Asus IPMI Card on Pro WS W680-ACE Motherboard Disables Quick Sync

[spall23]

I was recently setting up Plex in Docker and wanted to use the iGPU for Quick Sync on my 13700k. I passed through /dev/dri, tested transcoding, and noticed that it wasn't using hardware transcoding. Upon further investigation, I saw that /dev/dri/renderD128 wasn't present on the host or in the container.

 

After performing a fair bit of troubleshooting, I decided to try taking out the IPMI card (ASMB9-iKVM) that came with the motherboard. After doing this and rebooting, /dev/dri/renderD128 was now present. This leads me to believe that the KVM on the IPMI card was using the iGPU such that it was not able to be used by the host system for transcoding.

 

Just wondering if anyone else has experienced this or if you know of a way to have both things operational at the same time.

[SimonF]

9 hours ago, spall23 said:

I was recently setting up Plex in Docker and wanted to use the iGPU for Quick Sync on my 13700k. I passed through /dev/dri, tested transcoding, and noticed that it wasn't using hardware transcoding. Upon further investigation, I saw that /dev/dri/renderD128 wasn't present on the host or in the container.

 

After performing a fair bit of troubleshooting, I decided to try taking out the IPMI card (ASMB9-iKVM) that came with the motherboard. After doing this and rebooting, /dev/dri/renderD128 was now present. This leads me to believe that the KVM on the IPMI card was using the iGPU such that it was not able to be used by the host system for transcoding.

 

Just wondering if anyone else has experienced this or if you know of a way to have both things operational at the same time.

It maybe that the IPMI card has its own graphics, and you would need to enable in bios the iGPU normally it will default to dgpu or the BMC.

 

Would you have lspci or diagnostics before you removed it?

 

i.e. my SM mother boards have the following where the Matrox is the IPMI access/console.

 

root@unraid:~# lspci | grep VGA
09:03.0 VGA compatible controller: Matrox Electronics Systems Ltd. MGA G200eW WPCM450 (rev 0a)
82:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation TU106 [GeForce RTX 2060 Rev. A] (rev a1)
83:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GK208B [GeForce GT 720] (rev a1)
root@unraid:~# 

[JimmyGerms]

Hey there! I'm about to pull the trigger on this board and came across this. Before I buy I'm going to watch this thread.

 

Have you tried changing the Graphics Configuration settings in the BIOS? Looks like there is a toggle for iGPU Multi-Monitor support. Wonder if that will help resolve the issue?

 

 

Seems like this individual had some iGPU issues as well:

https://old.reddit.com/r/unRAID/comments/10r98b9/new_intel_build_advice_w680_z690_z790/j9u65sd/

Edited September 11, 2023 by JimmyGerms

[spall23]

I was able to get IPMI output and Quick Sync transcoding working by changing the two BIOS settings referenced above. That said, I now cannot get DisplayPort output, but for my use case that's fine (as long as KVM works). Not sure if there's a way to get everything to work at the same time without a separate GPU.

[firstTimer]

Hi @spall23, check the couple of comments I made in this thread, I think I have the answer to your problem

 

 

Edited September 20, 2023 by firstTimer

[XiS]

On 9/19/2023 at 1:37 AM, spall23 said:

I was able to get IPMI output and Quick Sync transcoding working by changing the two BIOS settings referenced above. That said, I now cannot get DisplayPort output, but for my use case that's fine (as long as KVM works). Not sure if there's a way to get everything to work at the same time without a separate GPU.

 

Can you please elaborate how you got this working. I've set iGPU Multi-Monitor to `Enabled` and tried this with both Primary Display `auto` and `CPU Graphics`.

 

I can't seem to get this working headless with the settings mentioned.

 

When booting with these settings:

Without physical display attached:

 - No /dev/dri/renderd128

 - IPMI iKVM works

 

Physical display attached:

 - /dev/dri/renderd128 exists

 - IPMI iKVM shows blank screen

 - Physical display works

 

Hardware:
CPU:                  i9-13900K
Motherboard:          PRO WS W680-ACE IPMI


Versions:
BIOS:                 2802 X64
ASMB10-iKVM:          1.1.33
ME FW Version:        16.1.30.2264
SA PCIe Code Version: 12.0.186.16

 

 

 

[Bizquick]

If you cant get that working with out display plugged in I suggest just getting a dummy plug. I had to do that for one of my builds that used IPMI and igpu.

or you can hit on the motherboard maker to make some sot of BIOS adjustment that works. That would be my suggestion sense you have done most of the work and found that it works with a display plugged in. A dummy plug shouldn't cost you too much I got a 2 pack on amazon for almost 9 dollars.

[XiS]

  

On 12/28/2023 at 3:47 PM, Bizquick said:

If you cant get that working with out display plugged in I suggest just getting a dummy plug. I had to do that for one of my builds that used IPMI and igpu.

or you can hit on the motherboard maker to make some sot of BIOS adjustment that works. That would be my suggestion sense you have done most of the work and found that it works with a display plugged in. A dummy plug shouldn't cost you too much I got a 2 pack on amazon for almost 9 dollars.

Well actually, I don't have it all figured out.

 

When plugin in a monitor (or dummy for that matter), I do have te ability to use /dev/dri/renderd128 (Intel Quick Sync for Plex HWA). But the iKVM screen shows a blank screen, meaning I'm unable to use iKVM to remotely control the machine.

 

My goal is to be able to use iGPU Intel Quick Sync for hardware acceleration AND still be able to control my screen remotely using iKVM.  I haven't found a combination of settings to get this work. But @spall23 says he got working so I'm very interested in hearing how he achieved this.

 

Edit/Note for clarifaction: I only have iGPU, no external graphic cards.

Edited December 29, 2023 by XiS

[XiS]

TL;DR: It's all working now

 

After a lot of additional testing I finally gave up and accepted that I would have to choose to either have iKVM or Intel Quick Sync, but not have both at the same time. I ordered a HDMI dummy, put it in the server and moved my server back to it's designated location. After finishing up BIOS configuration and rebooting to the OS I noticed I still had iKVM display while booting. So after all this testing it now magically seemed to work....hooray I guess?

 

I did all my tests with my desktop display, which didn't allow for iKVM and Intel Quick Sync to work at the same time. My best guess, my display was 4K, the HDMI dummy isn't. My best guess is it has to do something with that...

 

I felt obliged to post this for the next person that encounters issues testing this.

[Omid]

On 1/9/2024 at 9:42 AM, XiS said:

TL;DR: It's all working now

 

After a lot of additional testing I finally gave up and accepted that I would have to choose to either have iKVM or Intel Quick Sync, but not have both at the same time. I ordered a HDMI dummy, put it in the server and moved my server back to it's designated location. After finishing up BIOS configuration and rebooting to the OS I noticed I still had iKVM display while booting. So after all this testing it now magically seemed to work....hooray I guess?

 

I did all my tests with my desktop display, which didn't allow for iKVM and Intel Quick Sync to work at the same time. My best guess, my display was 4K, the HDMI dummy isn't. My best guess is it has to do something with that...

 

I felt obliged to post this for the next person that encounters issues testing this.

 

I think I have a very similar scenario and I can't find a way forward ☹️ slowly going from "this will be a fun challenge" to "this is very frustrating".

 

I had iGPU and Quick Sync working fine with the W680 ACE IPMI motherboard. I also had video output working through the IPMI card, both via the KVM and with a monitor plugged in to the card's VGA port.

 

I then added an LSI 9201-8i HBA card and really struggled to get it working but finally got there with help from the community. At least that's what I thought, until a couple of weeks later when I noticed unRAID couldn't see the iGPU and all transcoding was done by the CPU (an easy oversight).

tl;dr: I needed to enable CSM for the HBA to properly initialise and attached drives to be detected by unRAID.

 

I never checked if the iGPU was detected with the HBA installed and CSM disabled, because I never started the array due to drives not being detected, but I have a strong feeling this is caused by enabling CSM and not simply having the HBA card in.

 

Trying to move forwards, I'm a little suspicious of the Graphics Configuration page in BIOS, because it makes no reference to CPU graphics at all. It's not one of the options in the drop-down and the iGPU Multi-Monitor field isn't there at all (I'm almost certain I recall it being enabled when I first installed this build, before all the HBA and CSM madness).

 

Here is what I see:

 

I've tried booting with all 3 options but nothing changes. It's as if the iGPU isn't detected or initialised during POST/boot.

 

Any advice, comments or thoughts would be appreciated, before I go crazy(!). Thanks in advance!

 

Edited January 13 by Omid

[fredskis]

That's really strange. If you disable CSM mode do the normal options come back? I have 2x LSI 9207-8i I bought from eBay which I'm maybe 40% sure they're clones due to the price, but they do the job. They didn't need changing to CSM mode to work. 

Maybe you might have to try a different HBA model

 

I took some screenshots earlier today as I was documenting the settings I changed before upgrading BIOS and troubleshooting an issue where my Unraid box doesn't restart but requires a second power off/on. 

Screenshotted what I first see when switching to CPU Graphics:

 

and then two extra settings show up after booting with CPU Graphics selected:

 

I noticed these got reset when I removed my HDMI dongle/terminator thing. 

Edited January 17 by fredskis

[casperse]

THANKS!

I can confirm that when you disable CSM mode the normal options comes back! 

[HumanTechDesign]

On 1/9/2024 at 10:42 AM, XiS said:

I did all my tests with my desktop display, which didn't allow for iKVM and Intel Quick Sync to work at the same time. My best guess, my display was 4K, the HDMI dummy isn't. My best guess is it has to do something with that...

 

I felt obliged to post this for the next person that encounters issues testing this.

 

Can you please check, what your BIOS GPU configuration is set to now? I have the mATX version of that board (W680M-ACE SE, which does not have an external IMPI card, but I assume, internally they are linked up the same).

What bothers me the most: I had it working the other day but I had to reset the CMOS because of a soft brick (by trying to start the "secure erase" functionality built into the board). Since then, I have been trying a lot of different configurations but somehow it's always the same iKVM vs. iGPU.

 

This BIOS has so many bugs. Sometimes, my board restarts three times just on its own until it finally decides that it is okay to go ahead now. Random "Fb" boot codes (apparently M.2 SSD error messages) just to be fine on the next boot. I'm a private user but if I was a sysadmin that had to use it in a professional context(!) I would return it to the distributor.