GPU Passthrough Guide

Calendar February 27, 2026
Homelab, Virtualization
Proxmox, Gpu, Nvidia, Passthrough, Iommu

Proxmox GPU Passthrough Guide (NVIDIA Tesla P4)#

1. Proxmox Host Configuration#

Pre-requisites#

  • Ensure PCIe Bifurcation is set to OFF in the server BIOS.

Enable IOMMU#

  1. Open the GRUB configuration:
nano /etc/default/grub
  1. Modify the line GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet" to:
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet intel_iommu=on"
  1. Update GRUB:
update-grub
  1. Reboot the host.

Verify IOMMU Status#

dmesg | grep -e DMAR -e IOMMU

Note: Look for the line: DMAR: IOMMU enabled.

2. VM Configuration (Ubuntu 24.04)#

VM Hardware Settings#

  • Machine: q35
  • BIOS: SeaBIOS
  • Note: Do NOT run apt update or upgrade yet.

Add PCIe Device#

  1. Shut down the VM.
  2. Go to Hardware > Add > PCI Device.
  3. Select Raw Device > Select your GPU.
  4. Ensure All Functions and PCI-Express are checked.

3. Driver Installation in VM#

Verify Hardware Detection#

lspci -v
lspci -nnk | grep -iA2 nvidia

Prepare Build Environment#

Required for version 550+ drivers: