7.0.2 Getting started on VMWare

Stavr0 · November 12, 2016 at 5:00 PM

Using the image LibreELEC-Virtual.x86_64-7.0.2.img.gz

I was not able to use the installer under VMWare, so I used QEMU to work around:

Create a VMWare disk image to contain the installation[font="courier new,courier,monospace"]:[/font]

Code

qemu-img create -f vmdk LibreElec702.vmdk 4G

Then run the qemu with USB and boot menu:

Code

qemu-system-x86_64 -boot menu=on -usb -usbdevice disk:format=raw:LibreELEC-Virtual.x86_64-7.0.2.img -hda LibreElec702.vmdk

Select the USB device, then select installer SYSLINUX option. The process will take about 10 minutes.

Go back to VMWare and create a new VM (Other 64bit) using the disk image created previously.

You must now fix the virtual sound driver: the sb16 and es1371 modules are not installed so we have to use hdaudio. Edit the .vmx configuration and make sure the sound entries are as follows:
sound.present = "TRUE"
sound.filename = "-1"
sound.autodetect = "TRUE"
sound.virtualdev = "hdaudio"

You should now be able to start the VMWare LibreElec guest.

**lrusak** · November 12, 2016 at 5:13 PM Official Post

Or just use this tool

LibreELEC.tv/create_virtualimage at master · LibreELEC/LibreELEC.tv · GitHub

Stavr0 · November 12, 2016 at 6:17 PM

Quote from lrusak

Or just use this tool

LibreELEC.tv/create_virtualimage at master · LibreELEC/LibreELEC.tv · GitHub

Not everyone has a Linux distro on hand...

This being said, I wonder why the installer option launches to a black screen under VMWare. Syslinux shows up, then installer shows the LibreELEC splash then nothing.

Code

2016-11-12T13:32:28.456-05:00| vcpu-0| I120: Unknown int 10h func 0x0000
2016-11-12T13:32:28.457-05:00| vcpu-0| I120: SVGA enabling SVGA
2016-11-12T13:32:29.571-05:00| vcpu-0| I120: SVGA hiding SVGA

**lrusak** · November 12, 2016 at 11:34 PM Official Post

That being said there is no point in using the virtual build really unless you are a developer.

snailboy1 · December 17, 2016 at 2:31 PM

a use case for this is what i used to do :

Esxi Server with 2 cheap ati GPUs.
create 2 VMs with openelec/libreelec
passthrough the GPUs.

so you can use your server to power all your TVs + all your other VM stuff you do as well.

really, i could never get it to work with openelec so i used kodibuntu. but i suspect this libreelec image will actually work.

**lrusak** · December 17, 2016 at 5:23 PM Official Post

Quote from snailboy1

a use case for this is what i used to do :

Esxi Server with 2 cheap ati GPUs.
create 2 VMs with openelec/libreelec
passthrough the GPUs.

so you can use your server to power all your TVs + all your other VM stuff you do as well.

really, i could never get it to work with openelec so i used kodibuntu. but i suspect this libreelec image will actually work.

The virtual build doesn't have an GPU drivers, it only has a vmware driver. So if you want to passthrough GPU's you'd have to use the Generic build

**aptalca** · December 20, 2016 at 7:04 AM

Quote from snailboy1

a use case for this is what i used to do :

Esxi Server with 2 cheap ati GPUs.
create 2 VMs with openelec/libreelec
passthrough the GPUs.

so you can use your server to power all your TVs + all your other VM stuff you do as well.

really, i could never get it to work with openelec so i used kodibuntu. but i suspect this libreelec image will actually work.

My main htpc is essentially a kvm/qemu vm with an amd 6450 passed through. It ran LE 7.0.2 (generic) for many months and now it is running the latest betas (generic)

r4w · January 1, 2017 at 10:38 PM

Quote from lrusak

The virtual build doesn't have an GPU drivers, it only has a vmware driver. So if you want to passthrough GPU's you'd have to use the Generic build

I'm wondering why it doesn't have any GPU drivers.
What's the real scope of the virtual build?
I could get the development OVA to work but than I can only access Kodi via the VMWARE console.
I have then tried to use 7.0.3 generic with my AMD Radeon 6450 in pass-through, which works perfectly with Windows 10.
I don't see any failures and X claims to start, but at the same time I don't see anything on the HDMI output and I can't access the system by console to view logs/dmesg/xrand etc (it could be a very cool nice to have in order to debug these cases, if you can't even reach to enable ssh).

Happy new year!

**chewitt** · January 2, 2017 at 8:25 AM Official Post

Virtual is a developer tool used for basic functional and GUI testing. It supports vmware (we dropped vbox as it breaks with every kernel bump and nobody used it). Virtual has no AMD/Intel/nVidia drivers so you will not be able to do GPU passthrough in ESXi. If you wanted to do that you'd need create something custom that has both vmware things (else the OS won't boot) and the video drivers required.

In a Generic/QEMU combo there should be a console on CTRL+ALT+F3 ..but it's not really a 'supported' configuration in the sense you won't find staff that know anything about running it, although we're aware it can be made to work.

r4w · January 2, 2017 at 10:09 AM

Quote from chewitt

Virtual is a developer tool used for basic functional and GUI testing. It supports vmware (we dropped vbox as it breaks with every kernel bump and nobody used it). Virtual has no AMD/Intel/nVidia drivers so you will not be able to do GPU passthrough in ESXi. If you wanted to do that you'd need create something custom that has both vmware things (else the OS won't boot) and the video drivers required.

In a Generic/QEMU combo there should be a console on CTRL+ALT+F3 ..but it's not really a 'supported' configuration in the sense you won't find staff that know anything about running it, although we're aware it can be made to work.

Thank you chewitt!
That makes sense now.

I can confirm that I'm able to boot the OS without any issues on my ESXi passing through the AMD video card using the Generic version.
I will try to access the console and I was able to retrieve the IP assigned to the VM from my router and access the samba share, so I will try to look at the logs from there too.

If you have any further suggestions, I'm happy to hear them

r4w · January 2, 2017 at 6:45 PM

I have tried CTRL+ALT+F3 but unfortunately without luck.
However, despite the Generic version 7.0.2 or 7.0.3 claims to start X, I can see in dmesg log (got them through Samba) that for some reasons the video card bios ROM is unavailable/unreachable.

Just for reference:

Code

[    1.774699] [drm] Initialized drm 1.1.0 20060810
[    1.774710] [drm] radeon kernel modesetting enabled.
[    1.774830] radeon 0000:03:00.0: enabling device (0000 -> 0003)
[    1.775513] [drm] initializing kernel modesetting (CAICOS 0x1002:0x6779 0x1682:0x3200).
[    1.775524] [drm] register mmio base: 0xFD4C0000
[    1.775525] [drm] register mmio size: 131072
[    1.775547] radeon 0000:03:00.0: BAR 6: can't assign [??? 0x00000000 flags 0x20000000] (bogus alignment)
[    1.775560] radeon 0000:03:00.0: BAR 6: can't assign [??? 0x00000000 flags 0x20000000] (bogus alignment)
[    1.775564] [drm:radeon_get_bios] *ERROR* Unable to locate a BIOS ROM
[    1.775711] radeon 0000:03:00.0: Fatal error during GPU init
[    1.775758] [drm] radeon: finishing device.
[    1.775759] [TTM] Memory type 2 has not been initialized
[    1.813539] radeon: probe of 0000:03:00.0 failed with error -22

Display More

It would be ideal, at least for me, to have all the drivers in the virtual release, so that I could try something more
Anyway, I tried!

**aptalca** · January 3, 2017 at 6:05 AM

Quote from r4w
I have tried CTRL+ALT+F3 but unfortunately without luck.
However, despite the Generic version 7.0.2 or 7.0.3 claims to start X, I can see in dmesg log (got them through Samba) that for some reasons the video card bios ROM is unavailable/unreachable.

Just for reference:
Code
[    1.774699] [drm] Initialized drm 1.1.0 20060810
[    1.774710] [drm] radeon kernel modesetting enabled.
[    1.774830] radeon 0000:03:00.0: enabling device (0000 -> 0003)
[    1.775513] [drm] initializing kernel modesetting (CAICOS 0x1002:0x6779 0x1682:0x3200).
[    1.775524] [drm] register mmio base: 0xFD4C0000
[    1.775525] [drm] register mmio size: 131072
[    1.775547] radeon 0000:03:00.0: BAR 6: can't assign [??? 0x00000000 flags 0x20000000] (bogus alignment)
[    1.775560] radeon 0000:03:00.0: BAR 6: can't assign [??? 0x00000000 flags 0x20000000] (bogus alignment)
[    1.775564] [drm:radeon_get_bios] *ERROR* Unable to locate a BIOS ROM
[    1.775711] radeon 0000:03:00.0: Fatal error during GPU init
[    1.775758] [drm] radeon: finishing device.
[    1.775759] [TTM] Memory type 2 has not been initialized
[    1.813539] radeon: probe of 0000:03:00.0 failed with error -22
Display More
It would be ideal, at least for me, to have all the drivers in the virtual release, so that I could try something more
Anyway, I tried!

In qemu, you can load gpu bios from file by adding the info into the config xml.

If ctrl alt f3 didn't work, but you know the ip, you can always ssh in. Enable ssh in the libreelec settings addon first.

If you are passing through a gpu, you need the generic version. The virtual build is for a setup without a physical dedicated gpu, for testing and development purposes.

**chewitt** · January 3, 2017 at 6:08 AM Official Post

It might be worthwhile looking at the unRAID forums as they have a tweaked LE image used with QEMU in their distro.

r4w · January 3, 2017 at 11:49 AM

Quote from aptalca

In qemu, you can load gpu bios from file by adding the info into the config xml.

If ctrl alt f3 didn't work, but you know the ip, you can always ssh in. Enable ssh in the libreelec settings addon first.

If you are passing through a gpu, you need the generic version. The virtual build is for a setup without a physical dedicated gpu, for testing and development purposes.

Which file in which folder should I edit to enable ssh? I can also mount the virtual disk in my ubuntu VM, if the file is not visible in Samba.

I'm not using Qemu but Vmware. Maybe the process will be the same?
snailboy1: as you managed to pass through the video card in kvm, have you had to load GPU bios from file?