Pkg xen devel - May 2025 - Request for patch to fix boot loop issue in Xen 4.17.6

On Montag, 12. Mai 2025 10:54:50 CEST Jan Beulich wrote:
> On 03.05.2025 16:02, Ngamia Djabiri Julie wrote:
> > Dear Xen developers,
> > 
> > I would like to ask if the following fix can also be included in Xen
> > 4.17.6 (and eventually in the Xen versions after 4.17.6 that don't
have
> > the fix) :
> > 
> >
https://xenbits.xen.org/gitweb/?p=xen.git;a=commitdiff;h=dd05d265b8abda4cc
> > 7206b29cd71b77fb46658bf
> > 
> > This bug causes a boot loop in nested virtualization environments (for
> > instance nested environments that use VMware Workstation), making Xen
> > unable to start. It was introduced in version 4.17.3 and the fix has
> > already be included in 4.19(.2) and 4.20(.0) and woud be planned to be
> > included in Xen 4.18.6 in the coming weeks.
> > 
> > Even though Xen 4.17 is in security-only support, this is an issue
that
> > blocks testing and usage for users and projects such as Alpine Linux.
> I fear I don't view this severe enough an issue to break the
security-only
> status of that branch. People concerned ought to simply update to a branch
> where the bug was fixed. Or the distro could include a backport.
The Debian Xen team now got a request to include this fix in Xen 4.17 in 
Debian stable:

https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1105222

We understand that Xen 4.17 is in upstream security-only support and thus this 
patch will not land there.

Debian can take the patch if it's confirmed by upstream Xen to be fine for
Xen
4.17 and low risk. We had problems in the past with incomplete backports of 
patches that turned out to cause regressions, so we try to avoid backporting 
patches without upstream Xen confirmation.

Maxi
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On 18/05/2025 12:24 pm, Maximilian Engelhardt wrote:
> On Montag, 12. Mai 2025 10:54:50 CEST Jan Beulich wrote:
>> On 03.05.2025 16:02, Ngamia Djabiri Julie wrote:
>>> Dear Xen developers,
>>>
>>> I would like to ask if the following fix can also be included in
Xen
>>> 4.17.6 (and eventually in the Xen versions after 4.17.6 that
don't have
>>> the fix) :
>>>
>>>
https://xenbits.xen.org/gitweb/?p=xen.git;a=commitdiff;h=dd05d265b8abda4cc
>>> 7206b29cd71b77fb46658bf
>>>
>>> This bug causes a boot loop in nested virtualization environments
(for
>>> instance nested environments that use VMware Workstation), making
Xen
>>> unable to start. It was introduced in version 4.17.3 and the fix
has
>>> already be included in 4.19(.2) and 4.20(.0) and woud be planned to
be
>>> included in Xen 4.18.6 in the coming weeks.
>>>
>>> Even though Xen 4.17 is in security-only support, this is an issue
that
>>> blocks testing and usage for users and projects such as Alpine
Linux.
>> I fear I don't view this severe enough an issue to break the
security-only
>> status of that branch. People concerned ought to simply update to a
branch
>> where the bug was fixed. Or the distro could include a backport.
> The Debian Xen team now got a request to include this fix in Xen 4.17 in 
> Debian stable:
>
> https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1105222
>
> We understand that Xen 4.17 is in upstream security-only support and thus
this
> patch will not land there.
>
> Debian can take the patch if it's confirmed by upstream Xen to be fine
for Xen
> 4.17 and low risk. We had problems in the past with incomplete backports of
> patches that turned out to cause regressions, so we try to avoid
backporting
> patches without upstream Xen confirmation.
Yes, it is safe.

https://github.com/xenserver/xen.pg/blob/XS-8.4/patches/backport-dd05d265b8ab.patch
is the backport I did for XenServer's Xen 4.17.? I don't recall there
being any conflicts or problems.

~Andrew