[vfio-users] NVIDIA GPU Passthrough to Win10 - Driver Disabled (Code 43)

[Steven Bell]

Hello,

I am currently trying to setup a Windows 10 VM on a Fedora 23 host with
QEMU-KVM passing through a NIC, a USB controller, and a NVIDIA GPU (GTX
670). With my current setup, the NIC and USB Controller are both passed
through and function without issue. The GPU driver gives the message
"Windows has stopped this device because it has reported problems. (Code
43)".

I've been following Alex Williamson's guide (
http://vfio.blogspot.ca/2015/05/vfio-gpu-how-to-series-part-3-host.html )
and I believe I have successfully configured things on the host.

On the host, if I use "lshw" to look at my hardware devices, I can find the
NIC, USB controller and both the GPU's video and audio controllers. They
all correctly list their drivers as "vfio-pci". All the device ids are
listed in the modprobe.d file and I believe the vfio-pci driver is proof
that this is working, and the host is not binding these devices on boot.

I have also verified that the motherboard (MSI WORKSTATION C236A) groups
the PCI devices correctly. The NIC and USB controllers are in their own
IOMMU groups respectively, and the NVIDIA GPU has 3 items in its group. The
root PCIe Controller (which I believe should NOT be configured to be passed
through) and the Video and Audio controllers, both of which WILL be passed
through.

I configure an i440FX machine using virt-manager. I set the firmware to
UEFI x86_64. Initially I do not make any of the PCI devices available and
install Windows onto the VM.

Next, I reboot the Guest and only make the pass-through NIC available. It's
drivers are installed correctly and I have access to the LAN it connects
to. I am able to use that connection to copy vfio-drivers for Balloon
driver installation, as well as the most up to date NVIDIA driver installer
(but don't run it yet). I also install TightVNC server.

Next I shutdown and remove all unused devices, as described in Alex's
guide. I remove the Display and Video devices (I will use the TightVNC
server from here on to connect to the Guest). I also remove the USB
redirect devices, the virtual NIC, etc. I add the pass-through USB
controller and NVIDIA audio and video devices. Before booting again, I also
edit the XML and add the required "<kvm><hidden state='on'/></kvm>" line in
the features tag. Without this, the machine blue screens every time after
the NVIDIA driver has been installed.

Now I boot the Guest again, connect using the TightVNC server, and install
the NVIDIA driver from the installer (I've tried different versions,
standalone, through Windows Update etc.). The driver installs successfully
and requests a reboot. After rebooting, the Device Manager shows GTX 670
with a yellow mark and the message "Windows has stopped this device because
it has reported problems. (Code 43)".

No other devices appear with an issue in the Guest's Device Manager. No
output is coming from the device to my screen plugged into the GPU card
(obviously).

I have also checked the following:
    The GPU should have sufficient power. My PSU is more than powerful
enough. I hear the GPU fan spin up to full briefly when the Host powers on.
    I have checked in the Host's mobo BIOS settings that the default video
card is the IGD. The host boots and uses the IGD without issue.
    As mentioned above, all devices that should not be bound by the host
have vfio-pci as their listed driver .
    As mentioned above, the kvm hidden xml line is added. The log shows the
"-cpu host,kvm=off " option is used to boot the VM, and removing line from
the XML causes blue screen on boot so I believe it's doing it's job.
    No other display adapters are present or installed. I believe a
pass-through GPU cannot be a secondary display device, so I've made sure of
this.


I feel like nothing I'm doing is especially tricky, and in my mind my setup
SHOULD work, based on everything I've read. But honestly I've just run out
of ideas on how to proceed with troubleshooting this.

Any help and ideas would be appreciated. Thanks!
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