[Xen-users] Debian 8.4, EFI, and systemd = Tricky

[Paul Daniels <walkabout.pd@xxxxxxxxx>]

I'm trying to compile xen for uefi booting.
xen-4.6.1 or later on the latest debian 8.4 with systemd.

My problem is that it hangs when trying so init systemd on dom0

This goes on my new work laptop.
( I use it PXE booting PC's for imaging and repairs)
The whole setup is quite a bit different from what Ive had before.

efi as been a pain in the arse, but it appears to be working.  I can boot
into debian ok, as one of the efi menu options.  (this then goes through grub2)

I've setup another efi option that uses the xen.cfg file to boot up xen.efi.
The initrd and kernel specified in dom0 are the same as used to successfuly boot into debian.

Booting into xen I get through to the init-bottom script of debian and then it hangs. (powercycle required). Text still visible, cursor on screen just unresponsive.

Setting an init option in the efi xen.cfg file kernel line can drop me to a shell
at which point I can then mount xenfs, and do some basic xen commands.

however if I do a xl list, the shell that it was run from then hangs, like above, and I cannot kill -9 the process.

I can do an xl dmesg and things to my eye look ok.

I think the issue is some odd interaction between systemd, efi and xen.

systemd is new to me.  I would have expected that I could exec it from the shell and ideally it all should work, if everything was actually correctly working.

At this point exec /bin/systemd hangs the machine, no output just a cursor(like every other hang)
I don't know how I can step through, or emulate systemd to see where the error occurs.

The hang on xl list to me is suspicious, but its from a raw init=/bin/bash, with xenfs mounted.

Should I be able to get a list at that point?  Are there more steps that I can run through.

Anyone have any ideas that I could try.

Thanks in advance,

PaulD

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