PCI Passthrough

[hadyos]

Hi,

I have Q8400 CPU with proxmox 1.8 and kernel 2.6.35-1. I added intel_iommu to my kernel line and I can see IOMMU enabled with
dmesg | grep -e IOMMU but I can't let any guest use a pci device (with hostpci: in vmid.conf). Always end up with IOMMU not found.
Anyone can help?
BTW I'm using MSI P45-8D motherboard.

Thanks,
Yossi

 

[drh]

Hi hadyos,

Have you had any success since your post 6 weeks ago?

I think your motherboard using the intel P45 chipset does not support VT-d which is required for PCI passthrough. Check out these links:

http://www.linux-kvm.org/page/How_to_assign_devices_with_VT-d_in_KVM
http://wiki.xensource.com/xenwiki/VTdHowTo
http://www.intel.com/support/motherboards/desktop/sb/CS-030922.htm

I've had similar problems with Q9400 CPU and Asus P5P41TD board (with G41 chipset not supporting VT-d). Ubuntu 11.04 64-bit server host + KVM with WinXP guest all good, but PCI passthrough failed. I figured my cheapest option was to upgrade... i5 2400 CPU with intel DQ67SW board (seems a simpler board but the Q67 chipset supports VT-d)... still waiting for it to arrive.

While waiting for my new gear, I've been reading up on proxmox and am keen to give it a try... but for this server PCI (and USB) passthrough is essential. On the roadmap it says "enable all (previously disabled) kvm features (scsi, usb, ...)" with Proxmox VE 1.6. I assume that means PCI / USB passthrough are now supported. Can anyone confirm this is working?

Cheers