Nvidia driver will not install

[lionelhutz]

I've been trying to setup a Windows VM for the last few days. It works fine EXCEPT the video/audio drivers will not install. The display will flicker and then the VM either crashes and reboots or crashes and is broken and refuses to boot.

 

My hardware is a F2A88XM-D3H & A8-7600. I tried it with the AMD video and I also added a GT710 video card. Still, it's always the same thing. Works fine except for the damn display driver. Since I NEVER get past the display driver install the audio driver never installs either.

 

I've tried a whole bunch of combinations of these...

W7

W10

Seabios

OVMF

Passing through the CPU

Emulating the CPU

PCIe ACS Override ON and OFF

 

I even tried adding "vfio_iommu_type1.allow_unsafe_interrupts=1" to syslinux since that seemed to be a popular thing to do even though I didn't expect it to help...

 

I've also tried OpenELEC. It works great on the GPU. It worked on the GT710 but the audio stuttered badly. I only tried it with the PCIe ACS Override OFF and think it should have been ON since there are other PCI devices in the same group as the GT710.

 

Here is my XML from the last W10 attempt.

 

<domain type='kvm'>
  <name>Win10</name>
  <uuid>a2a4feb9-6201-cad6-920d-fc1eb02e0a2a</uuid>
  <metadata>
    <vmtemplate name="Custom" icon="windows.png" os="windows"/>
  </metadata>
  <memory unit='KiB'>8388608</memory>
  <currentMemory unit='KiB'>8388608</currentMemory>
  <memoryBacking>
    <nosharepages/>
    <locked/>
  </memoryBacking>
  <vcpu placement='static'>1</vcpu>
  <cputune>
    <vcpupin vcpu='0' cpuset='3'/>
  </cputune>
  <os>
    <type arch='x86_64' machine='pc-i440fx-2.3'>hvm</type>
    <loader type='pflash'>/usr/share/qemu/ovmf-x64/OVMF-pure-efi.fd</loader>
  </os>
  <features>
    <acpi/>
    <apic/>
  </features>
  <cpu>
    <topology sockets='1' cores='1' threads='1'/>
  </cpu>
  <clock offset='localtime'>
    <timer name='rtc' tickpolicy='catchup'/>
    <timer name='pit' tickpolicy='delay'/>
    <timer name='hpet' present='no'/>
  </clock>
  <on_poweroff>destroy</on_poweroff>
  <on_reboot>restart</on_reboot>
  <on_crash>restart</on_crash>
  <devices>
    <emulator>/usr/bin/qemu-system-x86_64</emulator>
    <disk type='file' device='disk'>
      <driver name='qemu' type='raw' cache='writeback'/>
      <source file='/mnt/cache/Images/Win10/vdisk1.img'/>
      <target dev='hdc' bus='virtio'/>
      <boot order='1'/>
      <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x04' function='0x0'/>
    </disk>
    <disk type='file' device='cdrom'>
      <driver name='qemu' type='raw'/>
      <source file='mnt/cache/ISO/Windows10.iso'/>
      <target dev='hda' bus='ide'/>
      <readonly/>
      <boot order='2'/>
      <address type='drive' controller='0' bus='0' target='0' unit='0'/>
    </disk>
    <disk type='file' device='cdrom'>
      <driver name='qemu' type='raw'/>
      <source file='mnt/cache/ISO/virtio-win-0.1.109.iso'/>
      <target dev='hdb' bus='ide'/>
      <readonly/>
      <address type='drive' controller='0' bus='0' target='0' unit='1'/>
    </disk>
    <controller type='usb' index='0'>
      <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x01' function='0x2'/>
    </controller>
    <controller type='pci' index='0' model='pci-root'/>
    <controller type='ide' index='0'>
      <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x01' function='0x1'/>
    </controller>
    <controller type='virtio-serial' index='0'>
      <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x03' function='0x0'/>
    </controller>
    <interface type='bridge'>
      <mac address='52:54:00:f3:96:a1'/>
      <source bridge='virbr0'/>
      <model type='virtio'/>
      <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x02' function='0x0'/>
    </interface>
    <serial type='pty'>
      <target port='0'/>
    </serial>
    <console type='pty'>
      <target type='serial' port='0'/>
    </console>
    <channel type='unix'>
      <source mode='bind' path='/var/lib/libvirt/qemu/channel/target/Win10.org.qemu.guest_agent.0'/>
      <target type='virtio' name='org.qemu.guest_agent.0'/>
      <address type='virtio-serial' controller='0' bus='0' port='1'/>
    </channel>
    <hostdev mode='subsystem' type='pci' managed='yes'>
      <driver name='vfio'/>
      <source>
        <address domain='0x0000' bus='0x01' slot='0x00' function='0x0'/>
      </source>
      <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x05' function='0x0'/>
    </hostdev>
    <hostdev mode='subsystem' type='pci' managed='yes'>
      <driver name='vfio'/>
      <source>
        <address domain='0x0000' bus='0x01' slot='0x00' function='0x1'/>
      </source>
      <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x06' function='0x0'/>
    </hostdev>
    <hostdev mode='subsystem' type='usb' managed='yes'>
      <source>
        <vendor id='0x0c16'/>
        <product id='0x0002'/>
      </source>
    </hostdev>
    <memballoon model='virtio'>
      <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x07' function='0x0'/>
    </memballoon>
  </devices>
</domain>

 

Can anyone help with a suggestion that might work?

 

[testdasi]

Have you tried a different / older version of the driver?

[lionelhutz]

I tried a quite older version and it "wasn't compatible".

 

I did try the GT710 in another PC and it worked fine there so I have no reason to think the card is bad.

[bungee91]

I've also tried OpenELEC. It works great on the GPU. It worked on the GT710 but the audio stuttered badly. I only tried it with the PCIe ACS Override OFF and think it should have been ON since there are other PCI devices in the same group as the GT710.

 

For OE you have to do the following:

create file in config folder of OE

 

.config/modprobe.d/sound.conf

and put line

options snd-hda-intel enable_msi=1

 

That should fix the audio stutter right away (reboot after change).

 

I'm surprised you're having such issues with the 710, as it is very similar to the 720, which I have nothing but good things to say about (which means it is boring in that it just works, X2 or X3 for me).

Anyhow, the only thing I can think of off hand is removing any remnants of old drivers prior to installing new ones. The best way is to use the DDU utility http://www.guru3d.com/files-details/display-driver-uninstaller-download.html to wipe out everything and start fresh. I have not updated the drivers in a while, however had heard newer Nvidia drivers were causing issues.

I'm currently on 361.43 and have tested many prior versions, with no issues. It looks like 361.43 is pretty old by now though (1/19/2016), but you may want to try it. I experienced no longer than expected display blackout when installing the driver on 3 seperate VM's, Windows 10 64 bit, i440FX (newest, 2.5?), and SeaBIOS.

 

[lionelhutz]

I'll try those older drivers. I have no need for the DU utility since the VM typically gets messed up and starts blue screening so I start with a clean install each time I try something new.

 

The card should have been stupidly easy to use. I just can't understand why the VM's work fine but the drivers won't install.

 

I've done a bunch of Google searching and can't find anyone else having this issue with a KVM VM. I've read a ton of things about crashing, not starting, IOMMU group and MSI but none of them seem to apply here.

 

If the video driver you recommend doesn't work then I'm thinking new motherboard and CPU is the only thing left to try.

[lionelhutz]

361.43 said there is no compatible hardware. The next oldest 361.75 wouldn't install either.

[bungee91]

Lousy.

Well I'm uncertain that this is tied to a driver anyhow, just some troubleshooting is all.

Now that I think of it the 710 wasn't released at that point yet, so it certainly makes sense.

I had only heard of the most recent Nvidia driver giving issues, however it is also possible that driver is no longer the most recent.

 

The OE fix should solve that issue, however uncertain with Windows.

What make is the 710 you have? I know some Asus cards can be a pain in the ass (for whatever reason, likely a card rom/bios issue).

Have you attemped to extract the rom and add it to the XML of the VM?

I wouldn't think for this card it is needed, but at this point it is worth trying.

[lionelhutz]

It's a Gigabyte card.

 

 

[lionelhutz]

I didn't really solve the issue but I have it working now. I could not find anything that would help so I bought a new Intel processor, ASRock motherboard and DDR4 ram and the driver now installs.

 

So, something was off with the AMD parts not properly allowing Windows to access the video card. Maybe the bios has an issue. When testing I tried both W7 and W10 with both the onboard and Nvidia PCIe cards and it was the same issue with the video driver failing to install every time.

 

I did a lot of searching and only found one case of a video driver failing to install and there was nothing useful in that thread that helped. For the most part, it seems there are usually issues getting the VM to boot up and use the hardware, not with drivers.