Xen devel - Jul 2006 - [RFC][XM-TEST][PATCH] Change xm-test HVM disk.img to be an iso cdrom image with grub and an initramfs

I have had a certain amount of pain trying to get the HVM xm-tests to
run on my ubuntu box.  The main problem was xm-test''s reuse of the
ubuntu kernel from /boot which doesn''t have the ide driver or the ext2
filesystem compiled in by default.  The lack of these drivers means that
the xm-test HVM image which is an ext2 filesystem on an ide emulated
drive doesn''t boot so most of the HVM test suite fails.

This patch changes the xm-test build process and the python test library
such that the HVM image is built as an iso cdrom image containing grub
and an initramfs.

This seems to be the best way to fix the ubuntu boot problems and will
hopefully be compatible with all the other distros as well.

The advantages of this approach are as follows:

1) Using grub eliminates the requirement for lilo for HVM testing.
2) Creating a grub cdrom image rather than a hard disk image is more
likely to work correctly with all the versions of grub we care about
(some versions of grub have a problem with hard disk geometry
apparently).
3) Using an initramfs image on the cdrom image should work with all 2.6
kernels that xm-test is likely to encounter.  This is not dependent on
any kernel config options being enabled so can''t be compiled out as a
module as was the problem with the ext2 image in the case of ubuntu.
4) Using an initramfs image with a ramdisk mounted for the root
filesystem makes the HVM domU configuration much closer to the PV domU
configuration which is likely to help us keep the test-cases common
between HVM and PV.

On ubuntu, with this patch most of the HVM tests now seem to work though
I am getting some random failures that I think are probably not related
to the patch.

The patch must be tested on the other distributions before it can be
applied.

Signed-off-by: Harry Butterworth <butterwo@uk.ibm.com>



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On Fri, 2006-07-21 at 18:07 +0100, Harry Butterworth
wrote:
> I have had a certain amount of pain trying to get the HVM xm-tests to
> run on my ubuntu box.  The main problem was xm-test''s reuse of the
> ubuntu kernel from /boot which doesn''t have the ide driver or the
ext2
> filesystem compiled in by default.  The lack of these drivers means that
> the xm-test HVM image which is an ext2 filesystem on an ide emulated
> drive doesn''t boot so most of the HVM test suite fails.
> 
> This patch changes the xm-test build process and the python test library
> such that the HVM image is built as an iso cdrom image containing grub
> and an initramfs.
> 
> This seems to be the best way to fix the ubuntu boot problems and will
> hopefully be compatible with all the other distros as well.
> 
> The advantages of this approach are as follows:
> 
> 1) Using grub eliminates the requirement for lilo for HVM testing.
> 2) Creating a grub cdrom image rather than a hard disk image is more
> likely to work correctly with all the versions of grub we care about
> (some versions of grub have a problem with hard disk geometry
> apparently).
> 3) Using an initramfs image on the cdrom image should work with all 2.6
> kernels that xm-test is likely to encounter.  This is not dependent on
> any kernel config options being enabled so can''t be compiled out
as a
> module as was the problem with the ext2 image in the case of ubuntu.
> 4) Using an initramfs image with a ramdisk mounted for the root
> filesystem makes the HVM domU configuration much closer to the PV domU
> configuration which is likely to help us keep the test-cases common
> between HVM and PV.
> 
> On ubuntu, with this patch most of the HVM tests now seem to work though
> I am getting some random failures that I think are probably not related
> to the patch.
> 
> The patch must be tested on the other distributions before it can be
> applied.
This new version of the patch adds the af_packet module to the list of
modules installed on the ramdisk by default.  This gets a few of the
network tests working.

Signed-off-by: Harry Butterworth <butterwo@uk.ibm.com>


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On Mon, 2006-07-31 at 15:21 +0100, Harry Butterworth
wrote:
> On Fri, 2006-07-21 at 18:07 +0100, Harry Butterworth wrote:
> > I have had a certain amount of pain trying to get the HVM xm-tests to
> > run on my ubuntu box.  The main problem was xm-test''s reuse
of the
> > ubuntu kernel from /boot which doesn''t have the ide driver or
the ext2
> > filesystem compiled in by default.  The lack of these drivers means
that
> > the xm-test HVM image which is an ext2 filesystem on an ide emulated
> > drive doesn''t boot so most of the HVM test suite fails.
> > 
> > This patch changes the xm-test build process and the python test
library
> > such that the HVM image is built as an iso cdrom image containing grub
> > and an initramfs.
> > 
> > This seems to be the best way to fix the ubuntu boot problems and will
> > hopefully be compatible with all the other distros as well.
> > 
> > The advantages of this approach are as follows:
> > 
> > 1) Using grub eliminates the requirement for lilo for HVM testing.
> > 2) Creating a grub cdrom image rather than a hard disk image is more
> > likely to work correctly with all the versions of grub we care about
> > (some versions of grub have a problem with hard disk geometry
> > apparently).
> > 3) Using an initramfs image on the cdrom image should work with all
2.6
> > kernels that xm-test is likely to encounter.  This is not dependent on
> > any kernel config options being enabled so can''t be compiled
out as a
> > module as was the problem with the ext2 image in the case of ubuntu.
> > 4) Using an initramfs image with a ramdisk mounted for the root
> > filesystem makes the HVM domU configuration much closer to the PV domU
> > configuration which is likely to help us keep the test-cases common
> > between HVM and PV.
> > 
> > On ubuntu, with this patch most of the HVM tests now seem to work
though
> > I am getting some random failures that I think are probably not
related
> > to the patch.
> > 
> > The patch must be tested on the other distributions before it can be
> > applied.
> 
> This new version of the patch adds the af_packet module to the list of
> modules installed on the ramdisk by default.  This gets a few of the
> network tests working.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Harry Butterworth <butterwo@uk.ibm.com>
This third version of the patch changes the domain configuration for the
new way of specifying a cdrom introduced in changeset:
10921:4c2fab8f8c3420df750af2f3d4dc8cf377f2f418

Signed-off-by: Harry Butterworth <butterwo@uk.ibm.com>


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On Mon, 2006-08-07 at 12:27 +0100, Harry Butterworth
wrote:
> On Mon, 2006-07-31 at 15:21 +0100, Harry Butterworth wrote:
> > On Fri, 2006-07-21 at 18:07 +0100, Harry Butterworth wrote:
> > > I have had a certain amount of pain trying to get the HVM
xm-tests to
> > > run on my ubuntu box.  The main problem was xm-test''s
reuse of the
> > > ubuntu kernel from /boot which doesn''t have the ide
driver or the ext2
> > > filesystem compiled in by default.  The lack of these drivers
means that
> > > the xm-test HVM image which is an ext2 filesystem on an ide
emulated
> > > drive doesn''t boot so most of the HVM test suite fails.
> > > 
> > > This patch changes the xm-test build process and the python test
library
> > > such that the HVM image is built as an iso cdrom image containing
grub
> > > and an initramfs.
> > > 
> > > This seems to be the best way to fix the ubuntu boot problems and
will
> > > hopefully be compatible with all the other distros as well.
> > > 
> > > The advantages of this approach are as follows:
> > > 
> > > 1) Using grub eliminates the requirement for lilo for HVM
testing.
> > > 2) Creating a grub cdrom image rather than a hard disk image is
more
> > > likely to work correctly with all the versions of grub we care
about
> > > (some versions of grub have a problem with hard disk geometry
> > > apparently).
> > > 3) Using an initramfs image on the cdrom image should work with
all 2.6
> > > kernels that xm-test is likely to encounter.  This is not
dependent on
> > > any kernel config options being enabled so can''t be
compiled out as a
> > > module as was the problem with the ext2 image in the case of
ubuntu.
> > > 4) Using an initramfs image with a ramdisk mounted for the root
> > > filesystem makes the HVM domU configuration much closer to the PV
domU
> > > configuration which is likely to help us keep the test-cases
common
> > > between HVM and PV.
> > > 
> > > On ubuntu, with this patch most of the HVM tests now seem to work
though
> > > I am getting some random failures that I think are probably not
related
> > > to the patch.
> > > 
> > > The patch must be tested on the other distributions before it can
be
> > > applied.
> > 
> > This new version of the patch adds the af_packet module to the list of
> > modules installed on the ramdisk by default.  This gets a few of the
> > network tests working.
> > 
> > Signed-off-by: Harry Butterworth <butterwo@uk.ibm.com>
> 
> This third version of the patch changes the domain configuration for the
> new way of specifying a cdrom introduced in changeset:
> 10921:4c2fab8f8c3420df750af2f3d4dc8cf377f2f418
> 
> Signed-off-by: Harry Butterworth <butterwo@uk.ibm.com>
This fourth version of the patch adds an alternate path when looking for
the stage2_eltorito file used to make the iso image bootable.  Older
grub installations put it in a different place.

Thanks to Ricardo C Gonzalez for some testing here.

Signed-off-by: Harry Butterworth <butterwo@uk.ibm.com>



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