Strange issue with booting XCP-NG

A Former User

@r1 said in Strange issue with booting XCP-NG:

lshw -c display

lshw -c display
  *-display UNCLAIMED       
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: GP107GL [Quadro P400]
       vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:07:00.0
       version: a1
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress vga_controller bus_master cap_list
       configuration: latency=0
       resources: memory:fb000000-fbffffff memory:d0000000-dfffffff memory:e0000000-e1ffffff ioport:e000(size=128) memory:c0000-dffff

This is what I see, so I it does see that its there but for some reason it does not see the card in XCP-NG Center.

Ohh wait, is that the Nvidia 'driver' problem? Which AMD cards dont have?

In XO it does see the graphics card, so happy about that. Now I am still curious why it does not boot properly when the NVidia GPU is plugged in.

r1

@Appollonius no, pci pass through does not need device drivers to be present in dom0. Try XOA to administer.

A Former User

@r1 Well it is now even stranger than. So the host detects the GPU, but without monitor input it will just not boot... hmmm

tuxen

@Appollonius check the BIOS for display emulation or ACPI configuration. Some boards may refuse to boot If the BIOS isn't properly configured to accept the headless mode.

A Former User

@tuxen Thanks for the suggestion, though when I leave out the GPU it still boots up fine. Its only when I install the GPU and dont connect it to a monitor that it will not boot properly. But then again, when I install the GPU and connect it to a monitor it will boot fine. So I think it has something to do with the display. And I dont know if this is a XCP-NG problem or a CentOS/System problem.

tuxen

@Appollonius said in Strange issue with booting XCP-NG:

Its only when I install the GPU and dont connect it to a monitor that it will not boot properly.

Maybe because, when there's a GPU installed but no monitor attached, the motherboard POST fails at EDID probe? As stated, some boards/BIOS require an explicit configuration in order to boot without a monitor/keyboard/mouse plugged, eg.:

https://www.supermicro.com/support/faqs/faq.cfm?faq=11902

A Former User

@tuxen Thanks for your reply, unfortunately I dont have the options ACPI - Display emulation. I use a Gigabyte Aorus X570 Pro for this server.
IOMMU is enabled on the bord.
With the Gigabyte B450 AORUS M I had zero issues, with booting in 'headless'.

A Former User

Unfortunately this issue has not been fixed, I will be waiting if someone has another suggestion for this. Though I do have another question, my Xen Orchestra continually says that the time is out of sync with the XCP-NG host. I have looked into the NTP settings, and they seemed the same. Does anyone know what this could be?

olivierlambert

Double check your NTP settings, if it tells it's not sync, it's not sync.

Note: XCP-ng now uses chrony, but in XO, ntpq -p will give you NTP stats

A Former User

Okay so today I upgraded to XCP-NG 8.2.0 but unfortunately it did not solve the issue with XCP-NG not being able to boot without a display attached to the GPU. Also I am getting the EFI_MEMMAP issue and I don't know if this issue has a relation to the GPU.

If someone has suggestions which I may try, please do so and I will test it

Danp

@appollonius Are you booting on BIOS or UEFI mode? I ran across this issue earlier today that sounds exactly like what you've described.

If this is the same issue, then I wonder why the "fix" hasn't made it into xcp-ng.

olivierlambert

We include all fixes from XS tree into XCP-ng (or those not included are completely analyzed to be sure about it)

Danp

@olivierlambert Wasn't trying to imply otherwise. I was more suspicious that their "fix" never made it into the public view.

Did you happen to review the issue I linked?

stormi

According to the issue it was fixed in CH 8.0, so it was in XCP-ng 8.0 too.

Danp

@stormi Yes... I understand that is the way it is supposed to work.

A Former User

@danp Well I use UEFI as well, so we do have the same issue here :), still curious in how this can be fixed of course.. I even upgraded to the latest XCP-ng 8.2.0 RC to see if it has been fixed but no luck so far So I keep my GPU out for a while again or I gotta get a AMD Workstation GPU.

I have tried every other solution, but no luck so far. I think its either XCP-NG or The MOBO I use (Gigabyte AORUS PRO X570).

Danp

@appollonius Have you tried installing CH 8.1 or 8.2 to see if it will boot without a monitor attached?

A Former User

@danp Ehmm no, I dont have an extra host where I can test it on.. Otherwise I wouldve done that with no problem...
I use a Quadro P400 and you?

Danp

@appollonius I have a PowerEdge R620, no additional GPU

A Former User

@danp Aha then it should boot without problems though... Strange...