Hey guys, I've run into a problem, hoping someone can help, or at least confirm that there's nothing I can do about it.

 

I bought an old $20 PCI video card to pass through to a Windows 10 VM.  When I try to start the VM, it fails with the error below.  From that error, I gather that the PCI slot the video card is plugged into, is in IOMMU group 8, so I need to forward everything from that group to the VM.  Problem is, that group also contains one of the mobo's SATA controllers, among other things, so obviously I can't pass that through to the VM.

 

Do I have any options?  Looks to me like I won't be able to use a video card in a PCI slot, but before I give up on it, I thought I'd ask the smart people here on the forum.  Thanks!

 

Here is the error:

internal error: early end of file from monitor: possible problem:

2016-08-17T00:22:56.273273Z qemu-system-x86_64: -device vfio-pci,host=03:01.0,bus=root.1,addr=00.0,multifunction=on,x-vga=on: vfio: error, group 8 is not viable, please ensure all devices within the iommu_group are bound to their vfio bus driver.

2016-08-17T00:22:56.273287Z qemu-system-x86_64: -device vfio-pci,host=03:01.0,bus=root.1,addr=00.0,multifunction=on,x-vga=on: vfio: failed to get group 8

2016-08-17T00:22:56.273294Z qemu-system-x86_64: -device vfio-pci,host=03:01.0,bus=root.1,addr=00.0,multifunction=on,x-vga=on: Device initialization failed

2016-08-17T00:22:56.273300Z qemu-system-x86_64: -device vfio-pci,host=03:01.0,bus=root.1,addr=00.0,multifunction=on,x-vga=on: Device 'vfio-pci' could not be initialized

 

Here are my pci devices:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 4th Gen Core Processor DRAM Controller (rev 06)

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v3/4th Gen Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 06)

00:03.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v3/4th Gen Core Processor HD Audio Controller (rev 06)

00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 9 Series Chipset Family USB xHCI Controller

00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation 9 Series Chipset Family ME Interface #1

00:19.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation Ethernet Connection (2) I218-V

00:1a.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 9 Series Chipset Family USB EHCI Controller #2

00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 9 Series Chipset Family HD Audio Controller

00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 9 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 1 (rev d0)

00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev d0)

00:1c.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 9 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 5 (rev d0)

00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 9 Series Chipset Family USB EHCI Controller #1

00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 9 Series Chipset Family H97 Controller

00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 9 Series Chipset Family SATA Controller [AHCI Mode]

00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 9 Series Chipset Family SMBus Controller

02:00.0 PCI bridge: ASMedia Technology Inc. ASM1083/1085 PCIe to PCI Bridge (rev 03)

03:01.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation NV34 [GeForce FX 5200] (rev a1)

04:00.0 SATA controller: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. Device 9215 (rev 11)

 

Here are my IOMMU groups:

/sys/kernel/iommu_groups/0/devices/0000:00:00.0

/sys/kernel/iommu_groups/1/devices/0000:00:02.0

/sys/kernel/iommu_groups/2/devices/0000:00:03.0

/sys/kernel/iommu_groups/3/devices/0000:00:14.0

/sys/kernel/iommu_groups/4/devices/0000:00:16.0

/sys/kernel/iommu_groups/5/devices/0000:00:19.0

/sys/kernel/iommu_groups/6/devices/0000:00:1a.0

/sys/kernel/iommu_groups/7/devices/0000:00:1b.0

/sys/kernel/iommu_groups/8/devices/0000:00:1c.0

/sys/kernel/iommu_groups/8/devices/0000:00:1c.3

/sys/kernel/iommu_groups/8/devices/0000:00:1c.4

/sys/kernel/iommu_groups/8/devices/0000:02:00.0

/sys/kernel/iommu_groups/8/devices/0000:03:01.0

/sys/kernel/iommu_groups/8/devices/0000:04:00.0

/sys/kernel/iommu_groups/9/devices/0000:00:1d.0

/sys/kernel/iommu_groups/10/devices/0000:00:1f.0

/sys/kernel/iommu_groups/10/devices/0000:00:1f.2

/sys/kernel/iommu_groups/10/devices/0000:00:1f.3

You can enable the "Enable PCIe ACS Override" option under the Settings - VM Settings page  (advanced view) and reboot.

This should put the GPU within its own IOMMU group, allowing you to assign only this device.

Please read about the possibilities for "Warning: Use of this setting could cause possible data corruption with certain hardware configurations. Please visit the Lime Technology forums for more information.".

See if that fixes your issues.

You can enable the "Enable PCIe ACS Override" option under the Settings - VM Settings page  (advanced view) and reboot.

This should put the GPU within its own IOMMU group, allowing you to assign only this device.

Please read about the possibilities for "Warning: Use of this setting could cause possible data corruption with certain hardware configurations. Please visit the Lime Technology forums for more information.".

See if that fixes your issues.

 

Great suggestion, thank you.  Now I know what the "ACS Override" option actually does.  It did work, in that I was able to start the vm with the FX5200 set as the graphics pass through.  Unfortunately, in my (lack of) infinite wisdom, I forgot to check to see if nVidia actually has Win10 drivers for a card that old.  Surprise surprise, they don't, and the generic windows driver didn't work either, leaving me with a blank screen.  Not all was lost, at least initially.  I did get a linux mint vm working with the card, only to find out that one of the display ports on the card is bad.  Color is all messed up.  Oh well, the card was $20, and I learned a few lessons.  Thanks for the input.