Re: [Xen-users] SOLVED: xen 4.1.3, EFI boot and "no console to OS" problem

[Janno Loide <janno@xxxxxxx>]

Just to conclude this topic: Xen 4.1.3 with OpenSUSE 12.2 (and 4.2.1 
with OS12.3 also) works well with UEFI on IBM x35*0 hardware.
The machine has to be booted with xen.efi loader, any other loader 
before xen won't do, probably.
I just had to
 - create an additional directory on efi partition;
 - copy xen.efi into that directory;
 - copy initrd and vmlinuz kernel images into that directory;
 - create simple xen.cfg file in the same directory containing just a 
few lines -- for example:
        options=dom0_mem=2048M,max:2048M dom0_max_vcpus=1 
dom0_vcpus_pin loglvl=all noreboot
        kernel=vmlinuz-3.7.10-1.1-xen ignore_loglevel #earlyprintk=xen
        ramdisk=initrd-3.7.10-1.1-xen
        root=/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-3500a07510364d950-part3

 - create additional boot entry in system firmware pointing to the xen.efi.

And voilà -- everything works like a charm :) RAM and cores are counted 
correctly, console acts normally, vm-s run as expected.

Concerning my initial question about that strange "no console will be 
available to OS" message I suspected to be some meaningful indication to 
my problem -- I'm not sure if it's related to any problem at all. I 
can't notice it on boot anymore. Though I'm still wondering what it 
actually means...

With best regards,
    Janno



> Hi,
>
> > Based on what you've said, the KDM login is not frozen (cursor is 
> > actively blinking?), but the input is not in the right place somehow.
> > If I am understanding this right, the Java applet sits between the 
> > real VGA output and the Matrox adapter, as a layer?  If so maybe some 
> > connection is belong list in transit when Xen hands VGA over to the 
> > Dom0.
> Probably. Though I guess the problem isn't related to that applet, as 
> the kernel without xen comes up with fully functional console.
> The problem is probably Xen not supporting EFI -- at least on this 
> hardware :(
> Actually, I was dumb enough not to look at 'xm dmesg' output before 
> (thanks to Casey for bringing it up). Surprisingly, while Xen succeeds 
> on detecting RAM, it fails reading full ACPI data structure:
> --
> (XEN) ACPI Error (tbxfroot-0218): A valid RSDP was not found [20070126]
> (XEN) System RAM: 98237MB (100595124kB)
> (XEN) Domain heap initialised
> (XEN) Table is not found!
> (XEN) Found and enabled local APIC!
> --
>
> As Xen does not detect root pointer it fails of course on everything 
> else depending on it, including detecting the cpu:
> --
> (XEN) Detected 2000.055 MHz processor.
> (XEN) Initing memory sharing.
> (XEN) xstate_init: using cntxt_size: 0x340 and states: 0x7
> (XEN) I/O virtualisation disabled
> (XEN) Enabled directed EOI with ioapic_ack_old on!
> (XEN) Platform timer is 1.193MHz PIT
> (XEN) Allocated console ring of 16 KiB.
> (XEN) VMX: Supported advanced features:
> (XEN)  - APIC MMIO access virtualisation
> (XEN)  - APIC TPR shadow
> (XEN)  - Extended Page Tables (EPT)
> (XEN)  - Virtual-Processor Identifiers (VPID)
> (XEN)  - Virtual NMI
> (XEN)  - MSR direct-access bitmap
> (XEN)  - Unrestricted Guest
> (XEN) HVM: ASIDs enabled.
> (XEN) HVM: VMX enabled
> (XEN) HVM: Hardware Assisted Paging (HAP) detected
> (XEN) HVM: HAP page sizes: 4kB, 2MB, 1GB
> (XEN) Brought up 1 CPUs
> --
> Finally, it just finds one cpu instead of six hyperthreaded cores! 
> Amazing.
> Compared to that, my trouble with console is just nothing.
> The console problem is very likely caused by this acpi detection 
> failure also.
>
> Tried Opensuse 12.3 with Xen 4.2.1 this morning. Got the same result 
> (the dmesg output above is actually from Xen 4.2.1 also).
> The OS 12.3 kernel (3.7.10-1.1) without xen continues to detect ACPI 
> data correctly (as 3.4.33-2.24 on 12.2 did), giving no errors, finding 
> all cores etc...
>
> I'll probably re-check the IBM firmware updates and then submit a bug 
> report.
>
> Regards,
> Janno
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Xen-users mailing list
> Xen-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> http://lists.xen.org/xen-users

_______________________________________________
Xen-users mailing list
Xen-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://lists.xen.org/xen-users