Udoo Bolt and Proxmox

Discussion in 'UDOO BOLT' started by mspinolo, Dec 22, 2019.

  1. mspinolo

    mspinolo UDOOer

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    Hi there,

    I am looking to buy a Udoo Bolt and use it as mini server with Proxmox.
    I have few question about it:
    1. did anyone tried this before?
      • in case you did was it possible to pass to a VM the iGPU?
    2. When going to order Bold board I see this is proposed as option (https://shop.udoo.org/m-2-dual-ethernet-module-kit.html) : is the Dual ethernet module supported by Proxmox (Debian Buster kernel 5.3)
    • on this item description it is reported to be an upgrade for x86 board: but should be fine also for Bolt, correct? in case is there space in the metal case for the 2 extra port?
    Kind regards,
    Michele
     
  2. mspinolo

    mspinolo UDOOer

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    No one can answer to this? :-(
     
  3. ccs_hello

    ccs_hello UDOOer

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    Well, a general answer...

    I did try to use ESXi on UDOO x86 (Intel Atom CPU N3160 based) which uses Realtek Ethernet chip.
    Remember most of the prebuild ISO installation is designed for Intel CPU.
    So in such case, there is not a ESXi boot/initialization issue, until...
    the installation step cannot find a supported NIC driver thus aborted mid-way. -->
    Two solutions (use a temporary Intel NIC to get around the initial setup, them add-on a third party NIC driver; or
    unpack the ISO then inject the Realtek driver, then repack as new ISO.)

    For Proxmox (Linux distrib w/ QEMU/KVM) onto UDOO Bolt, I suspect (if using prebuild ISO) similar type of hiccups might happen...
    (1) bear in mind, Ryzen Embedded is fairly new, so expect inject CPU support and EMMC driver support,
    <-- this has been discussed in other threads as well as in FAQ/Wiki (common basic exercise)
    as well as
    (2) the possible need of Realtek NIC driver

    If you want no-brainer turnkey out of box no effort, IMHO, Linux w/ community support should never be an immediate choice in the first place.

    (Not sure about what you mean on "iGPU support inside the VM question".
    iGPU is part of the Ryzen Embedded support package in Linux, if that flavor is up to date.
    Then typically it's the KVM question about how to assign emulated GPU to that specific VM under X11, not real physical eGPU or iGPU nailing down.)
     
  4. mspinolo

    mspinolo UDOOer

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    Hi @ccs_hello

    thank you very much for your answer.
    So I am currently running proxmox on other machines and have 3-4 Linux based PC around the house so I am not scared using it.
    I just would like to avoid jumping in an unsupported HW setup which runs me crazy! :)

    Do you know if this: https://shop.udoo.org/m-2-dual-ethernet-module-kit.html is compatible with UDOO BOLT?

    Regarding my question about iGPU pass-through was exactly to understand if iGPU could be passed to VM: I read iGPU is not well supported by Proxmox but it could be an outdated comment.
    It all depends if it generates a proper PCI-E address or not
     
  5. ccs_hello

    ccs_hello UDOOer

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    Re: Proxmox support
    It is a flavor of Linux (seems to be Debian based), so please start with this page
    https://www.udoo.org/docs-bolt/Operating_Systems/Linux/Drivers.html
    and it has link to AMD for the drivers (Ryzen Embedded V1000 series.)

    Re: dual-port NIC UDOO sells
    I have that board. It's a Realtek RT8111 based just like the main board uses.
    I don't see any reason that it won't work from general purpose Linux point of view.
    Can't tell if out of box Proxmox ISO would have the driver.

    Re: VM direct access to iGPU
    I think it is the AMD equivalent of Intel IOMMU w/ PCI-passthru question as well as
    how QEMU+KVM support of Ryzen architecture in general.
    In that area I have to say I drew a blank. Suggest to check if the normal Ryzen desktop 1000 series support in QEMU-KVM to see if there is any gotyas. (Gut feeling it's not, since that would make AMD very unfavorable in Linux-virtualization space.)
    Not sure about iGPU pass-thru since it probably falls under the edge cases.

    If you happen to get the answer, please let everyone here know.

    P.S. I probably will not use UDOO Bolt's in-build EMMC to load the fat OS-hypervisor.
    In UDOO x86 I can and I did, since ESXi microkernel is compact and EMMC serves as a separate environment to load it.
     
  6. mspinolo

    mspinolo UDOOer

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    hi,

    thanks again for your support.
    Definetly I won't use EMMC but an NVME drive and eventually EMMC for temporary files or backups but I really see little point to use it at all.

    Maybe I will try to ask on Proxmox forum: I had hope someone owning Bolt tested with Proxmox already.
    I am looking for a quite and low consumption solution (with 32Gb Ram and 2 NIC and possibly GPU pass-through) but I am struggling to find something at a decent price.
     

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