Pkg xen devel - Jan 2011 - Bug#608715: Recent hardware components render the xen-hyervisor unusable, fails completeley to boot due to kernel panic

Package: xen-hypervisor-4.0-amd64
Version: 4.0.1-1
Severity: grave
Tags: squeeze upstream

Some newer hardware components (it is unclear what exactly causes the issue)
render xen-hyervisor unusable as it
crashes immediately after boot for the Debian out-of-box configuration. This
results in a system rebooting all over
again if the hypervisor is choosen as default stanza to be booted by grub which
is particular severe as Xen is most
likely used on remote boxes. 

This bug report is for reference only as I already reported the issue upstream.
See
* http://bugzilla.xensource.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=1698
* http://lists.xensource.com/archives/html/xen-users/2010-12/msg00307.html
* http://lists.xensource.com/archives/html/xen-devel/2010-12/msg01280.html

There is no solution known, as workaround passing 'dom0_mem=max:4GB'
works around the issue, although I'm unsure about
potential side effects. 

-- System Information:
Debian Release: squeeze/sid
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (500, 'testing')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.32-5-xen-amd64 (SMP w/16 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash

xen-hypervisor-4.0-amd64 depends on no packages.

Versions of packages xen-hypervisor-4.0-amd64 recommends:
ii  xen-utils-4.0                 4.0.1-1    XEN administrative tools

Versions of packages xen-hypervisor-4.0-amd64 suggests:
pn  xen-docs-4.0                  <none>     (no description available)

-- no debconf information

severity 608715 important
tags 608715 upstream
thanks

On Sun, Jan 02, 2011 at 05:47:59PM -0500, Arno Toell
wrote:
> Severity: grave
And how does it make the package unusable for everyone? It works fine on
all my machines.
> Some newer hardware components (it is unclear what exactly causes the
issue) render xen-hyervisor unusable as it
> crashes immediately after boot for the Debian out-of-box configuration.
This results in a system rebooting all over
> again if the hypervisor is choosen as default stanza to be booted by grub
which is particular severe as Xen is most
> likely used on remote boxes. 
I only see _Linux kernel_ crashs in the referenced information.
> This bug report is for reference only as I already reported the issue
upstream. See
> * http://bugzilla.xensource.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=1698
> * http://lists.xensource.com/archives/html/xen-users/2010-12/msg00307.html
> * http://lists.xensource.com/archives/html/xen-devel/2010-12/msg01280.html
Without DMA memory left, the Linux kernel have no way to work.
> There is no solution known, as workaround passing
'dom0_mem=max:4GB' works around the issue, although I'm unsure about
> potential side effects. 
So a workaround is available.

Bastian

-- 
The heart is not a logical organ.
		-- Dr. Janet Wallace, "The Deadly Years", stardate 3479.4

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I have some updates to note. It turned out that a more recent
4.0.2-rc1-pre hypervisor is not affected by this issue [1]. Since
Squeeze is already frozen you probably want to backport the fix if
anything. Hence I asked Xen developers for support to dig the exact
change set that is responsible for fixing this problem.
Xen developer Andrew Thomas kindly gave me a hint where to look at, so I
believe [2] SHOULD fix that issue, the whole 4.0.2-rc1-pre (and later)
change set surely does.


[1] http://lists.xensource.com/archives/html/xen-devel/2011-01/msg00184.html
[2] http://xenbits.xensource.com/xen-4.0-testing.hg?rev/e7d9d8d46730

- -- 
with kind regards,
Arno T?ll
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Your message dated Wed, 12 Jan 2011 14:49:40 +0000
with message-id <E1Pd216-000103-71 at franck.debian.org>
and subject line Bug#608715: fixed in xen 4.0.1-2
has caused the Debian Bug report #608715,
regarding Recent hardware components render the xen-hyervisor unusable, fails
completeley to boot due to kernel panic
to be marked as done.

This means that you claim that the problem has been dealt with.
If this is not the case it is now your responsibility to reopen the
Bug report if necessary, and/or fix the problem forthwith.

(NB: If you are a system administrator and have no idea what this
message is talking about, this may indicate a serious mail system
misconfiguration somewhere. Please contact owner at bugs.debian.org
immediately.)


-- 
608715: http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=608715
Debian Bug Tracking System
Contact owner at bugs.debian.org with problems
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Subject: Recent hardware components render the xen-hyervisor unusable,
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Date: Sun, 02 Jan 2011 17:47:59 -0500
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Subject: Bug#608715: fixed in xen 4.0.1-2
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