Using a Xeon E3-1285 v3 with a Supermicro X10SLH-F

[Andrew_J_]

Hi, I am having a bit of trouble getting MediaSDK 2013 R3 for Linux to run on a Xeon E3-1285 v3 (on an Intel recommended Supermicro X10SLH-F motherboard) with Ubuntu 12.04.3 LTS.  I am running the recommended 3.8.0.23 kernel, completed MeediaSDK installation, have verified the i915 module is loaded correctly, but am strugging to get the /dev/dri/card* entry to be listed for the integrated HD Graphics P4700 device.

The X10SLH-F board has an ASPEED interface on board, enabled by default.  This is listed in addition to the Xeon graphics in the output of lspci as follows:

00:02.0 Display controller: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v3 Processor Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 06)
...
04:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ASPEED Technology, Inc. ASPEED Graphics Family (rev 30)

When the ASPEED device is enabled, a /dev/dri/card0 entry exists, but does not work for MediaSDK (libva info: va_getDriverName() returns -1), I'm assuming this entry is for the ASPEED interface.

When the ASPEED device is disabled (via motherboard jumper), I get no video at all from the VGA port on the machine.  Connecting to the box remotely after boot, lspci lists the Xeon graphics as follows, however there is no /dev/dri/card0 entry at all with this configuration.

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v3 Processor Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 06)

From what I have discovered today, the X10SLH-F board does not support use of the integrated GPU of the CPU as there is no physical connection to the VGA port on the board (http://www.supermicro.com/support/faqs/faq.cfm?faq=16618).  I don't necessarily need graphics from the VGA, but as this board is the first recommended motherboard on the Media SDK for servers product page I'm assuming it should work with Media SDK.

I have the SDK installed and running no problem on an i7-4770 system with 12.04.3 LTS - I feel there is something fairly obvious I am missing on the Xeon platform setup.

Thanks for any help,

Andy

[Jeffrey_M_Intel1]

Thanks for this report.  It looks like you've done a thorough analysis and I can't see anything obvious missing.  

Just to make sure, could you send the PCIid for the Intel display controller? (lspci -nn will give this information.) 

There may be a BIOS setting for the display or chipset which could help.  I'm looking for a Supermicro system to investigate to give a more informed answer.

Regards, Jeff

[Jeffrey_M_Intel1]

Still looking for a test system.  In the meantime, if you could gather this initial information it could help

1. Run “lspci -x", which will give more information like pci configuration registers.
2. Add “drm.debug=0xF” in grub.conf and reboot. After reboot, run “dmesg” and send the output.

Thanks!

[Artem]

Andrew,

what jumper have you disabled? I have a X10SL7-F Maiboard but I am unable to get the OS see the Intergrated CPU at all.

Thanks, Artem

[Andrew_J_]

Hi Artem,

On the X10SLH-F there is a jumper to enable/disable the Aspeed graphics on the motherboard (JPG1).  The CPU integrated graphics can be enabled/disabled in the BIOS:

Advanced->Chipset Configuration->System Agent (SA) Configuration->Graphics Configuration->Internal Graphics [Enabled/Disabled]

Enabling/disabling the Aspeed interface seems to make no difference however - libdrm always fails to recognise the integrated graphics.

I'm not sure if your board will be suitable for MediaSDK however as it has a C222 Chipset - Intel are mandating C226 for the current release.

Thanks, Andrew

[Andrew_J_]

Hi Jeff,

Thanks for your quick reply!  I have attached the information you requested, both with and without the motherboard graphics enabled, although that seems to make little difference.  As you say there may be a BIOS setting to resolve this, but I'm yet to find it.

The extra libdrm debug is showing an error in the i915 driver for the haswell interface:

[drm:i915_gem_gtt_init] *ERROR* Unknown GMADR entries (65536)

Thanks again for any further help,

Andrew

[Andrew_J_]

Good news - I have a solution - upgrade the BIOS!  I did check yesterday, and thought my 1.1 BIOS (dated Jul 19th 2013) was up to date.  However, it looks like not all Supermicro sites carry the same firmware - I found a 1.1a update on the Dutch site (dated Dec 3rd 2013).  For anyone else with this problem, the firmware is available from http://www.supermicro.nl/products/motherboard/Xeon/C220/X10SLH-F.cfm

Steps to resolve:

- Flash the BIOS with 1.1a
- Reset the CMOS
- Re-set the Internal Graphics BIOS option to Enabled (defaults to Auto, which does not work)

Once this was completed, libdrm correctly initialises the device entry and MediaSDK works correctly.  It is possible to run the Aspeed device at the same time - libdrm needs to be queried to determine if the Haswell graphics are on card0 or card1 - this seems to be fairly random between boots as to whcih gets allocated first.  Without the Aspeed device enabled, you will not get any graphics output from the VGA port on the motherboard.

Thanks again,

Andrew

[Artem]

Nice to see that it work - what extact BIOS version have you used? x10slh3_C03.zip ?

[Andrew_J_]

Yes, that was the firmware I used - x10slh3_C03.zip for X10SLH-F mainboard.  Once upgraded, should report as follows on the main tab of the BIOS setup:

Supermicro X10SLH-F/X10SLM+-F

Version - 1.1a

Build Date - 12/03/2013

Thanks,

Andrew

[Artem]

I have force flashed my X10SL7-F with the BIOS you mentioned (as the integrated graphics was software locked in my BIOS) and tried a lot of BIOS modifications. In the end I gave up as I have discovered that the C222 and C224 Chipsets do not support integrated graphics at all. Only the C226 Chipset supports it.

Thanksa and regards, Artem