docs/vmware-guest.html

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  10 <div class="header">
  11   <h1>The Mesa 3D Graphics Library</h1>
  12 </div>
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  16
  17 <h1>VMware guest GL driver</h1>
  18
  19 <p>
  20 This page describes how to build, install and use the
  21 <a href="http://www.vmware.com/">VMware</a> guest GL driver
  22 (aka the SVGA or SVGA3D driver) for Linux using the latest source code.
  23 This driver gives a Linux virtual machine access to the host's GPU for
  24 hardware-accelerated 3D.
  25 VMware Workstation running on Linux or Windows and VMware Fusion running on
  26 MacOS are all supported.
  27 </p>
  28
  29 <p>
  30 With the August 2015 Workstation 12 / Fusion 8 releases, OpenGL 3.3
  31 is supported in the guest.
  32 This requires:
  33 <ul>
  34 <li>The VM is configured for virtual hardware version 12.
  35 <li>The host OS, GPU and graphics driver supports DX11 (Windows) or
  36     OpenGL 4.0 (Linux, Mac)
  37 <li>On Linux, the vmwgfx kernel module must be version 2.9.0 or later.
  38 <li>A recent version of Mesa with the updated svga gallium driver.
  39 </ul>
  40 </p>
  41
  42 <p>
  43 Otherwise, OpenGL 2.1 is supported.
  44 </p>
  45
  46 <p>
  47 OpenGL 3.3 support can be disabled by setting the environment variable
  48 SVGA_VGPU10=0.
  49 You will then have OpenGL 2.1 support.
  50 This may be useful to work around application bugs (such as incorrect use
  51 of the OpenGL 3.x core profile).
  52 </p>
  53
  54 <p>
  55 Most modern Linux distros include the SVGA3D driver so end users shouldn't
  56 be concerned with this information.
  57 But if your distro lacks the driver or you want to update to the latest code
  58 these instructions explain what to do.
  59 </p>
  60
  61 <p>
  62 For more information about the X components see these wiki pages at x.org:
  63 </p>
  64 <ul>
  65 <li><a href="http://wiki.x.org/wiki/vmware">
  66 Driver Overview</a>
  67 <li><a href="http://wiki.x.org/wiki/vmware/vmware3D">
  68 xf86-video-vmware Details</a>
  69 </ul>
  70
  71
  72 <h2>Components</h2>
  73
  74 The components involved in this include:
  75 <ul>
  76 <li>Linux kernel module: vmwgfx
  77 <li>X server 2D driver: xf86-video-vmware
  78 <li>User-space libdrm library
  79 <li>Mesa/gallium OpenGL driver: "svga"
  80 </ul>
  81
  82 <p>
  83 All of these components reside in the guest Linux virtual machine.
  84 On the host, all you're doing is running VMware
  85 <a href="http://www.vmware.com/products/workstation/">Workstation</a> or
  86 <a href="http://www.vmware.com/products/fusion/">Fusion</a>.
  87 </p>
  88
  89
  90 <h2>Prerequisites</h2>
  91
  92 <ul>
  93 <li>Kernel version at least 2.6.25
  94 <li>Xserver version at least 1.7
  95 <li>Ubuntu: For ubuntu you need to install a number of build dependencies.
  96   <pre>
  97   sudo apt-get install git-core
  98   sudo apt-get install automake libtool libpthread-stubs0-dev
  99   sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-dev x11proto-xinerama-dev libx11-xcb-dev
 100   sudo apt-get install libxcb-glx0-dev libxrender-dev
 101   sudo apt-get build-dep libgl1-mesa-dri libxcb-glx0-dev
 102   </pre>
 103 <li>Fedora: For Fedora you also need to install a number of build dependencies.
 104   <pre>
 105   sudo yum install mesa-libGL-devel xorg-x11-server-devel xorg-x11-util-macros
 106   sudo yum install libXrender-devel.i686
 107   sudo yum install automake gcc libtool expat-devel kernel-devel git-core
 108   sudo yum install makedepend flex bison
 109   </pre>
 110 </ul>
 111
 112 <p>
 113 Depending on your Linux distro, other packages may be needed.
 114 The configure scripts should tell you what's missing.
 115 </p>
 116
 117
 118
 119 <h2>Getting the Latest Source Code</h2>
 120
 121 Begin by saving your current directory location:
 122   <pre>
 123   export TOP=$PWD
 124   </pre>
 125
 126 <ul>
 127 <li>Mesa/Gallium master branch. This code is used to build libGL, and the direct rendering svga driver for libGL, vmwgfx_dri.so, and the X acceleration library libxatracker.so.x.x.x.
 128   <pre>
 129   git clone git://anongit.freedesktop.org/git/mesa/mesa
 130   </pre>
 131 <li>VMware Linux guest kernel module. Note that this repo contains the complete DRM and TTM code. The vmware-specific driver is really only the files prefixed with vmwgfx.
 132   <pre>
 133   git clone git://anongit.freedesktop.org/git/mesa/vmwgfx
 134   </pre>
 135 <li>libdrm, a user-space library that interfaces with drm.
 136 Most distros ship with this but it's safest to install a newer version.
 137 To get the latest code from git:
 138   <pre>
 139   git clone git://anongit.freedesktop.org/git/mesa/drm
 140   </pre>
 141 <li>xf86-video-vmware. The chainloading driver, vmware_drv.so, the legacy driver vmwlegacy_drv.so, and the vmwgfx driver vmwgfx_drv.so.
 142   <pre>
 143   git clone git://anongit.freedesktop.org/git/xorg/driver/xf86-video-vmware
 144   </pre>
 145 </ul>
 146
 147
 148 <h2>Building the Code</h2>
 149
 150 <ul>
 151 <li>Build libdrm: If you're on a 32-bit system, you should skip the --libdir configure option. Note also the comment about toolchain libdrm above.
 152   <pre>
 153   cd $TOP/drm
 154   ./autogen.sh --prefix=/usr --libdir=/usr/lib64
 155   make
 156   sudo make install
 157   </pre>
 158 <li>Build Mesa and the vmwgfx_dri.so driver, the vmwgfx_drv.so xorg driver, the X acceleration library libxatracker.
 159 The vmwgfx_dri.so is used by the OpenGL libraries during direct rendering,
 160 and by the Xorg server during accelerated indirect GL rendering.
 161 The libxatracker library is used exclusively by the X server to do render,
 162 copy and video acceleration:
 163 <br>
 164 The following configure options doesn't build the EGL system.
 165 <br>
 166 As before, if you're on a 32-bit system, you should skip the --libdir
 167 configure option.
 168   <pre>
 169   cd $TOP/mesa
 170   ./autogen.sh --prefix=/usr --libdir=/usr/lib64 --with-gallium-drivers=svga --with-dri-drivers= --enable-xa --disable-dri3
 171   make
 172   sudo make install
 173   </pre>
 174
 175 Note that you may have to install other packages that Mesa depends upon
 176 if they're not installed in your system.  You should be told what's missing.
 177 <br>
 178 <br>
 179
 180 <li>xf86-video-vmware: Now, once libxatracker is installed, we proceed with building and replacing the current Xorg driver. First check if your system is 32- or 64-bit. If you're building for a 32-bit system, you will not be needing the --libdir=/usr/lib64 option to autogen.
 181   <pre>
 182   cd $TOP/xf86-video-vmware
 183   ./autogen.sh --prefix=/usr --libdir=/usr/lib64
 184   make
 185   sudo make install
 186   </pre>
 187 <li>vmwgfx kernel module. First make sure that any old version of this kernel module is removed from the system by issuing
 188   <pre>
 189   sudo rm /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/gpu/drm/vmwgfx.ko*
 190   </pre>
 191 Then
 192   <pre>
 193   cd $TOP/vmwgfx
 194   make
 195   sudo make install
 196   sudo cp 00-vmwgfx.rules /etc/udev/rules.d
 197   sudo depmod -ae
 198   </pre>
 199
 200 Note: some distros put DRM kernel drivers in different directories.
 201 For example, sometimes vmwgfx.ko might be found in
 202 <code>/lib/modules/{version}/extra/vmwgfx.ko</code> or in
 203 <code>/lib/modules/{version}/kernel/drivers/gpu/drm/vmwgfx/vmwgfx.ko</code>.
 204 <p>
 205 After installing vmwgfx.ko you might want to run the following command to
 206 check that the new kernel module is in the expected place:
 207 <pre>
 208   find /lib/modules -name vmwgfx.ko -exec ls -l '{}' \;
 209 </pre>
 210 If you see the kernel module listed in more than one place, you may need to
 211 move things around.
 212 <p>
 213 Finally, if you update your kernel you'll probably have to rebuild and
 214 reinstall the vmwgfx.ko module again.
 215 </ul>
 216
 217
 218 Now try to load the kernel module by issuing
 219   <pre>
 220   sudo modprobe vmwgfx</pre>
 221 Then type
 222   <pre>
 223   dmesg</pre>
 224 to watch the debug output. It should contain a number of lines prefixed with "[vmwgfx]".
 225
 226 <p>
 227 Then restart the Xserver (or reboot).
 228 The lines starting with "vmwlegacy" or "VMWARE" in the file /var/log/Xorg.0.log
 229 should now have been replaced with lines starting with "vmwgfx", indicating that
 230 the new Xorg driver is in use.
 231 </p>
 232
 233
 234 <h2>Running OpenGL Programs</h2>
 235
 236 <p>
 237 In a shell, run 'glxinfo' and look for the following to verify that the
 238 driver is working:
 239 </p>
 240
 241 <pre>
 242 OpenGL vendor string: VMware, Inc.
 243 OpenGL renderer string: Gallium 0.4 on SVGA3D; build: RELEASE;
 244 OpenGL version string: 2.1 Mesa 8.0
 245 </pre>
 246
 247 <p>
 248 If you don't see this, try setting this environment variable:
 249   <pre>
 250   export LIBGL_DEBUG=verbose</pre>
 251 <p>
 252 then rerun glxinfo and examine the output for error messages.
 253 </p>
 254
 255 <p>
 256 If OpenGL 3.3 is not working (you only get OpenGL 2.1):
 257 </p>
 258 <ul>
 259 <li>Make sure the VM uses hardware version 12.
 260 <li>Make sure the vmwgfx kernel module is version 2.9.0 or later.
 261 <li>Check the vmware.log file for errors.
 262 <li>Run 'dmesg | grep vmwgfx' and look for "DX: yes".
 263
 264
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