darianf

hello Joseph, good to know that changing slots does not pose threat to array/assignments some info on the speeds of pcie, per version and lane... http://www.tested.com/tech/457440-theoretical-vs-actual-bandwidth-pci-express-and-thunderbolt/ regarding this point, try to take rom dump from the GPU cards. see the video/written tutorials - gridrunner's video is very concise and explanatory if procedure does not work properly, try to take rom from techpowerup, based on exact model that you have - i did the same, since my 550ti could not dump the rom properly. This fixed the issue where GPU could only be initialized once, after restart of unraid. but still i have issues with text mode - certain OS's i have to install with newer card, then after drivers updated, switch to 550ti... ah - 8800gt, my first card - i believe it was running crysis with medium settings (800x600?) Regarding the speeds of transfer and your 3 options, it's not something i can answer unfortunately ... (so I encourage you to try)

initially i faced strange issue while setting the time in the tower. NTP as not getting correct time. when setting it manually, the time was update to a value +1 from what i was configuring. Had to do a trick to update manually to an incorrect hour, to account the for unraid's stubbornness to add the extra hour. Once the time was manually ok and time zone ok, i switched to automatically/ntp since then the time was ok in unraid. but now i see in windows vm, that the time advances every time i restart (could not yet identify if VM or unraid box restart) anything you can suggest please?

hi, my experience so far: Zotac 1060 3gb mini Usage: high settings gaming, folding, and any general purpose. It's small length so usable in small cases (although it still uses 2 slots) Rating: Excellent Instructions: was able to properly get the rom following the video/written guides. tested perfectly in all slots (including slot 1). confirmed with seabios and ovmf. Note: did not test in Windows OS, but tried many linux OS's (fedora 25, ubuntu 16.04 - gnome, kubuntu, etc... mint) with great success. interested also for Motherboards? -d edit: Installed last night Win 10 pro with 1060 passthrough. Installed the nvidia latest drivers. All went smooth, no issues detected so far.

just a clarification about my point 3 - changing hte slot - not sure what is the impact for doing so to the array - if drives in array will get messed up - so better to take more advice about proper way to do this.

Joseph, if i may give my cents... 1) x8 vs x16 - the diff in performance is minimal - maybe it drops few frames... So i would not worry, even for a high end card. 2) i would avoid putting a non GPU in that shared slot (used for SLI). Only if it's the last option... i don't have a practical argument to demonstrate, other than theoretical: those slots are getting the pci lanes directly from CPU, whereas the rest are from the Z97 chipset, so i would say they are more suitable to host GPU's rather than regular PCIe cards. See also think link explaining what kind of lanes exist for your chipset - z97 used as comparisson with newer chipsets z170, x99 https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/462341-skylake-haswell-e-pcie-lane-misconception/ Z170 it's also sharing the 16 PCIe lanes from CPU to x8 + x8. it;s only that the lanes from chipset are newer and more (e.g. z170 has 20 lanes PCIe 3.0) also more info on the x97 pcie lanes: https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Z170-vs-Z97-What-is-the-Difference-636/ 3) slot 7 x4 - based on the schematics from Darkun1 it;s indeed limited to x4 I could not find out if the SuperMicro AOC-SAS2LP-MV8 SATA Controller is pcie 3.0 or 2.0. But regardless, i would easily put it in the last slot 7, i don't think you'll get perf impact (the controller is x4 anyhow) 4) not sure if the el-cheapo will be suitable to passthrough properly. I struggeld with newer card, 55ti and i managed to get it passthrough.but limitations exists though, discovered recently...

i just edited my post. jonathanm you refer to the flash drive? i assume windows will not touch the flash drive, but i might be wrong... but if you refer to the array disks - the unraid array/cache will not be visible from windows. windows will use a disk, outside unraid. unraid array will have separate disks. -d

Hi, Is it possible to add to the unraid boot menu the windows 10 boot partition? I have a disk dedicated to windows 10, already installed, so not part of the unraid array/cache. I want to boot from the unraid flash, but then to select from the menu the option for windows 10 disk. Currently i have to use the F8 key (in case of Asus) to select the device to boot, and will chose to boot either the flash, or the win 10 disk. I already saw the instructions to use the cache drive to host multiple partitions (cache, windows partition) but is not for my scenario. -d Edit: after more reading, i understand it could be possible... by modifying the syslinux config to add extra menu for windows 10 partition. Is there any good guide, instructions already available? i could not find yet... thanks

I have a couple 710 cards and a 730. I just feed them straight to OS X with no issues. I'll try to post rom's soon. Thanks 1812 - that would help i was about to mention this: "also, please provide the exact model and part number, so that i can order same " But, few restarts later, it seems i will stick with 550ti for now, because i have some great news I downloaded the rom for 550ti from techpowerup (~60kb). i just booted into the os, passing through the 550ti, writing now from that os Also did some tests for VM restart and power-off then power-on the VM - and it works great! the gpu does not hang after first boot! One thing to note, there are several part numbers for evga 550ti. some cards are 2 gbs, others are 1 gb. But i can confirm that the rom in techpowerup for my card with part number 01G-P3-1556-PK (so 1 gb ram) is working fine! The link for the rom: https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/102599/EVGA.GTX550ti.1024.110225.rom cheers -d

at least this i can contribute regarding asus x99-m ws & chosing the primary GPU - no option like this in my bios. I have only the "privilege" to see the cards, in a very generic way (e.g. it shows "NVIDIA GPU" for both the cards, but no model). It also shows the speed for each card (e.g. x8, x16). i guess i'm out of options. probably newer card plays better? was considering a cheap 710 - anybody having success with it? e.g. dump rom while in second slot, then passthrough while in first slot... -d

gridrunner, my mobo is x99-m ws from asus. i could not find an option to change the primary GPU, altogh i searched for it during the last days. checking on internet, maybe asus did not put this option for x99, but only for the platforms with IGP will check again thou the 1060 zotac mini 3g rom file is located here: http://www.filedropper.com/zotac1060mini3g (please, it's my first time using this file upload service, not sure on reliability or if any issues)

so i tried after fresh restart, with the VM up, without unbind. i still get the input/output error. i also tried creating a new VM, this time with seabios (previous attempts were with OVMF - so i believe seabios is recommended for the non uefi gpu's like 550ti). Restarted the box, then starting this VM, performing the isntalltion of the Ubuntu properly. Restarted once again the box, started the VM, then tried to dump the rom without unbinding, same issue - i/o error. Tried also to unbind, again cannot unbind while VM up. after start of VM and stopped, any attempts to start the VM fails and i get black screen output - in the VM log i see this: 2017-01-16T22:07:26.847146Z qemu-system-x86_64: vfio-pci: Cannot read device rom at 0000:02:00.0 Device option ROM contents are probably invalid (check dmesg). Skip option ROM probe with rombar=0, or load from file with romfile= in the dmesg, i see this: [ 159.336702] vfio-pci 0000:02:00.0: Invalid ROM contents [ 176.687421] vfio-pci 0000:02:00.0: Relaying device request to user (#0) [ 216.226455] vfio-pci 0000:02:00.0: Device is currently in use, task "bash" (13024) blocked until device is released the above i assume is during unbind. other messages in dmesg are like: [ 297.524992] pci 0000:02:00.0: Invalid ROM contents [ 337.653449] vgaarb: device changed decodes: PCI:0000:02:00.0,olddecodes=io+mem,decodes=io+mem:owns=io+mem which are probably my attempts to restart the VM (and failing, with black screen) will come back with details of the rom for Zotac 1060 mini 3gb...

is it my [wrong?] understading that unassigned devices do not count against the license limit, since they are not part of the array... somebody can clarify please?

junnu, in fact the rom i downloaded from techpowerup is around 58-60 KB for my 550ti My understanding is that it should be around 128KB? And usually the ones from techpowerup are around 256KB, which ppl are saying they are not good, because they are shadowed roms and will not work for passing through the gpu to vm... maybe the age of the card also matters... maybe older cards are smaller, newer are bigger... just my understanding, don't take it for granted. -d

thanks for the good explanation dmacias. i think now it really makes sense to buy the ultra cheap small ssd, like 120 GB, and pass them entirely

If full disk is to be used by the VM, which is the preferred method? or what are the advantages of one method against the other? (performance, stability, etc..) Does it matter if it's ssd or standard HDD? Thanks -d

thanks now that you say it, i'm not confident if i already tried to dump while VM up, without unbind.. Will update quickly, once i try it out (hopefully today evening) Why the need? i have matx with x99, like you. So no IGP, and only 2 PCIe slots (actually 3, but last one is not usable to fit a GPU, since the matx case would not allow). I'm planning to run 2 VM's with both the GPU's passthrough. And, i want to put the 550ti in my first slot, because i plan to work it less (will have less airflow). Putting 1060 on second slot will give it access to fresh aiflow & will run cooler. -d

hi, this is a very good tutorial, thanks gridrunner for all the steps I was able to extract the rom for my zotac 1060 mini 3g card, no issues with it. But now i'm facing an issue with my evga 550ti 1gb, placed in second PCIe slot (with 1060 in first slot). If i just start the unraid box, without any VM auto running, and try the steps for rom creation (so lspci -v does not show that line with driver in use for vfio-pcie for 550 ti - device 02:00.0), i get: cat: rom: Input/output error Same happens if i start and stop the VM. If i keep the VM started (550ti in second slot passed through) - btw, only OVMF bios works - then lspci -v shows me that line with the driver in use. I try to unbind, but no luck (command hangs). Only if i stop the VM, then the command returns the prompt. I continue with the steps for rom dumping, but again i get cat: rom: Input/output error Somehting to note, after a start/stop attempt, the VM does not start anymore, due to some GPU invalid rom error - it asks to check dmesg for more info and i get "Invalid ROM" or somehting similar. Therefore I have to reboot the whole unraid box to make it start again. In short, I'm out of options for getting the rom for this 550ti, as i tried various options: 1) immidiately after box restart, VM never started since restart of box - input/output error 2) fresh box restart, VM started and then stopped - input/output error 3) fresh box start, while VM is online - unbind hangs. Then i stop the VM, unbind runs (actually not really sure if it runs, because no message is shown as output, iut just returns to the prompt) but the cat rom fails again with input/output error. All these after fresh restarts of the physical box... What to do next, what suggestion should i try? i see some ACS suggestion, but not sure if relevant or what exactly should i change (not familiar with the concept). Or should i buy another card instead of my old 550ti? any success with the low cost 710/720 cards? thanks -d