[vfio-users] OVMF + OS X El Capitan + 970 gtx passthrough = Success

[Andrew Morgan]

Hey Okky, thanks for the consistently fast responses!

Took your advice and downloaded Clover Configurator as well on OSX, neat
program! Took me a second to figure out which EFI partition to mount,
but once I did I imported the config, check the "nvda_drv = 1" box and
saved it again, very easy!

Afterwards, I decided to take a chance to update to OSX 10.11.2. Had to
disable the nvda_drv=1 setting I just set to get through the
installation after the reboot, but after that it went alright.

I did notice after upgrading that Nvidia Web drivers were no longer
compatible with my OS, though I suppose this makes sense since the
update did just roll out, thus I suspect Nvidia will update it soon
enough. This does however mean my GPU no longer works when I pass it
through again... so that's a bit of a bummer. I'll make sure to hold out
until nvidia does this for future OSX updates.

As for Xcode development, I've just been using the simulator for the
past few months, and it's been quite good at catching most of the bugs!
Of course, one doesn't quite get the same feel for the UX using a mouse,
but apps like fabric.io and Apple's now own TestFlight can provide ipa
installs OTA.

I'll have to try that NoMachine audio out at some point. For now it's
not really a big deal, but I can see it being necessary when developing
an app that outputs a noise of some kind :P

Thanks,
Andrew Morgan

On 12/07/2015 09:44 PM, Okky Hendriansyah wrote:
> On December 7, 2015 at 15:02:36, Andrew Morgan
> (andrew.morgan4453 at gmail.com <mailto:andrew.morgan4453 at gmail.com>) wrote:
>> Thanks for the reply Okky, apparently I marked it as read without 
>> actually thinking about it and then proceeded to wait for your response 
>> for a few weeks until I realized I had already received it. Whoops :P 
> 
> Haha, I thought you already got bored trying to virtualize a Mac on KVM. :D
> 
>> Either way, after following your suggestions, I have managed to get VFIO 
>> working successfully with OSX! The steps necessary for me since my last 
>> email were: 
>>
>> * Download and install Nvidia web drivers for OSX 
>> (https://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/73628/en-us). I did 
>> this while it was running without a GPU attached. 
>> * Reboot VM this time with GPU attached in Qemu command script 
>> * Insert "nvda_drv=1" at the end of the Boot Options line in Clover's 
>> "Options". 
>>
>> I also set up Synergy for use with the VM, since mouse control through 
>> Qemu's VNC(?) is a bit sluggish. 
> 
> Yep, mine also quite sluggish but I had it worse when I was trying on
> Yosemite install. El Capitan mouse movement is quite OK, but setting up
> Synergy (since I still fail to passthrough my Renesas USB 3.0 card) is a
> must for me.
> 
>> My Synergy script if anyone needs it: 
>> https://gist.github.com/anonymous/2884c7c5612fdc77d171 
>>
>> My qemu startup if anyone needs it: 
>> https://gist.github.com/anonymous/52c6cbc7bc292c755e0c 
> 
> Thanks for sharing back you config!
> 
>> Finally, while adding nvda_drv=1 in boot options works, I seem to have 
>> to do this each time the VM boots. Is there a way to change Clover's 
>> boot options permanently? 
> 
> I made it permanent using Clover Configurator. I forgot exactly where to
> config but it’s in one of those settings in Clover Configurator. Make
> sure you persist it back to the Clover disk. Also how did your NVIDIA
> Preferences looked like? Does it still says using default driver or
> NVIDIA ones?
> 
>> Also, sound does not currently work, 
> 
> I setup NoMachine [1] on both the Mac guest and the Linux host, and used
> NoMachine Audio adapter as my workaround. :D Sound output is quite nice
> actually, but sound input is still has a very noticable input lag. 
> 
>> however as I'm only using this VM 
>> for iOS development, it's not too big of a deal. 
> 
> How do you plan to plug your iDevice to the Mac guest? I was thinking
> the same, since sometimes the storyboard got really big and too cramped
> to use my MacBook Pro. Yes, I can plug a monitor to it, but if I can
> compile it also using my rig is a good alternative!
> 
> 
> [1] https://www.nomachine.com
> 
> -- 
> *Okky Hendriansyah*
>