Ask for best practice allowing host CLI diagnose if only one GPU that is passed

[jena]

Hi all,

I had some issue to connect to my proxmox sever which does not have IPMI (or iKVM).
It is build on a Threadripper workstation with MSI TRX40 motherboard.
I fixed the issue, which is not related to the proxmox.

That lead me thinking:

Since my only GPU has been passthrough, the frame buffer is disabled (no display device for the proxmox host), I will lose CLI on the proxmox host directly.
In case that I need to do CLI diagnose on the proxmox host, what is the best practice that I can do now to leave some ways for diagnose on the host?
Also on the hardware level, is there small add-on device that will give me similar to KVM capability?

Currently both 5.4.55 and 5.4.65 are in boot menu but both had GPU passthrough (disable frame buffer, update-initramfs -u -k all, etc ) in UEFI boot loader.

 

[dcsapak]

i guess the easiest way will be to add another (small) graphics card so that you can use a normal display

 

[BobhWasatch]

Serial console works, but then you need another computer.

 

[jena]

Serial console works, but then you need another computer.

Good point.

My motherboard does not have serial COM port on the back panel, nor does serial COM header on the board.

Is that something that can be added using USB-serial COM or PCIE x 1 serial COM card.

I have other computer to use. Even a very old one that has serial COM on motherboard back panel.

Thanks!

 

[jena]

i guess the easiest way will be to add another (small) graphics card so that you can use a normal display

I have an old one-slot Quadro card that I can use.

Or I can buy a "ZOTAC GeForce GT 710 1GB DDR3 PCIE x 1" in slot 4.
(that way I can still use slot 2 for 10G NIC and slot 8 for 2nd GPU for deep learning on slot 5 with PCIE riser)

Currently, I have a 2080Ti on PCIE slot1 (x16) and ASUS Quad SSD card on PCIE slot 3 (x16).

The MSI TRX40 MB seems only recognize the graphics output on boot (BIOS) on the first GPU.
After that, can Proxmox can recognize other GPUs that is not on the first slot and output to it?

If I put a one slot Quadro card in slot 2 and since vfio-pci ids is only set for 2080Ti, I should be able to see display output of Proxmox host CLI on the Quadro card?

echo "options vfio-pci ids= [I][B]ONLY 2080Ti 's ID[/B][/I]" > \ /etc/modprobe.d/vfio.conf