[fedora-virt] pv_ops dom0 kernel RPM, configuration & setup help anyone?

[Pasi Kärkkäinen]

On Wed, Jul 08, 2009 at 03:58:44PM -0400, Lester M. wrote:
> On Wed, Jul 8, 2009 at 3:29 PM, Pasi Kärkkäinen <pasik at iki.fi> wrote:
> 
> > On Wed, Jul 08, 2009 at 02:05:35PM -0400, Lester M. wrote:
> > >
> > > Hello Pasi,
> > >
> > > Unfortunately with adding "loglvl=all guest_loglvl=all noreboot" and
> > > removing "rhgb quiet" from the vmlinuz the result stayed the same.
> > >
> > > After the boot process gets to the "(XEN) Scrubbing Free RAM:
> > > ..........done." the screen still goes blank, and the system ceases to
> > > respond. This forces me to do a "hard reset" on my laptop. :-(
> > >
> >
> > Hmm.. The boot process should look something like this:
> >
> > ..
> > (XEN) Scrubbing Free RAM: ..........done.
> > (XEN) Xen trace buffers: disabled
> > (XEN) Std. Loglevel: All
> > (XEN) Guest Loglevel: All
> > (XEN) *** Serial input -> DOM0 (type 'CTRL-a' three times to switch input
> > to Xen)
> > (XEN) Freed 104kB init memory.
> > mapping kernel into physical memory
> > Xen: setup ISA identity maps
> > about to get started...
> > Reserving virtual address space above 0xf5800000
> > PAT disabled on Xen
> > Initializing cgroup subsys cpuset
> > Initializing cgroup subsys cpu
> > Linux version 2.6.30-rc6-tip (root at dom0test.localdomain) (gcc version
> > 4.4.0
> > 20090506 (Red Hat 4.4.0-4) (GCC) ) #15 SMP T
> > ue Jun 9 19:36:50 EEST 2009
> > KERNEL supported cpus:
> >  Intel GenuineIntel
> >  AMD AuthenticAMD
> >  NSC Geode by NSC
> >  Cyrix CyrixInstead
> >  Centaur CentaurHauls
> >  Transmeta GenuineTMx86
> >  Transmeta TransmetaCPU
> >  UMC UMC UMC UMC
> > BIOS-provided physical RAM map:
> >  Xen: 0000000000000000 - 000000000009f400 (usable)
> >  Xen: 000000000009f400 - 0000000000100000 (reserved)
> >  Xen: 0000000000100000 - 0000000040000000 (usable)
> >  Xen: 000000007f6e0000 - 000000007f6e3000 (ACPI NVS)
> >  Xen: 000000007f6e3000 - 000000007f6f0000 (ACPI data)
> >  Xen: 000000007f6f0000 - 000000007f700000 (reserved)
> >  Xen: 00000000e0000000 - 00000000f0000000 (reserved)
> >  Xen: 00000000fec00000 - 0000000100000000 (reserved)
> > console [xenboot0] enabled
> >
> > etc
> >
> > So the dom0 kernel should get booted up pretty shortly after that Scrubbing
> > Free RAM..
> >
> >
> > > This is my grub entry with the "loglvl=all guest_loglvl=all noreboot"
> > added:
> > >
> > > title Fedora (2.6.31-0.1.2.37.rc1.git5.xendom0.fc12.i686.PAE)
> > >         root (hd0,0)
> > >         kernel /xen-3.4.1-rc6.gz dom0_mem=1024M loglvl=all
> > guest_loglvl=all
> > > com1=19200,8n1 console=com1
> > >         module /vmlinuz-2.6.31-0.1.2.37.rc1.git5.xendom0.fc12.i686.PAE ro
> > > root=/dev/mapper/vg01-lv_root
> > >         module /initrd-2.6.31-0.1.2.37.rc1.git5.xendom0.fc12.i686.PAE.img
> > >
> >
> > You shouldn't have the "com1=19200,8n1 console=com1" there if you want to
> > use
> > the VGA text console..
> >
> > >
> > >
> > > When I set up a serial console and boot the system, the screen
> > immediately
> > > goes "blank" and the system ceases to function as well. The difference is
> > > that this occurs sooner using the serial console than after the "(XEN)
> > > Scrubbing Free RAM: ..........done." occurrence.
> > >
> >
> > When you have a serial console in use, the screen _should_ go blank
> > immediately,
> > because the console output is redirected to the serial port/console.
> >
> > So the behaviour you're seeing there is expected.
> >
> > > This is my grub entry with the serial console setup from the xenpvops
> > page:
> > >
> > > title Fedora (2.6.31-0.1.2.37.rc1.git5.xendom0.fc12.i686.PAE)
> > >         root (hd0,0)
> > >         kernel /xen-3.4.1-rc6.gz dom0_mem=1024M loglvl=all
> > guest_loglvl=all
> > > com1=19200,8n1 console=com1
> > >         module /vmlinuz-2.6.31-0.1.2.37.rc1.git5.xendom0.fc12.i686.PAE ro
> > > root=/dev/mapper/vg01-lv_root console=hvc0 earlyprintk=xen
> > >         module /initrd-2.6.31-0.1.2.37.rc1.git5.xendom0.fc12.i686.PAE.img
> > >
> >
> > That looks correct, if your laptop serial port actually is com1.
> > Do you see the Xen and dom0 kernel boot messages on the serial console?
> >
> > >
> > > So all of this works on your system and not mine. Unfortunately this is
> > all
> > > the hardware I am able to test on at this time. I don't know how many
> > people
> > > are running this xen configuration on a Lenovo T60 laptop but there is
> > > clearly something missing.
> > >
> > > What more should I test to get this working? :-) Anything goes at this
> > > point, but I do hope the developers / maintainers are reading this
> > thread.
> > > :-P
> >
> > Do you have to specify any non-default parameters to xen or dom0 kernel
> > when
> > you use RHEL 5.3 on the laptop?
> >
> > -- Pasi
> >
> 
> Pasi, and M A Young;
> 
> Thank you so much for the information thus far, I really appreciate the
> feedback in resolving this. :-)
> 
> What Kernel options should I use to get a vga console? (to just have
> *everything* dump on my screen?) I do not have a "real" serial console on my
> consumer laptop.
> 

For VGA text console:

title Fedora (2.6.31-0.1.2.37.rc1.git5.xendom0.fc12.i686.PAE)
    root (hd0,0)
    kernel /xen-3.4.1-rc6.gz dom0_mem=1024M loglvl=all guest_loglvl=all noreboot
    module /vmlinuz-2.6.31-0.1.2.37.rc1.git5.xendom0.fc12.i686.PAE ro root=/dev/mapper/vg01-lv_root nomodeset
    module /initrd-2.6.31-0.1.2.37.rc1.git5.xendom0.fc12.i686.PAE.img

That should work.

Serial console is good for debugging problems like this.. but if you don't
have a serial port on the laptop, then you can't use it obviously :)

> On RHEL 5.3 I have no extra options than the defaults (which includes the
> "rhgb quiet" on the vmlinuz line), it just boots! I took a look at that
> earlier.
> 
> I will try out your 32bit .config, did you get your kernel checkout from:
> (git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/jeremy/xen.gitlinux-2.6-xen)
> ?
> 
> Also, did you use the latest branch? (from: git checkout origin/xen-tip/next
> -b xen-tip/next) ?

I used "xen-tip/next".

Although there's a newer branch available after that.. "rebase/master", but
I don't know in which shape that is.

-- Pasi