[vfio-users] How to choose a compatible motherboard?

[Blank Field]

Headless system is good too.
On Oct 22, 2015 4:20 PM, "Lucas Neves" <lcneves at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi Corey,
>
> I'm afraid that the E5-1620 V3 doesn't have an integrated GPU. I'm not
> sure though, since Intel simply omitted the "graphics specification"
> section from its page:
> http://ark.intel.com/products/82763/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E5-1620-v3-10M-Cache-3_50-GHz .
> So you would need a separate video card for your host system, if you want
> to use Linux as a desktop. That's why I chose the i5-4690k over a Xeon.
>
> For the record: my Radeon r9-285 by ASUS works with OVMF, but if I turn
> the guest off, I need to reboot the host. Guest soft-reboots are fine.
>
> I think that my ASUS Z87-PRO would yeald a proper IOMMU configuration if I
> had only one video card. But I also have an Nvidia GTX-660, that I use for
> the Linux host, and both the Nvidia and the ATI cards are put in the same
> IOMMU group. So I need Alex Williamson's patch to enable overrides for
> missing ACS capabilities. This patch creates DMAR problems that affect my
> Intel i915 HDMI audio, used by my wife's seat -- yes, I'm running KVM on
> top of a multiseat system. These DMAR issues are fixed by disabling IOMMU
> for the integrated graphics, booting with
> CONFIG_CMDLINE_LINUX=intel_iommu=on,igfx_off. Phew!
>
> Good luck!
> Lucas
>
>
> On Thu, Oct 22, 2015 at 10:42 AM Corey Larson <corey at eatrunco.de> wrote:
>
>> Thanks for all the help, everyone! I really appreciate it.
>>
>> So, to summarize and make sure I have condensed all this info properly,
>> the consensus seems to be that:
>>
>>   1. Current Skylake CPUs are a bad choice for vfio builds (because of a
>>   lack of ACS).
>>   2. Xeon E5 CPUs are good. E3 and Core iX CPUs are bad for vfio
>>   (because of a lack of ACS).
>>   3. Look for motherboards that explicitly list VT-d as a feature. ASUS
>>   boards seem to be wonky. People seem to have good success with ASRock
>>   boards.
>>   4. Configurations that rely on the ACS override patch may act weird,
>>   and are less likely to be supported. Which makes sense given the
>>   nature of the patch.
>>
>> As I was researching a build to leverage vfio, I did read AW's blog
>> posts, but had thought "Xeon? I'm not made of money!" After seeing it
>> pushed more on this list, I did more research and found that some of the
>> "entry-level" Xeons (specifically the E5-1620 V3) are very much within
>> the realm of regular people.
>>
>> Additionally, from those links to the HW lists, it seems that the an
>> ASRock (in my case, a X99 Extreme4 since its cheaper than the 6, thanks
>> for the pointer Nick) paired with a Xeon E5-1620 V3 is a practical and
>> cost effective solution.
>>
>> Thanks again!
>>
>> On Wed, Oct 21, 2015, at 11:26 AM, Corey Larson wrote:
>> > I am in a position where I can do a new build with this technology in
>> > mind. How do I go about picking a motherboard that will have the best
>> > compatibility to do vfio?
>> >
>> > Currently, my plan is to use this board:
>> > https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/H170-PRO-GAMING/specifications/. I
>> > plan to add an additional GPU (NVidia GTX 960) for the guest, and use
>> > the integrated Intel graphics to drive Linux. I also plan to make use of
>> > OVMF to avoid the Intel VGA arbitration patch.
>> >
>> > I appreciate any information you can share with me to help guide me!
>> > --
>> > Corey Larson
>> > corey at eatrunco.de
>> >
>> > _______________________________________________
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>> > vfio-users at redhat.com
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>>
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