PSA Archives - The Passthrough POST

PSA: Issues Persist into Kernel 5.2 — Patches Landing in 5.3

Tyson O'Ham — Thu, 25 Jul 2019 17:57:54 +0000

As previously reported, many users were having issues with VFIO on the 5.1 kernel series, and those issues have persisted or worsened in kernel 5.2. Users report outright crashes and VMs refusing to boot, usually accompanied by KMODE_EXPECTION_NOT_HANDLED errors. Consider supporting us if you value independent tech news and research. This site will always be [...]

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Finding a Safe Mac OS GPU for VMs

Tyson O'Ham — Fri, 19 Jul 2019 18:43:07 +0000

One of the most common questions we get is: "what gpu should I use for a Mac OS VM," and it's frankly a hard one to answer. Nvidia is essentially out of the question at this point, assuming you want to use a new release of their operating system, and new AMD cards don't work [...]

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HOWTO: Patch Fedora Kernel (feat. AGESA 0.0.7.2+ Fix)

Blake Lee — Sun, 30 Jun 2019 17:14:22 +0000

There are many reasons you might want to patch your kernel. You might need extra security patches. Maybe you need the ACS Override patch to use VFIO, or you have an AMD board with a broken UEFI that you can't downgrade. Consider supporting us if you value independent tech news and research. This site will [...]

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PSA: 5.1 Kernel — Glitching and Crashes in Passthrough

Tyson O'Ham — Thu, 27 Jun 2019 15:18:56 +0000

At some point early in the 5.1 branch Linux kernel development cycle, a bug was introduced that caused crashing and graphical glitching in some passthrough systems. No workarounds are currently known without reverting to 5.0 or an LTS kernel branch. Tracking down the bad 5.1 Kernel Commit Consider supporting us if you value independent tech [...]

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An Open Letter to Linus Tech Tips (and a PSA)

Tyson O'Ham — Fri, 26 Apr 2019 08:27:36 +0000

I’d like to start by saying that we appreciate that Linus Tech Tips saw fit to cover (and cite) our work. We appreciate the exposure their recent video gave VFIO and OS X Virtualization, too. We consider any way we can get people involved with our (admittedly niche) community of tech enthusiasts a net positive. [...]

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Explaining CSM, efifb=off, and Setting the Boot GPU Manually

Ryan El Kochta — Sun, 04 Feb 2018 21:42:36 +0000

Many factors can influence the success of GPU Passthrough. On some newer systems, notably low and mid-end Ryzen platforms, there's a little extra legwork you'll need to do to get your OS to boot with the correct GPU, and the processes that go into making that happen are somewhat complicated. Need help Building your passthrough [...]

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Arch Linux Broke OVMF Passthrough, Here’s How to Fix it

Angelos Kouratzinos — Tue, 30 Jan 2018 21:47:40 +0000

If you use Arch Linux and OVMF, you may have noticed that a recent update broke compatibility with your passthrough VM(s.) Luckily, we're here to explain why this happened, and (hopefully) how to fix it. While many guides online haven't been tweaked yet to represent the change, this update presents a serious problem. The default [...]

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Fix for Threadripper PCI Passthrough Submitted to Linux Kernel

Ryan El Kochta — Sat, 27 Jan 2018 23:15:30 +0000

AMD's Threadripper platform has proven buggy and problematic for Passthrough VMs. Luckily, Geoffrey McRae, known by his username gnif, recently submitted a fix to the Linux kernel developers for the company's HEDT flagship. When the patch lands downstream, TR will be uniquely poised as a powerful virtualization platform, as the highest-end Threadripper currently available sports [...]

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Explainer – Why and When Modprobe and VFIO-PCI Is Needed

D Hanson — Sun, 14 Jan 2018 16:06:56 +0000

For quite some time now various guides on the internet have told us to use modprobe rules on most devices when doing PCI and VGA(GPU) pass-through. While in most use cases you will need to pre-bind your device to vfio-pci, or blacklist the kernel module beforehand, due to libvirt not wanting to dynamically re-bind with [...]

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Essential Kernel Update for AMD VFIO Users

Blake Lee — Tue, 12 Dec 2017 18:49:20 +0000

If you own, or want to own, an AMD processor and use virtualization with GPU Pass-through you might already know about the NPT bug. Nested Page Tables is a feature that is enabled by default with virtualization in KVM. The aim is for better performance over an emulated page table. Read also: Binding a GPU [...]

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