Pkg xen devel - Jan 2019 - Bug#820807: xen-hypervisor-4.4-amd64: Xen detects only one CPU when bootet via EFI and grub2

Package: xen-hypervisor-4.4-amd64
Version: 4.4.1-9+deb8u4
Severity: important

Dear Maintainer,

I installed a fresh Debian Jessie amd64 on our new server with Intel 
Xeon E3-1270 v5 Skylake CPU and EFI. Linux without Xen boots flawlessly 
and shows 8 CPU cores.

I then tried all combinations of Xen 4.4 (with xsave=off for Skylake 
support), Xen 4.6 (crashes after a few seconds during boot) and Xen 
4.6.1 (from OpenSuSE as there is not Debian package) with Linux 3.16.0-4 
and 4.4.0-0.bpo.1 booted via grub2. I any case only one CPU core was 
shown in "xl info" and "xl list".

As I found reports that EFI -> grub2 -> Xen has compatibility issues, I 
set up EFI to boot Xen directly without grub. This works flawlessly, all 
CPUs are shown. You can even leave the old grub installed and select it 
from the boot menu for maintenance.

I am posting this bug report to help anyone who runs into the same 
problem. I think this problem should at least be mentioned in the 
package description.

How to install Xen to EFI:
1. boot Linux without Xen (efibootmgr does not work inside Xen)
2. mkdir /boot/efi/EFI/Xen
3. copy initrd.img-3.16.0-4-amd64, vmlinuz-3.16.0-4-amd64 and 
xen-4.4-amd64.efi from /boot to /boot/efi/EFI/Xen
4. run: efibootmgr -w -L Xen -l "\EFI\Xen\xen-4.4-amd64.efi" -c
5. create /boot/efi/EFI/Xen/xen.cfg with the following content:

[global]
default=xen

[xen]
options=dom0_mem=512M xsave=off
kernel=vmlinuz-3.16.0-4-amd64 root=UUID=1234-5678 ro quiet
ramdisk=initrd.img-3.16.0-4-amd64

-- System Information:
Debian Release: 8.4
   APT prefers stable-updates
   APT policy: (500, 'stable-updates'), (500, 'stable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 3.16.0-4-amd64 (SMP w/1 CPU core)
Locale: LANG=de_DE.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=de_DE.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)

xen-hypervisor-4.4-amd64 depends on no packages.

Versions of packages xen-hypervisor-4.4-amd64 recommends:
ii  xen-utils-4.4  4.4.1-9+deb8u4

xen-hypervisor-4.4-amd64 suggests no packages.

-- no debconf information

-- 
Mit freundlichen Gr??en,

J?rg Ludwig

IServ GmbH
B?ltenweg 73
38106 Braunschweig

Telefon:     0531-2243666-0
Fax:         0531-2243666-9
Mobil:       0179-9101055
E-Mail:      joerg.ludwig at iserv.eu
Internet:    www.iserv.eu
USt.-IdNr.:  DE265149425

reassign 820807 src:xen 4.4.1-9+deb8u4
tags 820807 + moreinfo
thanks

Hi Jörg,

This is about the bug report that you filed before about EFI and grub2
in the Debian bug tracker against the Xen packages.

Your bug report was targeted at a Xen package in a Debian distribution
older than the current stable (Stretch).

Can you please help us by confirming that any of the following scenarios
does apply to your situation?

* I had this problem a long time ago. It was never solved, but I found a
workaround, which is ...
* I had this problem a long time ago, and I solved it by not using Xen
any more, but by doing ...
* I still experience this problem, and I'm still using Xen
3.2/4.1/4.4/etc. I cannot upgrade to Debian Stretch or Buster because ...
* I had this problem, and since upgrading to Stretch / Buster / ? it
seems it was solved, and I forgot to report it again. Please close it,
thanks.
* Other: ...

Note that even if you found a solution, it's still very useful to report
it back to our bug tracker. There might be someone else running into the
same problem, who can be helped with your information.

Please note that unless there's a response within a month from now, we
will close the bug report. If you discover this message later, and this
case is important to you, then you can try unarchiving the bug and
replying to it, or reach out to the maintainers email list at
pkg-xen-devel at lists.alioth.debian.org (no subscription required) and
post a message.

Thanks,
Hans van Kranenburg

Processing commands for control at bugs.debian.org:
> reassign 820807 src:xen 4.4.1-9+deb8u4
Bug #820807 [xen-hypervisor-4.4-amd64] xen-hypervisor-4.4-amd64: Xen detects
only one CPU when bootet via EFI and grub2
Bug reassigned from package 'xen-hypervisor-4.4-amd64' to
'src:xen'.
No longer marked as found in versions xen/4.4.1-9+deb8u4.
Ignoring request to alter fixed versions of bug #820807 to the same values
previously set
Bug #820807 [src:xen] xen-hypervisor-4.4-amd64: Xen detects only one CPU when
bootet via EFI and grub2
Marked as found in versions xen/4.4.1-9+deb8u4.
> tags 820807 + moreinfo
Bug #820807 [src:xen] xen-hypervisor-4.4-amd64: Xen detects only one CPU when
bootet via EFI and grub2
Added tag(s) moreinfo.
> thanks
Stopping processing here.

Please contact me if you need assistance.
-- 
820807: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=820807
Debian Bug Tracking System
Contact owner at bugs.debian.org with problems

Your message dated Tue, 22 Jan 2019 16:53:27 +0100
with message-id <07e7254c-3ca0-ceb2-f5de-ad38e12ee312 at knorrie.org>
and subject line Re: xen-hypervisor-4.4-amd64: Xen detects only one CPU when
bootet via EFI and grub2
has caused the Debian Bug report #820807,
regarding xen-hypervisor-4.4-amd64: Xen detects only one CPU when bootet via EFI
and grub2
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.)


-- 
820807: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=820807
Debian Bug Tracking System
Contact owner at bugs.debian.org with problems
-------------- next part --------------
An embedded message was scrubbed...
From: =?UTF-8?Q?J=c3=b6rg_Ludwig?= <joerg.ludwig at iserv.eu>
Subject: xen-hypervisor-4.4-amd64: Xen detects only one CPU when bootet via EFI
and grub2
Date: Tue, 12 Apr 2016 17:05:47 +0200
Size: 4333
URL:
<http://alioth-lists.debian.net/pipermail/pkg-xen-devel/attachments/20190122/8c055215/attachment-0002.mht>
-------------- next part --------------
An embedded message was scrubbed...
From: Hans van Kranenburg <hans at knorrie.org>
Subject: Re: xen-hypervisor-4.4-amd64: Xen detects only one CPU when bootet via
EFI and grub2
Date: Tue, 22 Jan 2019 16:53:27 +0100
Size: 7671
URL:
<http://alioth-lists.debian.net/pipermail/pkg-xen-devel/attachments/20190122/8c055215/attachment-0003.mht>