Xenserver 7.2 and hvmloader with DELL SLIC 2.4

Discussion in 'Virtualization' started by hidesan, Mar 20, 2014.

  1. hidesan

    hidesan MDL Novice

    Nov 27, 2010
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    Hi, fbifido,

    You are very quick mover for this issue, and I do appreciate your effort!!
    Anyway, I would like to try your hvmloader with Xenserver6.6 Beta1.
    Please tell me password to unlock hvmloader.7z.

    Regards,
    hidesan
     
  2. hidesan

    hidesan MDL Novice

    Nov 27, 2010
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    Finally, I've got a success to passthrough IGD to my win7 VMs at Xenserver 6.6.9 environment. (Dundee Beta)
    Moreover, upgrading from win7ultimate to Win10pro is possible. What else?
     
  3. fbifido

    fbifido MDL Member

    Jun 6, 2007
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    Sorry did not realize it had a password, was testing why it will not upload, until I put a password, the password is 2015
     
  4. fbifido

    fbifido MDL Member

    Jun 6, 2007
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    Details please.

    did you.
    Thanks.
     
  5. toddwardzinski

    toddwardzinski MDL Novice

    Dec 2, 2015
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    #25 toddwardzinski, Dec 2, 2015
    Last edited: Dec 2, 2015
    @hidesan, I'm working on implementing this SLIC mod for a XenServer 6.5 install. I'm currently testing within a VMWare environment before moving to my physical machines. I've seen quite a bit of feedback on how to update the hvmloader. Did you just need to download the hvmloader.7z and apply it to your XenServer 6.5 machine?

    Would really appreciate any help you might be able to give on this.

    Update: Just applying this to my XenServer 6.5 build (/usr/lib/xen/boot/hvmloader) does not work. Going to try using the walkthrough provided earlier for creating a hvmloader to use.
     
  6. hidesan

    hidesan MDL Novice

    Nov 27, 2010
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    #27 hidesan, Dec 5, 2015
    Last edited: Dec 5, 2015
    (OP)
    Hi, toddwardzinski,

    Actually, I have tried to compile hvmloader with slic2.3 for Xenserver 6.5 again and again. But all the efforts are in vain.
    Compiled with Centos5, 6, 7 and Ubuntu 14.04, 15.10, Xen 4.2, 4.4.1, 4.6.
    These combinations didn't work at all.

    Finally, I changed my environment to Xenserver 6.6.9 (Dundee beta) and compiled with CentOS7.
    This is the only case that I could (1) pass through IGD, (2) Slic 2.3 to activate Windows7 Ultimate and (3) upgrade to Windows 10 Professional with new hvmloader.

    I think fbifido's hvmloader.7z is compiled with CentOS7 and for Xenserver 6.6.9. In this case, you cannot use this hvmloader for Xenserver 6.5.


     
  7. fbifido

    fbifido MDL Member

    Jun 6, 2007
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    Is there any way to know, what have change. from:

    xenServer 6.5 + no slic + passthrough IGD = pass
    xenServer 6.5 + slic2.1 + passthrough IGD = ?
    xenServer 6.5 + slic2.3 + passthrough IGD = fail

    xenServer 6.6.9 + no slic + passthrough IGD = pass
    xenServer 6.6.9 + slic2.1 + passthrough IGD = ?
    xenServer 6.6.9 + slic2.3 + passthrough IGD = pass

    Thanks.
     
  8. hidesan

    hidesan MDL Novice

    Nov 27, 2010
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    The results are as follows:

    XS6.5 + original hvmloader (no slic) + IGD passthrough + PCI passthrough = pass (So, I used DAZ's loader)
    XS6.5 + hvmloader slic2.3 compiled with CentOS5 from Xenserver source (Xen 4.4.1) + PCI passthrough = pass
    XS6.5 + hvmloader slic2.3 compiled with CentOS5 from Xenserver source (Xen 4.4.1) + IGD passthrough = fail

    XS6.6.9 + original hvmloader (no slic) + PCI passthrough = fail
    XS6.6.9 + hvmloader slic2.3 compiled with CentOS7 from Xenserver source (Xen 4.6) + PCI passthrough = fail
    XS6.6.9 + hvmloader slic2.3 compiled with CentOS7 from Xenserver source (Xen 4.6) + IGD passthrough = pass

    If you use XS6.5, you cannot use IGD. On the other hand, if you use XS6.6.9 beta, you cannot use PCI.
    It is good for neither one thing nor the other.
    XS6.6.9 dundee beta has some bugs for PCI passthru.


     
  9. fbifido

    fbifido MDL Member

    Jun 6, 2007
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    #30 fbifido, Dec 7, 2015
    Last edited: Dec 7, 2015
    1) Can we see the change in the IGD pass-through code, and copy it into XS6.5 ?
    also the change in the PCI pass-through ?

    2) Why did we change/mod the pci.c file for again, something about black-screen ?

    3) What would happen if we don't mod the pci.c file ? would PCI/IGD pass-through work ?

    4) Can you check these pci.c files to see if they need changes as well ?
    xen/xen/arch/x86/pci.c
    xen/xen/arch/x86/x86_64/pci.c
    xen/xen/drivers/passthrough/pci.c <------ mainly this one
    xen/xen/drivers/pci/pci.c

    5) Which package really contains the codes for IGD/PCI pass-through
    the kernel, xen, or qemu-xen ?
     
  10. fbifido

    fbifido MDL Member

    Jun 6, 2007
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    at this point just mod the :
    xen/tools/firmware/hvmloader/acpi/acpi2_0.h
    xen/tools/firmware/hvmloader/acpi/build.c
    files then test to see if PCI & IGD pass-through still works, if they works then we can move up, if not try something different.



    Does the XS6.6.9 + original hvmloader (no slic) + IGD passthrough = pass



    Thanks.
     
  11. hidesan

    hidesan MDL Novice

    Nov 27, 2010
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    #33 hidesan, Dec 10, 2015
    Last edited: Dec 10, 2015
    (OP)
    I am going to stop this mod project until xenserver dundee is officially released.
    XS65 is based on CentOS5 and Xen 4.4.1, and the source code of hvmloader is still buggy. (I'm suspecting there's some modification on citrix hvmloader's source code.)
    All I need is SLIC23 and PCI passthrough and IGD passthrough at the same VM.


    What a simple solution it is!!!
    (1) Install Windows7 x64 ultimate with original hvmloader on XS65
    (2) Activate the vm with DAZ's loader.
    (3) Upgrade for Windows 10 pro x64 without setting inheritances.
    (4) Then, you'll see a magic!! Windows10pro is activated when you finished upgrading.
     
  12. oddballracing

    oddballracing MDL Junior Member

    Dec 6, 2008
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    hidesan,

    I was under the understanding that we were all on this endeavor to build a custom hvmloader for Creedence (XS6.5) and Dundee (6.6.9x) because DAZ's loader doesn't do XenServer's BIOS). I managed to do the slic thing with XS6.2 a couple years back, but I'm having a complete nightmare putting together a suitable build environment to compile from the Xen source RPM included with XS65ESP1023 (xen-4.4.1-1.9.0.508.28899.src.rpm). I remember that I did the build inside Dom0 on a running Xenserver Host back then. A couple packages (some bins some source) had to be pulled from various resource CDs in addition to upstream packages from the CentOS repositories (5.7 x86 was the ver/arch with 6.2 IIRC). I'm doing a test of DAZ's loader on a Windows 7 Pro VM in my XS6.5 production environment right now to test your latest theory.

    fbifido,

    I've seen your posts on the Xenserver.org blog comments, and I feel your pain (albeit I'm a couple months behind you). There seems to be too much written on the "ease" of the new build environments (mock seems to make sense, docker is lost on me), without much in the line of information on getting it set up. hidesan's info on the build environment seems to be the best I can find. I'm basically grasping at straws at the moment, and I've had to halt my 6.2 to 6.5 upgrade plans because of it.

    I don't personally have a need (yet) for IGD or PCI passthrough, but I'm sure the day will come. For maintenance and failover reasons, having to start the VM on the host the BIOS strings were copied from is pointless to me so I've got to inject the SLIC into hvmloader. I'm not particularly keen on seeing this thread die, because I feel we're just getting started. Jumping to Dundee seems a little farfetched, albeit with a second BETA now available (6.6.91). I'm going to keep plugging away on this, but I have a couple questions regarding the build environment that you guys used.

    1. Building on CentOS 5(.10), what kernel version were you using? the out of the box 2.6, or upgraded to 3.10 as used in XS Dom0?
    2. The OCaml and other unavailable from the base packages, did you manage to get them from EPEL, or did you have to pull in resources from the XS binpkg CD?
    3. What reason did you shy away from the source RPM packages? I'm trying to align as close to the non-slic hvmloader that I already have as far as everything else and am trying to use the XenServer SRC.RPM from the latest update 1023.

    All help is much appreciated trying to wade my way through this labrynth.

    Cheers,

    Odd.
     
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  13. oddballracing

    oddballracing MDL Junior Member

    Dec 6, 2008
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    sorry hidesan,

    I shouldn't be so quick to conclude these things. I just read the release notes on loader v2.2.2 and it states this:

    I just tested this new version (I was trying with 2.2) with a Lenovo SLIC on Windows 7 and it seems successful. Albeit, I still wish to modify the hvmloader as a permanent solution, but this will do in a pinch.

    Thanks,

    Odd.
     
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  14. hidesan

    hidesan MDL Novice

    Nov 27, 2010
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    odd,

    I'm so glad to see that you could successfully inject SLIC on hvmloader. at XS65 environment.
    My situation is the same as it was before. Dundee doesn't work at my environment, however, this fault is not my side but for dundee side.
    Dundee developer recognized my situation as a bug in dundee and recorded at bugs.xenserver.org.
    I do believe they will (and are able to) develop enhanced dundee.
     
  15. toddwardzinski

    toddwardzinski MDL Novice

    Dec 2, 2015
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    Has anyone had any luck with XS7.0?
     
  16. toddwardzinski

    toddwardzinski MDL Novice

    Dec 2, 2015
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    So I upgraded the lab to XS7.1 forgetting about the SLIC modification. While I probably could go back to XS6.5, I'm going to try working through hvmloader 4.7.1 modifications. Just checking with you guys that you haven't already done this... @hidesan or @fbifido.
     
  17. toddwardzinski

    toddwardzinski MDL Novice

    Dec 2, 2015
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    Following the procedures highlighted in this thread also work for XenServer 7.1.