Xen project Mailing List

On Tue, Apr 12, 2016 at 11:10 PM, George Dunlap <george.dunlap@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Tue, Apr 12, 2016 at 2:51 AM, Paul Daniels <walkabout.pd@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> 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.

xl list looks in xenstore; so if you haven't started the Xen services
(and you won't have if you're booting directly to a shell) then
xenstored won't be running. So that part is expected.

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

Have you successfully installed Xen on a system using classic BIOS
boot and systemd?

Other than that, it's hard to help you because there aren't any log
files or anything to look at. Any chance you could hook up a serial
console[1] and give us the boot output?

The xen.cfg would be helpful too.

-George

[1] http://wiki.xen.org/wiki/Xen_Serial_Console

Thanks for the info George I thought something like that would be the case.

but its FIXED!!!

I gave up and put sysv back on

apt-get install sysvinit-core sysvinit-utils
cp /usr/share/sysvinit/inittab /etc/inittab

That was easy (debian 8.4).

reboot into xen and what do I see.

the hang at

EFI Variables Facility

But that should have been sorted out by xen.cfg in the efi boot directory.
Reviewing it I had a number of options
set on the options line.

activate KISS principal and only have the one option in there.

options=efi=no-rs

suddenly it all WORKS!!!! Must have had a dodgy option, added to a firmware with issues.

This implies systemd was not at fault, just hiding the error message that I needed. So now to put systemd back (heresy I know, but for anyone scouring the lists with a similar problem, it must be tried)

so...

apt-get install systemd-sysv

and a reboot later.

ALL WORKING YA!!!

Thanks for the help guys. Often its something stupid, but without the prompting you just overlook it time, after time, after time....

oh BTW the essential documents for me, that I found surpisingly easy to overlook were

http://xenbits.xen.org/docs/4.3-testing/misc/efi.html
for the xen.cfg (settings of xen.efi)

and

http://xenbits.xen.org/docs/4.3-testing/misc/xen-command-line.html
for the actual options and settings of that file.

PaulD.

Other references
http://without-systemd.org/wiki/index.php/How_to_remove_systemd_from_a_Debian_jessie/sid_installation
https://wiki.debian.org/systemd#Installation

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