USB Controller Pass-thru

[Shlazor]

I am running UnRaid 6.6.6 and I only have about 8 days experience with UnRaid at all.

 

I bought a usb controller card and 1070 graphics card to pass-thru to a Win10 Pro VM.  They are both in the computer but I thought I would try the pass-through one at a time with the usb controller being the first try.  (Thought it would be simplest)  BTW: I watched SIO's videos on the subject about 4 times before I started.  SIO: I became a patron today.  Thanks for all the effort!!!

Back to the problem...

Here was the System Info prior to the install:

 

And here afterwards.  Luckily, it seems that the two devices were in their own IOMMU groups.  Thought this would be easy.

 

The USB controller seems to be appearing as the only element in IOMMU group 13 with the id 1b73:1100.

Therefore I added the following item (shown in yellow highlight [below]) to the Syslinux Configuration and rebooted:

 

default menu.c32

menu title Lime Technology, Inc.

prompt 0

timeout 50

label Unraid OS

  kernel /bzimage

  append initrd=/bzroot

label Unraid OS GUI Mode

  menu default

  kernel /bzimage

  append vfio-pci.ids=1b73:1100 initrd=/bzroot,/bzroot-gui

label Unraid OS Safe Mode (no plugins, no GUI)

  kernel /bzimage

  append initrd=/bzroot unraidsafemode

label Unraid OS GUI Safe Mode (no plugins)

  kernel /bzimage

  append initrd=/bzroot,/bzroot-gui unraidsafemode

label Memtest86+

  kernel /memtest

 

So far, so good.

Now the pci device in the VM template shows it available to pass through to the VM.  I checked the box and clicked update:

This is where it stopped.  It never updated, never said done.  Nothing.  I restarted the edit and same thing happened.  Restarted it again and this time, I simply tried to update the description.  Same result.  Apparently something is wrong with my ability to edit the VM template.

With my very limited UnRaid experience, I don't really know where to even start.  I sure could use some help

Thanks everyone in advance.

[WashingtonMatt]

It looks like you did everything correctly. What browser/device are you using to modify the template?

[Shlazor]

WashingtonMatt:  Thanks for the reply.

 

I am using Chrome.  I have edited the template in Chrome several times after I created it. 

 

I started the VM anyway to see if the update actually occurred and that simply the browser wasn't updating.  That wasn't it.  The hardware wasn't there in Device Manager.

Since I wrote the post, I took the update back out of Syslinux Configuration rebooted and tried to update the VM Description again.  Still didn't work.  I put it back and rebooted again.  Still didn't work.  I hope someone has a good idea.  I actually put a ton of work into the VM already and really don't want to start over with it.

Edited December 10, 2018 by Shlazor

[WashingtonMatt]

Create a new vm test template and see if you can change it.

[Shlazor]

11 minutes ago, WashingtonMatt said:

Create a new vm test template and see if you can change it.

I don't know if this is good news or bad news.  It worked no problem.

[WashingtonMatt]

You should be able to note your current settings, delete just the template, not your disk image, the recreate the vm template and point it to your existing disk image. I recall doing this awhile back without issue, however you may want to wait for confirmation from another more informed member.

 

In your previous edits, were you directly editing the xml in advanced mode? You may want to switch to advanced mode and see if you can save, then switch back to basic and test.

 

I don't think this had anything to do with your passthrough attempt.

 

[Shlazor]

I discovered that I can edit the description in XML mode and save with no problems.  Description updates correctly.  The problem is, I have no idea what to type for xml mode.

 

I tried making the changes in form mode and then switching to xml mode to save but when you switch, it must be "re-read" from disk because the changes are gone.

 

[WashingtonMatt]

Correct. Changes in xml are lost when switching back to form view. That is normal. You shouldn't have to use xml mode unless you have a reason to. I was just curious if saving in xml mode would help shake it loose in form view.

 

I'm fairly certain once you recreate the vm template, you'll be up and running.

[WashingtonMatt]

Btw - template xml is saved in /etc/libvirt/qemu/

 

I suspect the file is just corrupted somehow

[Shlazor]

54 minutes ago, WashingtonMatt said:

You should be able to note your current settings, delete just the template, not your disk image, the recreate the vm template and point it to your existing disk image. I recall doing this awhile back without issue, however you may want to wait for confirmation from another more informed member.

I haven't figured out exactly how to pull this off.  When I go into the xml of the newly created VM and paste the disk image line over the top, the VM will not start.  Says it can't find the disk image.  The original will still start no problem.

[Shlazor]

If I point the new VM to the old disk image using form mode, the same thing happens when I try to save.  It never succeeds in the save.

[WashingtonMatt]

Do you have any special characters in the description, vm name, or...?

 

when you set your disk location, choose manual, then browse to the existing disk image.

[Shlazor]

9 minutes ago, WashingtonMatt said:

Do you have any special characters in the description, vm name, or...?

 

when you set your disk location, choose manual, then browse to the existing disk image.

I figured it out on the second VM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  This allowed me to fix the first VM.  The VM name has to be the same as the disk image name.  I had renamed the VM after I created it and this doesn't rename the disk image.  I didn't know they had to be the same or that you couldn't rename the VM in the form mode.  I am guessing you could rename it in form mode if you subsequently navigated to the disk image and renamed it too.

 

Thanks!!!  Your questions allowed me to figure out the problem.  Now to see if the Pass-through works!!!

[WashingtonMatt]

Great! Glad I could finally help someone.

 

I don't think the VM name has to match the disk image name. So there is more to that story. The path does have to be valid obviously.

Edited December 11, 2018 by WashingtonMatt

[Shlazor]

And it works!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

I'll send a message to SIO so that he can put that in his list of "gotchas"

 

Do you know where the setting is in Win10 that will open a flash drive in a window as soon as it is inserted?

 

[Shlazor]

nvm.  I should have googled it before I typed the question.  Windows-Settings-Autoplay.

[WashingtonMatt]

Looks like you may have run into a bug. May want to follow this thread.