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Vt-d IOMMU NOT FUNCTIONING TUF SABERTOOTH X79

fentom
Level 7
http://ark.intel.com/products/77781
Intel® Core™ i7-4820K Processor (10M Cache, up to 3.90 GHz)
Advanced Technologies
Intel® Virtualization Technology (VT-x) ‡ Yes
Intel® Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (VT-d) ‡ Yes
Intel® VT-x with Extended Page Tables (EPT) ‡ Yes

http://ark.intel.com/products/64015/Intel-BD82X79-PCH?wapkw=vt-d+x79
Intel® X79 Express Chipset (Intel® BD82X79 PCH)
Advanced Technologies
Intel® Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (VT-d) ‡ Yes

http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/SABERTOOTH_X79/
Product Features
Chipset Manufacturer: Intel
Chipset Model: X79 Express
Total Processor Supported: 1
Processor Technology: Enhanced SpeedStep Technology, Hyper-Threading Technology, Turbo Boost 2.0 Technology, Virtualization Technology

Nonetheless, Vt-d IS NOT WORKING AT ALL, XEN or ESXi can not work properly due to Vt-d IS BROKEN from the BIOS.

There are several users that posted that since BIOS 1204 ASUS BROKE INTENTIONALLY Vt-d and never fix-it.
Other manufactures (MSI for example...) don't have any issue with same chipset ONLY ASUS.

My BIOS: 4502 --> Vt-x CAPABLE, Intel Virtualization Technology ENABLE
But I CAN NOT use PV (PCI pass through) due to BIOS issue.

I contacted ASUS already (WTM20131215114551434) no answer yet

Any help?
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23 REPLIES 23

fentom
Level 7
mbalino@Bolso:~ > sudo xm dmesg
(XEN) Xen version 4.3.0 (Ubuntu 4.3.0-1ubuntu1.1) (stefan.bader@canonical.com) (gcc (Ubuntu/Linaro 4.8.1-10ubuntu8) 4.8.1) debug=n Mon Nov 11 19:34:29 UTC 2013
.
.
(XEN) I/O virtualisation disabled
.
.
(XEN) VMX: Supported advanced features:
(XEN) - APIC MMIO access virtualisation
(XEN) - APIC TPR shadow
(XEN) - Extended Page Tables (EPT)
(XEN) - Virtual-Processor Identifiers (VPID)
(XEN) - Virtual NMI
(XEN) - MSR direct-access bitmap
(XEN) - Unrestricted Guest
(XEN) HVM: ASIDs enabled.
(XEN) HVM: VMX enabled
(XEN) HVM: Hardware Assisted Paging (HAP) detected
(XEN) HVM: HAP page sizes: 4kB, 2MB, 1GB

XEN can not see Vt-d therefore PCI-Passthrough does not work.

It is not a LINUX problem ...

fentom
Level 7
It should said (BASED ON THE POST from another user with TUF Sabertooth X79 BUT BIOS 1203!!)

(XEN) Initing memory sharing.
(XEN) Intel VT-d supported page sizes: 4kB, 2MB, 1GB.
(XEN) Intel VT-d Snoop Control enabled.
(XEN) Intel VT-d Dom0 DMA Passthrough not enabled.
(XEN) Intel VT-d Queued Invalidation enabled.
(XEN) Intel VT-d Interrupt Remapping enabled.
(XEN) Intel VT-d Shared EPT tables not enabled.
(XEN) I/O virtualisation enabled
(XEN) - Dom0 mode: Relaxed

Therefore it is IN FACT a BIOS issues that should be corrected.

Nodens
Level 16
As I told you on the other thread as well we know it's a UEFI issue with IB-E CPUs only. It was not broken intentionally and it will get fixed. The beta UEFI for the RIVE I posted on that other thread fixes it already for that board. Please be patient. IB-E chips are new and there are bound to be issues to be ironed out.
RAMPAGE Windows 8/7 UEFI Installation Guide - Patched OROM for TRIM in RAID - Patched UEFI GOP Updater Tool - ASUS OEM License Restorer
There are 10 types of people in the world. Those who understand binary and those who don't!

RealBench Developer.

Praz
Level 13
fentom wrote:
[url]
Intel® Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (VT-d) ‡ Yes

Posting about this in multiple threads will not get it fixed any sooner. Your best option is to contact ASUS support for your location. And as long as you are posting specs form Intel don't forget the footnote ‡ references. When these type of disclaimers are noted it is best to do all of the pre-purchase homework so there are no surprises.

‡ This feature may not be available on all computing systems. Please check with the system vendor to determine if your system delivers this feature, or reference the system specifications (motherboard, processor, chipset, power supply, HDD, graphics controller, memory, BIOS, drivers, virtual machine monitor-VMM, platform software, and/or operating system) for feature compatibility. Functionality, performance, and other benefits of this feature may vary depending on system configuration.

fentom
Level 7
Nodens: I am waiting for this issue to be fixed, I trust in ASUS, that is why I have everything ASUS (including my monitor)
The reason I am afraid is because there are several post from different users with this concern more than a year ago. That's all.
I am waiting (patience is a virtue that not everyone has ...)

Praz: It was not my intention to duplicate post, I did apologize en the RIVE forum once I found this TUF Forum.
I know how forums and admins works ...;)
With regards to the footnote, please don't forget that ASUS marketing this TUF MB as a Vt-d capable...
🙂

fentom wrote:

With regards to the footnote, please don't forget that ASUS marketing this TUF MB as a Vt-d capable...
🙂


The boards have been out over a year, so the marketing was relating to SNB-E AFAIK.

The UEFI builds are underway, QTC and BIOS team eval is still outstanding, so I'd give it 3-4 weeks. Might be a bit longer if any issues are found.

fentom
Level 7
Good news everyone!!!!

From ASUS DEPARTMENT:

"Hi Marcel, to get back to your previous enquiry/feedback for Vt-d issues, according to our Product Manager, the new BIOS will have that function included.
The new BIOS will be released around the end of the DEC. 2013"

Regards

December it is almost gone ...:)

powerhouse
Level 7
@Raja, Praz: I own the Asus Sabertooth X79 and run it with a SB-E 3930K CPU and BIOS 1203 (fentom above may have referred to my setup). Using the (ancient) 1203 BIOS VT-d works without issues. However, the following post at the Asus VIP forum made me worry: http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx?id=20120806185452699&board_id=1&model=SABERTOOTH+X79&page=1&SLan....

EDIT: The above mentioned reports seem to be incorrect. VT-d works for SB-E CPUs. See EDIT below.

In that post 2 different people report that upgrading their BIOS to the newer 2003 and 2104 had broken VT-d support. I bought the Sabertooth X79 specifically for its VT-d support. Breaking VT-d would render my PC useless, as my Windows and other OSes run on a Xen hypervisor with PCI / VGA passthrough. (As you may know, passthrough won't work without VT-d.)

The above thread has never been answered. When turning to Asus tech support more than a year ago I got the answer that VT-d works (what, are these two people lying?).

My question: Has anyone tested the Sabertooth X79 with a SB-E CPU (3820K, 3930K, or 3960X) and a recent BIOS with VT-d enabled and using PCI passthrough, for example using Linux with Xen or KVM, or VMware with ESX / ESXi and VMDirectPath I/O pass-through? If yes, please tell me which BIOS release and how it was tested (Xen, VMware, etc.), and what device was passed through.

Here for example my list of assignable PCI devices:
xm pci-list-assignable-devices
0000:0b:00.0
0000:0a:00.0
0000:02:00.0
0000:02:00.1
0000:00:1a.0

Thanks in advance.

EDIT: I updated the BIOS to 2104 and then to 4608 and VT-d works perfect - see my post here.

fentom
Level 7
December 23rd ... no news in ASUS website ...

I am wondering if they can keep they promise "by the end of December" ....