(XEN)  EDID info not retrieved because no DDC retrieval method detected
(XEN) Disc information:
(XEN)  Found 2 MBR signatures
(XEN)  Found 2 EDD information structures
(XEN) Xen-e820 RAM map:
(XEN)  0000000000000000 - 0000000000095c00 (usable)
(XEN)  0000000000095c00 - 00000000000a0000 (reserved)
(XEN)  00000000000e0000 - 0000000000100000 (reserved)
(XEN)  0000000000100000 - 00000000bd6e0000 (usable)
(XEN)  00000000bd6e0000 - 00000000bd722000 (ACPI NVS)
(XEN)  00000000bd722000 - 00000000bd840000 (reserved)
(XEN)  00000000bd840000 - 00000000bd843000 (ACPI NVS)
(XEN)  00000000bd843000 - 00000000bd943000 (reserved)
(XEN)  00000000bd943000 - 00000000bd944000 (ACPI NVS)
(XEN)  00000000bd944000 - 00000000bd949000 (reserved)
(XEN)  00000000bd949000 - 00000000bd951000 (ACPI data)
(XEN)  00000000bd951000 - 00000000bd96c000 (ACPI NVS)
(XEN)  00000000bd96c000 - 00000000bd98a000 (reserved)
(XEN)  00000000bd98a000 - 00000000bd990000 (ACPI NVS)
(XEN)  00000000bd990000 - 00000000bdb00000 (usable)
(XEN)  00000000bdc00000 - 00000000c0000000 (reserved)
(XEN)  00000000fed1c000 - 00000000fed20000 (reserved)
(XEN)  00000000ff000000 - 0000000100000000 (reserved)
(XEN)  0000000100000000 - 000000023c000000 (usable)
(XEN) System RAM: 8087MB (8282004kB)
(XEN) ACPI: RSDP 000F03C0, 0024 (r2  INTEL)
(XEN) ACPI: XSDT BD94FE18, 005C (r1 INTEL  DQ45CB         3B MSFT    10013)
(XEN) ACPI: FACP BD94ED98, 00F4 (r4  INTEL    A M I  6222004 MSFT    10013)
(XEN) ACPI: DSDT BD949018, 4E98 (r1 INTEL  DQ45CB         3B INTL 20051117)
(XEN) ACPI: FACS BD957F40, 0040
(XEN) ACPI: APIC BD94EF18, 006C (r2 INTEL  DQ45CB         3B MSFT    10013)
(XEN) ACPI: MCFG BD959E18, 003C (r1 INTEL  DQ45CB         3B MSFT       97)
(XEN) ACPI: ASF! BD958D18, 00A0 (r32 INTEL  DQ45CB         3B TFSM    F4240)
(XEN) ACPI: SPCR BD959D18, 0050 (r1 INTEL  DQ45CB         3B AMI.        3)
(XEN) ACPI: TCPA BD959C98, 0032 (r2 INTEL  DQ45CB         3B MSFT  1000013)
(XEN) ACPI: DMAR BD943C18, 0120 (r1 INTEL  DQ45CB         3B INTL        1)
(XEN) Xen heap: 14MB (14496kB)
(XEN) Domain heap initialised
(XEN) Processor #0 7:7 APIC version 20
(XEN) Processor #1 7:7 APIC version 20
(XEN) Processor #2 7:7 APIC version 20
(XEN) Processor #3 7:7 APIC version 20
(XEN) IOAPIC[0]: apic_id 0, version 32, address 0xfec00000, GSI 0-23
(XEN) Enabling APIC mode:  Flat.  Using 1 I/O APICs
(XEN) Using scheduler: SMP Credit Scheduler (credit)
(XEN) Detected 2833.050 MHz processor.
(XEN) HVM: VMX enabled
(XEN) CPU0: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad  CPU   Q9550  @ 2.83GHz stepping 07
(XEN) Booting processor 1/1 eip 8c000
(XEN) CPU1: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad  CPU   Q9550  @ 2.83GHz stepping 07
(XEN) Booting processor 2/2 eip 8c000
(XEN) CPU2: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad  CPU   Q9550  @ 2.83GHz stepping 07
(XEN) Booting processor 3/3 eip 8c000
(XEN) CPU3: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad  CPU   Q9550  @ 2.83GHz stepping 07
(XEN) Total of 4 processors activated.
(XEN) ENABLING IO-APIC IRQs
(XEN)  -> Using new ACK method
(XEN) checking TSC synchronization across 4 CPUs: passed.
(XEN) Platform timer is 3.579MHz ACPI PM Timer
(XEN) Brought up 4 CPUs
(XEN) I/O virtualisation disabled
(XEN) *** LOADING DOMAIN 0 ***
(XEN)  Xen  kernel: 64-bit, lsb, compat32
(XEN)  Dom0 kernel: 64-bit, lsb, paddr 0xffffffff80200000 -> 0xffffffff805c050c
(XEN) PHYSICAL MEMORY ARRANGEMENT:
(XEN)  Dom0 alloc.:   0000000232000000->0000000234000000 (253952 pages to be 
allocated)
(XEN) VIRTUAL MEMORY ARRANGEMENT:
(XEN)  Loaded kernel: ffffffff80200000->ffffffff805c050c
(XEN)  Init. ramdisk: ffffffff805c1000->ffffffff81506800
(XEN)  Phys-Mach map: ffffffff81507000->ffffffff81707000
(XEN)  Start info:    ffffffff81707000->ffffffff817074a4
(XEN)  Page tables:   ffffffff81708000->ffffffff81717000
(XEN)  Boot stack:    ffffffff81717000->ffffffff81718000
(XEN)  TOTAL:         ffffffff80000000->ffffffff81800000
(XEN)  ENTRY ADDRESS: ffffffff80200000
(XEN) Dom0 has maximum 4 VCPUs
(XEN) Scrubbing Free RAM: 
......................................................................done.
(XEN) Xen trace buffers: disabled
(XEN) Std. Loglevel: Errors and warnings
(XEN) Guest Loglevel: Nothing (Rate-limited: Errors and warnings)
(XEN) Xen is relinquishing VGA console.
(XEN) *** Serial input -> DOM0 (type 'CTRL-a' three times to switch input to 
Xen)
(XEN) Freed 108kB init memory.


Additional problem respectively disappointments with the board DB45CB
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now, I just need to get rid of my frustrations. Of course, some or all of them 
might be caused by my
personal lack of Linux or Xen experience ...

- I am not able to configure the onboard GB ethernet adapter on Linux.
  Even the e1000e driver
    susi:/lib/modules/2.6.26-bpo.1-amd64/kernel/drivers/net/e1000e
  of newer kernels does not seam to support that adapter.
  As a fix I run addtional NICs in PCI and PCIe slots (inetl 1000 pro, various 
brands)
  The onboard LAN is unused.

- I was not able to make any use of the remote management features of the board.
  On my DHCP server I see that the onboard NIC applies for an IP address and 
gets
  one from the DHCP server.
  There do not seem to be any management clients available for Linux.
  The Intel AMT was one reason why I bought that board. However, I do not like 
to use
  any windows clients for the remote management.

- I am not able to get Xorg running with the onboard graphics adapter.
  There is no support for the Q45 Chipset (at least not in the 2.6.18-6, 2.6.24 
and of course not in the xen kernels)

- When I insert a PCIe x16 Graphics card (ATI Radeon HD 2400 Pro) the BIOS menu 
display somehow becomes slow.
  The experience is like if you use a 300 Baut serial line connection. 

  I was able to configure xorg including 3D with the fglrx driver from ATI
        ati-driver-installer-8-5-x86.x86_64.run
        xserver-xorg-core             1.1.1-21etch5
  and running it on the non-Xen kernel vmlinuz-2.6.18-6-amd64 (Etch)

  Although the BIOS menus are slow, the system boots and X11 is functional with 
3D.
  I don't know whether the ATI Radeon HD 2400 Pro is performing as fast as it 
should but
  the experience is not too bad.
  
  However, if I boot the xen kernel vmlinuz-2.6.18.8-xen the system becomes 
very very slow.
  The system needs about 15 minutes to boot and is unusable.

  As a result I switched back to the onboard graphics adapter (Intel) and run 
my Xen host without X11.

  I plan to test another PCIe x16 graphics adaptor (NVIDIA GeForce 8400GS).
  I am just curious whether the problem with the PCIe x16 graphics adapter is 
caused by the RADEON card
  or whether it is an issue of the mainboard.

- After I ran into the problem with the graphics adapter I planned to test the 
VT-d with a HVM Windows guest
  and PCI backend hide. However, with the mandatory iommu=1 the Xen-Kernel 
freezes.
  This wracks another option :-(

In summary I am rather disappointed by the board DB45CB as a platform for XEN.
        - VT-d broken. No PCI backend hiding with HVM guest possible 
        - no onboard LAN on linux
        - no remote management from linux
        - no onboard graphics on linux
        - PCIe x16 graphics with Xen kernel broken

On the positive side I can state the following results:

- Xen host without X11 (xorg) runs perfectly (especially fast).
- I was able to configure and run a WinXP HVM guest (although without VT-d and 
PCI backend hiding)

Is there someone out who can show me light at the end of the tunnel?

Hello Intel developers at xen-users:
Is there a chance that some BIOS update for the DB45CB may fix the problems?
What can I do to support such a fix? Provide further evidence, run tests?

Hello Xen developers at xen-users:
Is there a change that some updates of the Xen sources or Xen kernel will fix 
the problems?
What can I do to support such a fix? Provide further evidence, run tests?



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