Xen users - Apr 2012 - guest boot randomly fails to load sky2 kernel module? restart usually clears it up.

i''m running Xen Host & Guest, both version xen-4.1.2/64-bit.

i pass through an ethernet NIC from host to guest.  it uses the standard
Marvell ''sky2'' kernel module.

when i start the guest, usually -- but not always -- the NIC gets
properly passed through and setup, and is completely usable.

if i shutdown & restart the Guest, sometimes -- maybe 20% of the time?
--

i see during startup:

...
[    1.445741] padlock_aes: VIA PadLock not detected.
[    1.541628] device-mapper: uevent: version 1.0.3
[    1.545827] device-mapper: ioctl: 4.21.0-ioctl (2011-07-06)
initialised: dm-devel@redhat.com
[    1.559222] sky2: driver version 1.29
[    1.728280] sky2 0000:00:00.0: BAR 0: error updating (0xaeedc004 !0xfbd00004)
[    1.732705] sky2 0000:00:00.0: BAR 0: set to [mem
0xaeedc000-0xaeedffff 64bit] (PCI address [0xaeedc000-0xaeedffff])
[    1.741036] sky2 0000:00:00.0: BAR 2: error updating (0x001001 !0x00c801)
[    1.745327] sky2 0000:00:00.0: BAR 2: set to [io  0x1000-0x10ff] (PCI
address [0x1000-0x10ff])
[    1.752952] sky2 0000:00:00.0: enabling device (0000 -> 0003)
[    1.754630] sky2 0000:00:00.0: cannot map device registers
[    1.755956] sky2: probe of 0000:00:00.0 failed with error -12
...

and, of course, the module doesn''t load.

simply restarting the Guest -- usually once is sufficient, sometimes it
takes a coupl of times -- i see :

...
[    1.301664] padlock_aes: VIA PadLock not detected.
[    1.429150] device-mapper: uevent: version 1.0.3
[    1.434077] device-mapper: ioctl: 4.21.0-ioctl (2011-07-06)
initialised: dm-devel@redhat.com
[    1.462829] sky2: driver version 1.29
[    1.467087] sky2 0000:00:00.0: enabling device (0000 -> 0003)
[    1.471836] sky2 0000:00:00.0: Yukon-2 EC chip revision 2
[    1.478292] sky2 0000:00:00.0: eth1: addr 00:50:43:00:41:5e
...

and the Guest boots fine.

on infrequent occassion, i simply can''t get it to boot correctly at
all.
 in that case, a reboot of the Host seems to clear it up.

what can i do about this so that the kernel module loads on boot each
time correctly?  is this a Host or Guest configuration issue?

thanks

locuse

On Sat, Apr 14, 2012, at 11:19 AM, locuse@mm.st wrote:
> on infrequent occassion, i simply can''t get it to boot correctly
at all.
>  in that case, a reboot of the Host seems to clear it up.
> 
> what can i do about this so that the kernel module loads on boot each
> time correctly?  is this a Host or Guest configuration issue?

For a PV guest that has a pci-passthrough NIC, when shutting down /
restarting the Guest, is there some additional command I need to run to
make sure that is comes back up with the driver/NIC properly loaded?

This internmittent behavior -- sometimes booting OK, sometimes
requirding 1+ additional reboots -- really makes this unusable.

locuse