Pkg xen devel - Feb 2022 - Bug#1005176: xen-utils-4 library dependencies need update

Package: src:xen
Version: 4.16.0-1~exp1

I'm guilty of pulling in later Xen source and building it based on the
experimental 4.16 packaging.  As such this may actually only be an issue
for a package version beyond 4.16.0.

I'm uncertain which it is, but xen-utils-4.16 appears to need an update
to one or more of libxencall1, libxenevtchn1, libxenforeignmemory1,
libxengnttab1 and/or libxentoollog1 in order to function.

During my initial update I merely updated libxenmisc4.16 and
libxenstore4.  In this condition something (I suspect xenstored) was
rather broken and things were unusable.

Notably `xl list` was hanging.  I was unable to get VMs started and it
felt like everything wanted to explode.


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tags 1005176 + moreinfo
thanks

Hi Elliott, :)

On 2/8/22 14:19, Elliott Mitchell wrote:
> Package: src:xen Version: 4.16.0-1~exp1
> 
> I'm guilty of pulling in later Xen source and building it based on
> the experimental 4.16 packaging.  As such this may actually only be
> an issue for a package version beyond 4.16.0.
> 
> I'm uncertain which it is, but xen-utils-4.16 appears to need an
> update to one or more of libxencall1, libxenevtchn1,
> libxenforeignmemory1, libxengnttab1 and/or libxentoollog1 in order to
> function.
> 
> During my initial update I merely updated libxenmisc4.16 and 
> libxenstore4.  In this condition something (I suspect xenstored) was 
> rather broken and things were unusable.
> 
> Notably `xl list` was hanging.  I was unable to get VMs started and
> it felt like everything wanted to explode.
This one is really too vague to be able to react to in any sensible manner.

Reading it was a fun experience though. It made me think of creating a
bingo card with 30 possible things that a bug reporter can say that are 
a synonym of "it doesn't work".

I hope this message does not come across as offensive, it's in no way 
meant as such. :D

I do appreciate your contributions and you sharing thoughts about 
possible things that could be done and could be improved.

However, I hope you understand that there's no way we can help when you 
use something else than the actual packages in Debian, do not provide 
any error messages seen, and describe what you see instead as "it felt 
like everything wanted to explode".

For me, Xen 4.16 does run OK on my test servers, FWIW.

Have fun,
Hans

On Fri, Feb 25, 2022 at 06:40:23PM +0100, Hans van Kranenburg
wrote:
> 
> However, I hope you understand that there's no way we can help when you
> use something else than the actual packages in Debian, do not provide 
> any error messages seen, and describe what you see instead as "it felt
> like everything wanted to explode".
I'm aware I've got things in a state which is outside the support
envelope.  I was hoping observations might also apply inside the support
envelope.
> For me, Xen 4.16 does run OK on my test servers, FWIW.
That doesn't surprise me, it didn't take long to get things into a
working state for me.  Just I was able to get things into a problematic
state which the packaging is supposed to prevent.


xen-utils-4.16 depends on: libxencall1, libxenevtchn1,
libxenforeignmemory1, libxengnttab1, and libxentoollog1.

On a system being upgraded there will be 3 versions of each of these
libraries available.

4.14.3+32-g9de3671772-1
4.14.3+32-g9de3671772-1~deb11u1
4.16.0-1~exp1

Issue is the rebuilt xen-hypervisor-4.16 and xen-utils-4.16 could be
installed without updating libxencall1, libxenevtchn1,
libxenforeignmemory1, libxengnttab1, and libxentoollog1.

With the 4.14.3+32-g9de3671772-1~deb11u1 versions of libraries things
were broken.  I'm unsure which one(s) was the problem, though the
problem disappeared once all 5 were updated.

That enough for you?


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