[xenpreview-dev] Problem with XTP kernels or install-initrds in DomUs

Thu May 3 14:50:27 MDT 2007

Tobias,

By default, paravirtualized SLES 10 SP1 guests are setup to use a new feature called the paravirtualized frame buffer (vfb) which allows graphical access to the guest (as opposed to the text-only console that existed in SLES 10 GA).  Your VM config files are not setup to allow access to the vfb which is why you only see a portion of the boot messages before output is switched to the vfb.  You have two options for getting around this issue:

The first option is to change your config file to include a vfb line.  By default, the SLES 10 SP1 install tool inserts the following line:
vfb=["type=vnc,vncunused=1"]
If you choose this route, you can view the guest using virt-manager, or by connecting vncviewer to the appropriate port.  The port is the first available port >=5900, so you can attach a vncviewer to the first VM by issuing the following command: vncviewer ::5900

The second option is to override the use of vfb, and to fall back to the text console.  To do this, add "xencons=tty" to the "extra" line in the config file.

Good luck!

Jason

>>> On Thu, May 3, 2007 at  7:14 AM, in message
<OF53008D25.36897E40-ONC12572D0.00473CFF-C12572D0.0048BA92 at man-mit.com>,
<tobias.mucke at man.eu> wrote: 

> Hi everybody,
> 
> I am using XTP release 3.0.4_13138-0.23 right now in our test environment
> on a 64 bit platform. Since we have a customized auto installation
> environment I want to setup up my Xen DomUs this way. Here is what I am
> doing.
> 
> Create a DomU config file passing autoinstallation settings as kernel
> parameters.
> 
> ############################################################################
> ###########
> disk = [ 'phy:/dev/vg_xen/lv_minxwas998_root,hda,w' ]
> memory = 1024
> vcpus = 1
> builder = 'linux'
> kernel = '/srv/xen/kernels/SUSE/SLES-10/X86-64/vmlinuz-xen'
> ramdisk = '/srv/xen/kernels/SUSE/SLES-10/X86-64/install-initrd-xen'
> name = 'minxwas998'
> vif = [ 'mac=00:16:3e:00:00:06' ]
> localtime = 0
> on_poweroff = 'destroy'
> on_reboot = 'destroy'
> on_crash = 'destroy'
> extra = 'hostip=151.136.212.106 netmask=255.255.254.0 gateway=151.136.212.1
> nameserver=151.136.107.101
> install=nfs://mmxoslab01.mn.man.de/srv/nfs/autoinstall/SUSE/SLES-10/X86/SUSE
> -DIST
>  autoyast=nfs://mmxoslab01.mn.man.de/srv/nfs/autoinstall/AUTOYAST/SLES-10/'
> ############################################################################
> ############
> 
> As you can see I am pointing to a kernel and ramdisk. Here is how I get
> this two files which are actually linked to the newest version. In the
> following example I am using a X86 NONPAEkernel, please adopt it to X86 PAE
> or X86-64 as needed.
> 
> ############################################################################
> ############
> #
> # Howto to extract a new SLES-10 XEN ready kernel
> #
> rpm2cpio /mnt/RPMS-SLES-10/i586/kernel-xen-2.6.16.27-0.9.i586.rpm | cpio
> -idmv
> cp boot/vmlinuz-2.6.16.27-0.9-xen /srv/xen/kernels/SUSE/SLES-10/X86/
> ln -s vmlinuz-2.6.16.27-0.9-xen vmlinuz-xen
> 
> #
> # Howto create an install-initrd for a specific kernel available as RPM
> package
> # Kernel RPM taken from SUSE DISTRIBUTION
> # Attention: SLES-10 only because of different initrd file type
> #
> mkinstallinitrd
> --kernel-rpm=/mnt/SUSE/SLES-10/X86/SUSE-DIST/suse/i586/kernel-xen-2.6.16.27-
> 0.9.i586.rpm
>  /tmp/install-initrd-2.6.16.27-0.9-xen
> cp /tmp/install-initrd-2.6.16.27-0.9-xen /srv/xen/kernels/SUSE/SLES-10/X86/
> ln -s install-initrd-2.6.16.27-0.9-xen install-initrd-xen
> ############################################################################
> ##############
> 
> Then I boot my DomU and first of all everything seems fine, but than boot
> progress stops and hangs forever.
> 
> ############################################################################
> ##############
> Using config file "/srv/xen/domains/minxwas998/minxwas998.install".
> Started domain minxwas998
> Bootdata ok (command line is hostip=151.136.212.106 netmask=255.255.254.0
> gateway=151.136.212.1 nameserver=151.136.107.101
> install=nfs://mmxoslab01.mn.man.de/srv/nfs/autoinstall/SUSE/SLES-10/X86/SUSE
> -DIST
>  autoyast=nfs://mmxoslab01.mn.man.de/srv/nfs/autoinstall/AUTOYAST/SLES-10/)
> Linux version 2.6.16.46-0.4_xtp-xen (geeko at buildhost) (gcc version 4.1.2
> 20070115 (prerelease) (SUSE Linux)) #1 SMP Wed Apr 18 16:30:16 UTC 2007
> BIOS-provided physical RAM map:
>  Xen: 0000000000000000 - 0000000040800000 (usable)
> No mptable found.
> Built 1 zonelists
> Kernel command line: hostip=151.136.212.106 netmask=255.255.254.0
> gateway=151.136.212.1 nameserver=151.136.107.101
> install=nfs://mmxoslab01.mn.man.de/srv/nfs/autoinstall/SUSE/SLES-10/X86/SUSE
> -DIST
>  autoyast=nfs://mmxoslab01.mn.man.de/srv/nfs/autoinstall/AUTOYAST/SLES-10/
> Initializing CPU#0
> PID hash table entries: 4096 (order: 12, 131072 bytes)
> Xen reported: 2199.922 MHz processor.
> Console: colour dummy device 80x25
> Dentry cache hash table entries: 262144 (order: 9, 2097152 bytes)
> Inode-cache hash table entries: 131072 (order: 8, 1048576 bytes)
> Software IO TLB disabled
> Memory: 997376k/1056768k available (1891k kernel code, 50572k reserved,
> 798k data, 160k init)
> Calibrating delay using timer specific routine.. 5501.88 BogoMIPS
> (lpj=11003778)
> Security Framework v1.0.0 initialized
> Mount-cache hash table entries: 256
> CPU: L1 I Cache: 64K (64 bytes/line), D cache 64K (64 bytes/line)
> CPU: L2 Cache: 1024K (64 bytes/line)
> checking if image is initramfs... it is
> Freeing initrd memory: 24904k freed
> Brought up 1 CPUs
> migration_cost=0
> DMI not present or invalid.
> Grant table initialized
> NET: Registered protocol family 16
> Brought up 1 CPUs
> PCI: setting up Xen PCI frontend stub
> ACPI: Subsystem revision 20060127
> ACPI: Interpreter disabled.
> xen_mem: Initialising balloon driver.
> Setting mem allocation to 1048576 kiB
> PCI: System does not support PCI
> PCI: System does not support PCI
> IA32 emulation $Id: sys_ia32.c,v 1.32 2002/03/24 13:02:28 ak Exp $
> audit: initializing netlink socket (disabled)
> audit(1178197739.254:1): initialized
> VFS: Disk quotas dquot_6.5.1
> Dquot-cache hash table entries: 512 (order 0, 4096 bytes)
> Initializing Cryptographic API
> io scheduler noop registered
> io scheduler anticipatory registered
> io scheduler deadline registered
> io scheduler cfq registered (default)
> rtc: IRQ 8 is not free.
> Non-volatile memory driver v1.2
> i8042.c: No controller found.
> RAMDISK driver initialized: 16 RAM disks of 128000K size 1024 blocksize
> Xen virtual console successfully installed as xvc0
> Event-channel device installed.
> mice: PS/2 mouse device common for all mice
> input: PC Speaker as /class/input/input0
> md: md driver 0.90.3 MAX_MD_DEVS=256, MD_SB_DISKS=27
> md: bitmap version 4.39
> NET: Registered protocol family 2
> IP route cache hash table entries: 65536 (order: 7, 524288 bytes)
> TCP established hash table entries: 262144 (order: 10, 4194304 bytes)
> TCP bind hash table entries: 65536 (order: 8, 1048576 bytes)
> TCP: Hash tables configured (established 262144 bind 65536)
> TCP reno registered
> NET: Registered protocol family 1
> XENBUS: Device with no driver: device/vbd/768
> XENBUS: Device with no driver: device/vif/0
> XENBUS: Device with no driver: device/console/0
> Uniform Multi-Platform E-IDE driver Revision: 7.00alpha2
> ide: Assuming 50MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx
> SCSI subsystem initialized
> st: Version 20050830, fixed bufsize 32768, s/g segs 256
> NET: Registered protocol family 17
> Floppy drive(s): fd0 is unknown type 15 (usb?), fd1 is unknown type 15
> (usb?)
> Failed to obtain physical IRQ 6
> floppy0: no floppy controllers found
> loop: loaded (max 64 devices)
> Registering block device major 3
> blkfront: hda: barriers enabled
>  hda: unknown partition table
> netfront: Initialising virtual ethernet driver.
> netfront: device eth0 has copying receive path.
> lockd: failed to open /var/lib/nfs/state: err=-2
> ############################################################################
> ##############
> 
> I already googled through the internet to get some hints why booting the
> DomU is not working, but didn't find any. This problem persists with all
> XTP kernels / ramdisks, i.e. PAE and 64bit, running on X86-64. Last kernel
> and ramdisk working together with XTP are the official kernels from
> SLES-10, i.e. 2.6.16.27-0.9.
> 
> I also examined my self created initial ramdisk for missing kernel modules,
> but didn't see any problems.
> 
> Any ideas? Am I missing something?
> 
> Thanks in advance.
> 
> Tobias
> 
> 
> ********************************************
> 
> MAN IT Services GmbH
> Sitz der Gesellschaft: München 
> Registergericht: Amtsgericht München, HRB 158 140 
> Geschäftsführung: Dr. Mathias Kretzschmar (Vorsitzender),  Erwin Eicher 
> 
> This e-mail (including any attachments) is confidential and may be 
> privileged. 
> If you have received it by mistake, please notify the sender by e-mail and 
> delete this message from your system. 
> Any unauthorised use or dissemination of this e-mail in whole or in part is 
> strictly prohibited. 
> Please note that e-mails are susceptible to change. 
> MAN IT Services GmbH (including its group companies) shall not be liable for 
> the improper or incomplete transmission of the information contained in this 
> communication nor for any delay in its receipt.
> MAN IT Services GmbH (or its group companies) does not guarantee that the 
> integrity of this communication has been maintained nor that this 
> communication is free of viruses, interceptions or interference. 
> 
> ******************************************** 
> _______________________________________________
> xenpreview-dev mailing list
> xenpreview-dev at forge.novell.com
> http://forge.novell.com/mailman/listinfo/xenpreview-dev