Pkg xen devel - Jul 2009 - Bug#536176: xen-utils-3.4: trying xen-3.4 once breaks xen-3.2 (?)

Package: xen-utils-3.4
Version: 3.4.0-1
Severity: critical
Justification: breaks unrelated software

After installing xen-utils-3.4 besides my existing xen-3.2 system,
I could not start xend-3.2 anymore. The message I was getting is this:

    "Failed to initialize dom0 state."

As far as I know, xen 3.2 and 3.4 are supposed to be able to live
peacefully  on the same system. (The hypervisor and the utils are
in differently named packages.)

However, after the first experiment with 3.4 (which failed because
of a different bug), I could not go back to xen 3.2.

I rebooted to the correct hypervisor, and ran the current version
of tools, but it did not work any more. (I did not have time
to track down the reason this time.)

This causes quite a problem, since the new 3.4 version can not
be considered a drop-in replacement of the older 3.2 (HVM support
is disabled, for example), so this caused a sesiour problem,
at least for me.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: 5.0.2
  APT prefers stable
  APT policy: (990, 'stable'), (500, 'unstable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.26-2-xen-amd64 (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_US, LC_CTYPE=en_US (charmap=ISO-8859-1)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash

Versions of packages xen-utils-3.4 depends on:
ii  e2fslibs               1.41.7-1          ext2 filesystem libraries
ii  iproute                20080725-2        networking and traffic
control too
ii  libc6                  2.7-18            GNU C Library: Shared libraries
ii  libgcrypt11            1.4.4-3           LGPL Crypto library -
runtime libr
ii  libncurses5            5.7+20081213-1    shared libraries for
terminal hand
ii  libxenstore3.0         3.4.0-1           Xenstore communications
library fo
ii  python                 2.5.2-3           An interactive high-level
object-o
ii  python-central         0.6.11            register and build utility
for Pyt
ii  python2.5              2.5.2-15          An interactive high-level
object-o
ii  udev                   0.125-7+lenny1    /dev/ and hotplug
management daemo
ii  xen-utils-common       3.3.1-1           XEN administrative tools -
common
ii  zlib1g                 1:1.2.3.3.dfsg-12 compression library - runtime

Versions of packages xen-utils-3.4 recommends:
ii  bridge-utils                  1.4-5      Utilities for configuring
the Linu
ii  xen-hypervisor-3.4-amd64 [xen 3.4.0-1    The Xen Hypervisor on AMD64

Versions of packages xen-utils-3.4 suggests:
ii  xen-docs-3.4                  3.4.0-1    Documentation for Xen

-- no debconf information

On Wed, Jul 08, 2009 at 01:28:18AM +0200, Csillag Kristof
wrote:
> 
> Package: xen-utils-3.4
> Version: 3.4.0-1
> Severity: critical
> Justification: breaks unrelated software
> 
> After installing xen-utils-3.4 besides my existing xen-3.2 system,
> I could not start xend-3.2 anymore. The message I was getting is this:
> 
>     "Failed to initialize dom0 state."
> 
> As far as I know, xen 3.2 and 3.4 are supposed to be able to live
> peacefully  on the same system. (The hypervisor and the utils are
> in differently named packages.)
> 
> However, after the first experiment with 3.4 (which failed because
> of a different bug), I could not go back to xen 3.2.
> 
> I rebooted to the correct hypervisor, and ran the current version
> of tools, but it did not work any more. (I did not have time
> to track down the reason this time.)
> 
> This causes quite a problem, since the new 3.4 version can not
> be considered a drop-in replacement of the older 3.2 (HVM support
> is disabled, for example), so this caused a sesiour problem,
> at least for me.
> 
What do you mean with HVM support is disabled? Xen 3.4.0 definitely supports
HVM guests.

-- Pasi

severity 536176 important
thanks

On Wed, Jul 08, 2009 at 01:28:18AM +0200, Csillag Kristof
wrote:
> Justification: breaks unrelated software
Both are from the same source, so they are not unrelated.
> After installing xen-utils-3.4 besides my existing xen-3.2 system,
> I could not start xend-3.2 anymore. The message I was getting is this:
>     "Failed to initialize dom0 state."
Can you please start to provide complete logs?

Bastian

-- 
Dismissed.  That's a Star Fleet expression for, "Get out."
		-- Capt. Kathryn Janeway, Star Trek: Voyager, "The Cloud"

Bastian Blank ?rta:
> severity 536176 important
> thanks
>
> On Wed, Jul 08, 2009 at 01:28:18AM +0200, Csillag Kristof wrote:
>   
>> Justification: breaks unrelated software
>>     
>
> Both are from the same source, so they are not unrelated.
>
>   
Indeed, in the philosophical sense of the word, they are not unrelated.

However, they are still two independent packages, which are supposed
to work independently (neither of them depends on the other), so in this
sense, they are very much unrelated.

(As far as I know, the "breaks unrelated software" term describes
the behavior when someone installs software package A, and then
software package B suddenly stops working. This is exactly what
is happening here.)





>> After installing xen-utils-3.4 besides my existing xen-3.2 system,
>> I could not start xend-3.2 anymore. The message I was getting is this:
>>     "Failed to initialize dom0 state."
>>     
>
> Can you please start to provide complete logs?
>   
There is no f**** log written in this case, only this error message.
(I have searched the xen log directory, and this error message
does not turn up anywhere.)

Neither is there any log file written for linker crashes (#536173) nor
omitted mission-critical features (#536175),
<mailto:536175 at bugs.debian.org> so can you please
stop blaming me for that?
> Bastian
>
>

reassign 536176 xen-utils-common 3.3.0-1
thanks

On Wed, Jul 08, 2009 at 01:28:18AM +0200, Csillag Kristof
wrote:
> After installing xen-utils-3.4 besides my existing xen-3.2 system,
> I could not start xend-3.2 anymore. The message I was getting is this:
>     "Failed to initialize dom0 state."
This is _not_ the complete message. It is
| FATAL: Failed to initialize dom0 state: Invalid argument

Okay. I found the problem. In the new xen-utils-common, the xenstored
startup was moved into the init script, but it uses a different pid
file. So xend tries to start it again, which fails but first overtakes
the dom0 related access paths to it.

Bastian

-- 
Vulcans never bluff.
		-- Spock, "The Doomsday Machine", stardate 4202.1