[TUTORIAL] PVE 8.22 / Kernel 6.8 and NVidia vGPU

[KciNicK]

I just did a brand new install of Proxmox 8.2.2. Followed PolloLoco's guide and since I have a Tesla P4 installed I used 535.161.05 and applied the patch. Everything worked every step of the way without fail, but when I do mdevctl types I get a list of profiles for the Tesla P40. I can only find one other instance of this happening in this thread [https://forum.proxmox.com/threads/vgpu-tesla-p4-wrong-mdevctl-gpu.143247/] but other than repeatedly trying other drivers until they ended back up on 535.104.06, they don't know what caused the profiles to start displaying correctly. Does anyone here have an idea?

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why are you patching a Tesla P4 ?

 

[Terydan]

why are you patching a Tesla P4 ?

The 16.x drivers didn't want to work with kernel 6.8, I had to apply a patch to make it install. When it showed up as a P40 I followed another guide that runs a do-it-all script and it downgraded the kernel to 6.5 and pinned it. Then it installed the unpatched 16.x driver. But the card still shows as a P40. I got it to passthrough to my VMs (one windows, one linux) and it seems to be working, but I wasn't sure if it was taking full advantage of its capabilities. That and I got a P4 specifically because it was natively supported, and it had a great price to performance ratio.

If I could get it to show as a P4 I would prefer it, but multiple posts in multiple forums, along with the discord server linked by PolloLoco's guide have netted me one singular reply, and that is yours.

 

[KciNicK]

The 16.x drivers didn't want to work with kernel 6.8, I had to apply a patch to make it install. When it showed up as a P40 I followed another guide that runs a do-it-all script and it downgraded the kernel to 6.5 and pinned it. Then it installed the unpatched 16.x driver. But the card still shows as a P40. I got it to passthrough to my VMs (one windows, one linux) and it seems to be working, but I wasn't sure if it was taking full advantage of its capabilities. That and I got a P4 specifically because it was natively supported, and it had a great price to performance ratio.

If I could get it to show as a P4 I would prefer it, but multiple posts in multiple forums, along with the discord server linked by PolloLoco's guide have netted me one singular reply, and that is yours.

install the last one, it compile just fine, 550.90.05, the patch is for use not supported cards, your's is support, no need to patch, also, remove the vgpuConfig.xml file before install, to make sure that no id replacement is made (by the patch).

/edit: if your using the 16.x coz nvidia drop support for pascal, you still can install 550.90.05, then on windows vm use the 16.5 driver, 538.46, as the one from 17.x will not detect the card, they still work.

/edit2: sorry my english, im gonna try to make a quick guide:

1) uninstall everything
2) install (17.2) NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-550.90.05-vgpu-kvm.run
3) extract (16.6) NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-535.183.04-vgpu-kvm.run (NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-535.183.04-vgpu-kvm.run -x)
4) copy extracted vgpuConfig.xml from 16.6 to /usr/share/nvidia/vgpu/vgpuConfig.xml (replace the existing file)
5) reboot
6) install windows vm, install guest drivers from 16.6 (538.67) (538.67_grid_win10_win11_server2019_server2022_dch_64bit_international.exe)

 

[Terydan]

install the last one, it compile just fine, 550.90.05, the patch is for use not supported cards, your's is support, no need to patch, also, remove the vgpuConfig.xml file before install, to make sure that no id replacement is made (by the patch).

/edit: if your using the 16.x coz nvidia drop support for pascal, you still can install 550.90.05, then on windows vm use the 16.5 driver, 538.46, as the one from 17.x will not detect the card, they still work.

/edit2: sorry my english, im gonna try to make a quick guide:

1) uninstall everything
2) install (17.2) NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-550.90.05-vgpu-kvm.run
3) extract (16.6) NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-535.183.04-vgpu-kvm.run (NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-535.183.04-vgpu-kvm.run -x)
4) copy extracted vgpuConfig.xml from 16.6 to /usr/share/nvidia/vgpu/vgpuConfig.xml (replace the existing file)
5) reboot
6) install windows vm, install guest drivers from 16.6 (538.67) (538.67_grid_win10_win11_server2019_server2022_dch_64bit_international.exe)

Thank you for this, I will definitely try as soon as I can; probably this weekend. Does this work with the 6.8 kernel in Proxmox. If so, I will probably try to unpin the kernel and get it updated back to the latest.

Apparently another forum poster who used the script I mentioned discovered the same issue, but said after updating the driver it showed the mdevctl types.

https://forum.proxmox.com/threads/vgpu-tesla-p4-wrong-mdevctl-gpu.143247/post-679757

 

[KciNicK]

the only thing i can think of showing wrong types is a manipulated vgpuConfig.xml, using the untouched official, should show the right ones.