Intel GVT-g GPU Virtualization Moves Closer

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Intel GVT-g GPU Virtualization Moves Closer

For months we have been talking about Intel XenGT as mediated graphics pass-through support so virtual machines can access Intel Haswell HD Graphics GPUs from the host under Linux and the GPU shared directly with the VMs running on the system. This work is finally closer to being realized to end-users with the code working towards being mainlined...

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=MTgyMTE

[MannerMan]

Does this mean I will be able to passthrough my Intel i7 integrated gpu to a Windows virtual-machine running under KVM any time soon?

[pali]

Does this mean I will be able to passthrough my Intel i7 integrated gpu to a Windows virtual-machine running under KVM any time soon?

No, this technology is for Xen, not KVM.

[uid313]

Is this specific to any VM technology, such as Xen?
Or can this work on KVM, VirtualBox, VMware, etc?

Is this specific to Intel, or could this be used by Nvidia and AMD too?

[pali]

Is this specific to any VM technology, such as Xen?
Or can this work on KVM, VirtualBox, VMware, etc?

Is this specific to Intel, or could this be used by Nvidia and AMD too?

Currently only patches for Xen and i915.ko (intel haswell) are provided.

[_SXX_]

Currently only patches for Xen and i915.ko (intel haswell) are provided.

Though according to this task on github they're working on KVM support:

https://github.com/01org/XenGT-Preview-xen/issues/2

[pali]

Nice. Last time when I was playing with it there was only Xen support...

[uid313]

Currently only patches for Xen and i915.ko (intel haswell) are provided.

I see.
But is the code inherently for Xen and Intel, or is it modular cleanly-separated code built in a pluggable and extensible way?

[guido12]

Is this specific to any VM technology, such as Xen?
Or can this work on KVM, VirtualBox, VMware, etc?

Is this specific to Intel, or could this be used by Nvidia and AMD too?

It'd great if there's a path to support hosted solutions like VMware Workstation or VirtualBox. For VMware, the Mesa drivers are blacklisted so, for Intel host graphics, I have to allow blacklisted drivers in order to enable 3D in guests. For some guests, usually Windows guests, this causes the guest to freeze and I have to force power down the VM.

[liam]

According to a presentation at KVM forum 2014, it looks like gvt largely works for Linux guests. Performance varies from about 85%-98% of native. It looks like it will take a lot of work to enable this in other drivers, however.
Personally, Id prefer to just use pass through. Yeah, it only works with iommu/vtd but you get native performance. I don't need to run more than one graphical VM at a time.