Re: port-xen/47157: No Howto for NetBSD/xen 6.0

[Andreas Gustafsson <gson%gson.org@localhost>]

The following reply was made to PR port-xen/47157; it has been noted by GNATS.

From: Andreas Gustafsson <gson%gson.org@localhost>
To: gnats-bugs%NetBSD.org@localhost
Cc: jnemeth%NetBSD.org@localhost,
    gnats-admin%netbsd.org@localhost,
    netbsd-bugs%netbsd.org@localhost
Subject: Re: port-xen/47157: No Howto for NetBSD/xen 6.0
Date: Mon, 22 Apr 2013 21:02:32 +0300

 On Feb 22, John Nemeth wrote:
 >  But, the short answer is install whatever version you want.
 
 So, I tried installing a NetBSD 6.0.1 dom0, xenkernel41-4.1.4, and
 xentools41-4.1.4nb2 on amd64, and ran into a number of issues.
 Although not all of them are issues with the HOWTO as such, I will
 list them all here anyway in an attempt to give a more complete
 picture of what obstacles someone installing NetBSD/xen might
 encounter.
 
 Issue 1: After successfully installing a binary package of xenkernel from
 
   
ftp://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/pkgsrc/packages/NetBSD/x86_64/6.0/All/xenkernel41-4.1.3nb2.tgz
 
 I found that there was no corresponding binary package of xentools.
 I worked around this by building xentools from source.
 
 Issue 2: the HOWTO says to start xend using
 
   /usr/pkg/share/examples/rc.d/xend start
 
 but taken literally, this results in an error:
 
   /usr/pkg/share/examples/rc.d/xend: WARNING: $xend is not set properly - see 
rc.conf(5).
   $xend is not enabled - see rc.conf(5).
   Use the following if you wish to perform the operation:
     /usr/pkg/share/examples/rc.d/xend onestart
 
 Issue 3: When instead trying the command
 
   /usr/pkg/share/examples/rc.d/xend onestart
 
 the message "Starting xend." is printed, but I don't get a shell
 prompt back.  The proctree command shows:
 
  | |   |-+= 01075 root /bin/sh /usr/pkg/share/examples/rc.d/xend onestart 
  | |   | \-+- 00871 root /usr/pkg/bin/python2.7 /usr/pkg/sbin/xend start 
  | |   |   |--= 01348 root (python2.7)
  | |   |   \--- 00489 root (blktapctrl)
 
 Looking at the port-xen archives, I see that others have had the same
 problem and that the solution is to start xencommons before xend.  But
 the HOWTO does not mention xencommons at all.
 
 Issue 4: The HOWTO says
 
   xend will write logs to /var/log/xend.log and /var/log/xend-debug.log
 
 but in actuality, the log files are in /var/log/xen, not /var/log.
 
 Issue 5: After manually starting xencommons and xend (in that order),
 I tried installing a NetBSD 5.2 domU and running the ATF tests using
 
   anita --vmm xen test http://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/NetBSD-5.2/amd64/
 
 This ended in a domU kernel panic while running the fs/tmpfs/t_rename
 test.  This is reproducible, and also happens with a 5.1 domU, though
 the exact test where the panic happens varies; so far, it has happened
 in fs/tmpfs/t_rename, fs/tmpfs/t_remove, and fs/tmpfs/t_link.  A 6.0.1
 domU is not affected by this.
 -- 
 Andreas Gustafsson, gson%gson.org@localhost