panic in wscons booting current evbarm64 iso under virtualization on Apple Silicon

To: port-arm <port-arm%netbsd.org@localhost>
Subject: panic in wscons booting current evbarm64 iso under virtualization on Apple Silicon
From: Chris Hanson <cmhanson%eschatologist.net@localhost>
Date: Sun, 25 Oct 2026 17:34:55 -0700
I’m getting a panic trying to boot an ISO that I built locally from -current in a VM using UTM.app on Apple Silicon on my M2 MacBook Air running macOS 27.0.1. (UTM.app is a front-end for QEMU and Apple’s virtualization support.) My local build has only some 68K changes, the most recent mainline commit it contains is "alpha: Align kernel stack pointer to 16-byte boundaries”.

Based on the attached transcript (mostly dmesg and backtrace), does this point more to an issue in VirtIO, the ARM64 port, or wscons?

Steps to reproduce:

1. Under UTM (I’m using the App Store version), create a new VM.
2. Choose “Virtualize” when given the choice of virtualization or emulation.
3. Chose “Other” for the operating system.
4. Leave hardware settings at their defaults.
5. Select NetBSD-11.99.9-evbarm-aarch64.iso for the Boot ISO image, leaving Boot Device set to CD/DVD Image and UEFI Boot enabled.
6. Skip Storage & Shared Directory.
7. Name the VM “NetBSD” in the Summary, and select the “Open VM Settings” checkbox.
8. Under Devices, add a serial device. (This will automatically cause a terminal window to be opened at boot that’s also used for NetBSD console.)
9. Save and run the VM.

The VM will boot, the display and terminal windows will come up and show the NetBSD booter, and letting the booter boot will start showing dmesg output in both windows. Then the display window will blank and resize, and the dmesg output will indicate a panic as below.

Since the only thing I’ve done that varies from a default configuration is attach serial (and that only in hopes of getting dmesg & a backtrace) I was hoping it would Just Work.

  -- Chris


Welcome to the NetBSD 11.99.9 installation CD
===============================================================================

If you encounter a problem while booting, report a bug at
https://www.NetBSD.org/.

     1. Install NetBSD
     2. Drop to boot prompt

Choose an option; RETURN for default; SPACE to stop countdown.
Option 1 will be chosen in 0 seconds.     
9091088+3988896+4367988+1742028 [665409+990624+737635]=0x161cd88
boot: loading ramdisk.fs done.
[   1.0000000] Copyright (c) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003,
[   1.0000000]     2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013,
[   1.0000000]     2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023,
[   1.0000000]     2024, 2025, 2026
[   1.0000000]     The NetBSD Foundation, Inc.  All rights reserved.
[   1.0000000] Copyright (c) 1982, 1986, 1989, 1991, 1993
[   1.0000000]     The Regents of the University of California.  All rights reserved.

[   1.0000000] NetBSD 11.99.9 (GENERIC64) #5: Sun Oct 25 15:21:57 PDT 2026
[   1.0000000]  cmh@NeXTbook.local:/Users/cmh/Documents/Projects/NetBSD/objects/12/evbarm64/sys/arch/evbarm/compile/GENERIC64
[   1.0000000] total memory = 4065 MB
[   1.0000000] avail memory = 3917 MB
[   1.0000000] entropy: ready
[   1.0000000] armfdt0 (root)
[   1.0000000] armfdt0: using EFI runtime services for RTC
[   1.0000000] simplebus0 at armfdt0: QEMU QEMU Virtual Machine
[   1.0000000] simplebus1 at simplebus0
[   1.0000000] acpifdt0 at simplebus0
[   1.0000000] acpifdt0: SMBIOS rev. 3.0.0 @ 0x13f800000
[   1.0000000] ACPI: RSDP 0x000000013C150018 000024 (v02 BOCHS )
[   1.0000000] ACPI: XSDT 0x000000013C15FE98 000064 (v01 BOCHS  BXPC     00000001      01000013)
[   1.0000000] ACPI: FACP 0x000000013C15FA98 000114 (v06 BOCHS  BXPC     00000001 BXPC 00000001)
[   1.0000000] ACPI: DSDT 0x000000013C157518 0014A2 (v02 BOCHS  BXPC     00000001 BXPC 00000001)
[   1.0000000] ACPI: APIC 0x000000013C15FC18 0001AC (v04 BOCHS  BXPC     00000001 BXPC 00000001)
[   1.0000000] ACPI: PPTT 0x000000013C15D898 000088 (v02 BOCHS  BXPC     00000001 BXPC 00000001)
[   1.0000000] ACPI: GTDT 0x000000013C15E818 000068 (v03 BOCHS  BXPC     00000001 BXPC 00000001)
[   1.0000000] ACPI: MCFG 0x000000013C15E918 00003C (v01 BOCHS  BXPC     00000001 BXPC 00000001)
[   1.0000000] ACPI: SPCR 0x000000013C15FF98 000050 (v02 BOCHS  BXPC     00000001 BXPC 00000001)
[   1.0000000] ACPI: DBG2 0x000000013C15E418 000057 (v00 BOCHS  BXPC     00000001 BXPC 00000001)
[   1.0000000] ACPI: BGRT 0x000000013C15E718 000038 (v01 INTEL  EDK2     00000002      01000013)
[   1.0000000] ACPI: 1 ACPI AML tables successfully acquired and loaded
[   1.0000000] acpi0 at acpifdt0: Intel ACPICA 20260408
[   1.0000000] cpu0 at acpi0: unknown CPU (ID = 0x610f0000), id 0x0
[   1.0000000] cpu0: package 0, core 0, smt 0, numa 0
[   1.0000000] cpu1 at acpi0: unknown CPU (ID = 0x610f0000), id 0x1
[   1.0000000] cpu1: package 0, core 1, smt 0, numa 0
[   1.0000000] cpu2 at acpi0: unknown CPU (ID = 0x610f0000), id 0x2
[   1.0000000] cpu2: package 0, core 2, smt 0, numa 0
[   1.0000000] cpu3 at acpi0: unknown CPU (ID = 0x610f0000), id 0x3
[   1.0000000] cpu3: package 0, core 3, smt 0, numa 0
[   1.0000000] gicvthree0 at acpi0: GICv3
[   1.0000000] gicvthree0: GICv2m @ 0x8020000, SPIs 80-144
[   1.0000000] gtmr0 at acpi0: irq 27
[   1.0000000] armgtmr0 at gtmr0: Generic Timer (24000 kHz, virtual)
[   1.0000040] C000 (ACPI0007) at acpi0 not configured
[   1.0000040] C001 (ACPI0007) at acpi0 not configured
[   1.0000040] C002 (ACPI0007) at acpi0 not configured
[   1.0000040] C003 (ACPI0007) at acpi0 not configured
[   1.0000040] plcom0 at acpi0 (COM0, ARMH0011-0): mem 0x9000000-0x9000fff irq 33
[   1.0000040] plcom0: txfifo 16 bytes
[   1.0000040] plcom0: console
[   1.0000040] qemufwcfg0 at acpi0 (FWCF, QEMU0002): mem 0x9020000-0x9020017
[   1.0000040] virtio0 at acpi0 (VR00, LNRO0005-0): mem 0xa000000-0xa0001ff irq 48
[   1.0000040] virtio0: VirtIO-MMIO-v1
[   1.0000040] virtio1 at acpi0 (VR01, LNRO0005-1): mem 0xa000200-0xa0003ff irq 49
[   1.0000040] virtio1: VirtIO-MMIO-v1
[   1.0000040] virtio2 at acpi0 (VR02, LNRO0005-2): mem 0xa000400-0xa0005ff irq 50
[   1.0000040] virtio2: VirtIO-MMIO-v1
[   1.0000040] virtio3 at acpi0 (VR03, LNRO0005-3): mem 0xa000600-0xa0007ff irq 51
[   1.0000040] virtio3: VirtIO-MMIO-v1
[   1.0000040] virtio4 at acpi0 (VR04, LNRO0005-4): mem 0xa000800-0xa0009ff irq 52
[   1.0000040] virtio4: VirtIO-MMIO-v1
[   1.0000040] virtio5 at acpi0 (VR05, LNRO0005-5): mem 0xa000a00-0xa000bff irq 53
[   1.0000040] virtio5: VirtIO-MMIO-v1
[   1.0000040] virtio6 at acpi0 (VR06, LNRO0005-6): mem 0xa000c00-0xa000dff irq 54
[   1.0000040] virtio6: VirtIO-MMIO-v1
[   1.0000040] virtio7 at acpi0 (VR07, LNRO0005-7): mem 0xa000e00-0xa000fff irq 55
[   1.0000040] virtio7: VirtIO-MMIO-v1
[   1.0000040] virtio8 at acpi0 (VR08, LNRO0005-8): mem 0xa001000-0xa0011ff irq 56
[   1.0000040] virtio8: VirtIO-MMIO-v1
[   1.0000040] virtio9 at acpi0 (VR09, LNRO0005-9): mem 0xa001200-0xa0013ff irq 57
[   1.0000040] virtio9: VirtIO-MMIO-v1
[   1.0000040] virtio10 at acpi0 (VR10, LNRO0005-10): mem 0xa001400-0xa0015ff irq 58
[   1.0000040] virtio10: VirtIO-MMIO-v1
[   1.0000040] virtio11 at acpi0 (VR11, LNRO0005-11): mem 0xa001600-0xa0017ff irq 59
[   1.0000040] virtio11: VirtIO-MMIO-v1
[   1.0000040] virtio12 at acpi0 (VR12, LNRO0005-12): mem 0xa001800-0xa0019ff irq 60
[   1.0000040] virtio12: VirtIO-MMIO-v1
[   1.0000040] virtio13 at acpi0 (VR13, LNRO0005-13): mem 0xa001a00-0xa001bff irq 61
[   1.0000040] virtio13: VirtIO-MMIO-v1
[   1.0000040] virtio14 at acpi0 (VR14, LNRO0005-14): mem 0xa001c00-0xa001dff irq 62
[   1.0000040] virtio14: VirtIO-MMIO-v1
[   1.0000040] virtio15 at acpi0 (VR15, LNRO0005-15): mem 0xa001e00-0xa001fff irq 63
[   1.0000040] virtio15: VirtIO-MMIO-v1
[   1.0000040] virtio16 at acpi0 (VR16, LNRO0005-16): mem 0xa002000-0xa0021ff irq 64
[   1.0000040] virtio16: VirtIO-MMIO-v1
[   1.0000040] virtio17 at acpi0 (VR17, LNRO0005-17): mem 0xa002200-0xa0023ff irq 65
[   1.0000040] virtio17: VirtIO-MMIO-v1
[   1.0000040] virtio18 at acpi0 (VR18, LNRO0005-18): mem 0xa002400-0xa0025ff irq 66
[   1.0000040] virtio18: VirtIO-MMIO-v1
[   1.0000040] virtio19 at acpi0 (VR19, LNRO0005-19): mem 0xa002600-0xa0027ff irq 67
[   1.0000040] virtio19: VirtIO-MMIO-v1
[   1.0000040] virtio20 at acpi0 (VR20, LNRO0005-20): mem 0xa002800-0xa0029ff irq 68
[   1.0000040] virtio20: VirtIO-MMIO-v1
[   1.0000040] virtio21 at acpi0 (VR21, LNRO0005-21): mem 0xa002a00-0xa002bff irq 69
[   1.0000040] virtio21: VirtIO-MMIO-v1
[   1.0000040] virtio22 at acpi0 (VR22, LNRO0005-22): mem 0xa002c00-0xa002dff irq 70
[   1.0000040] virtio22: VirtIO-MMIO-v1
[   1.0000040] virtio23 at acpi0 (VR23, LNRO0005-23): mem 0xa002e00-0xa002fff irq 71
[   1.0000040] virtio23: VirtIO-MMIO-v1
[   1.0000040] virtio24 at acpi0 (VR24, LNRO0005-24): mem 0xa003000-0xa0031ff irq 72
[   1.0000040] virtio24: VirtIO-MMIO-v1
[   1.0000040] virtio25 at acpi0 (VR25, LNRO0005-25): mem 0xa003200-0xa0033ff irq 73
[   1.0000040] virtio25: VirtIO-MMIO-v1
[   1.0000040] virtio26 at acpi0 (VR26, LNRO0005-26): mem 0xa003400-0xa0035ff irq 74
[   1.0000040] virtio26: VirtIO-MMIO-v1
[   1.0000040] virtio27 at acpi0 (VR27, LNRO0005-27): mem 0xa003600-0xa0037ff irq 75
[   1.0000040] virtio27: VirtIO-MMIO-v1
[   1.0000040] virtio28 at acpi0 (VR28, LNRO0005-28): mem 0xa003800-0xa0039ff irq 76
[   1.0000040] virtio28: VirtIO-MMIO-v1
[   1.0000040] virtio29 at acpi0 (VR29, LNRO0005-29): mem 0xa003a00-0xa003bff irq 77
[   1.0000040] virtio29: VirtIO-MMIO-v1
[   1.0000040] virtio30 at acpi0 (VR30, LNRO0005-30): mem 0xa003c00-0xa003dff irq 78
[   1.0000040] virtio30: VirtIO-MMIO-v1
[   1.0000040] virtio31 at acpi0 (VR31, LNRO0005-31): mem 0xa003e00-0xa003fff irq 79
[   1.0000040] virtio31: VirtIO-MMIO-v1
[   1.0000040] acpipchb0 at acpi0 (PCI0, PNP0A08-0): PCI Express Host Bridge
[   1.0000040] pci0 at acpipchb0 bus 0
[   1.0000040] vendor 1b36 product 0008 (host bridge) at pci0 dev 0 function 0 not configured
[   1.0000040] virtio32 at pci0 dev 1 function 0
[   1.0000040] virtio32: network device (id 1, rev. 0x00)
[   1.0000040] vioif0 at virtio32: features: 0x31870020<EVENT_IDX,INDIRECT_DESC,NOTIFY_ON_EMPTY,CTRL_MAC,CTRL_RX,CTRL_VQ,STATUS,MAC>
[   1.0000040] vioif0: Ethernet address 1a:10:16:a7:d1:fb
[   1.0000040] virtio32: config interrupting at irq 80 (MSI-X vec 0)
[   1.0000040] virtio32: queues interrupting at irq 81 (MSI-X vec 1)
[   1.0000040] virtio33 at pci0 dev 2 function 0
[   1.0000040] virtio33: GPU device (id 16, rev. 0x01)
[   1.0000040] viogpu0 at virtio33: features: 0x110000000<V1,INDIRECT_DESC>
[   1.0000040] virtio33: interrupting at irq 37
[   1.0000040] hdaudio0 at pci0 dev 3 function 0: HD Audio Controller
[   1.0000040] hdaudio0: interrupting at irq 82 (MSI vec 0)
[   1.0000040] hdaudio0: HDA ver. 1.0, OSS 4, ISS 4, BSS 0, SDO 1, 64-bit
[   1.0000040] hdafg0 at hdaudio0: vendor 1af4 product 0022
[   1.0000040] hdafg0: DAC00 2ch: Speaker [Jack]
[   1.0000040] hdafg0: ADC01 2ch: Line In [Jack]
[   1.0000040] hdafg0: 2ch/2ch 16000Hz 22050Hz 32000Hz 44100Hz 48000Hz 88200Hz 96000Hz PCM16
[   1.0000040] audio0 at hdafg0: playback, capture, full duplex, independent
[   1.0000040] audio0: slinear_le:16 2ch 48000Hz, blk 1920 bytes (10ms) for playback
[   1.0000040] audio0: slinear_le:16 2ch 48000Hz, blk 1920 bytes (10ms) for recording
[   1.0000040] spkr0 at audio0: PC Speaker (synthesized)
[   1.0000040] wsbell at spkr0 not configured
[   1.0000040] xhci0 at pci0 dev 4 function 0: vendor 1033 product 0194 (rev. 0x03)
[   1.0000040] xhci0: interrupting at irq 83 (MSI-X vec 0)
[   1.0000040] xhci0: xHCI version 0.0 not known to be supported
[   1.0000040] usb0 at xhci0: USB revision 3.0
[   1.0000040] usb1 at xhci0: USB revision 2.0
[   1.0000040] xhci1 at pci0 dev 5 function 0: vendor 1b36 product 000d (rev. 0x01)
[   1.0000040] xhci1: interrupting at irq 84 (MSI-X vec 0)
[   1.0000040] xhci1: xHCI version 0.0 not known to be supported
[   1.0000040] usb2 at xhci1: USB revision 3.0
[   1.0000040] usb3 at xhci1: USB revision 2.0
[   1.0000040] virtio34 at pci0 dev 6 function 0
[   1.0000040] virtio34: block device (id 2, rev. 0x00)
[   1.0000040] ld4 at virtio34: features: 0x10002e54<INDIRECT_DESC,DISCARD,CONFIG_WCE,TOPOLOGY,FLUSH,BLK_SIZE,GEOMETRY,SEG_MAX>
[   1.0000040] ld4: max 254 segs of max 65536 bytes
[   1.0000040] virtio34: config interrupting at irq 86 (MSI-X vec 0)
[   1.0000040] virtio34: queues interrupting at irq 87 (MSI-X vec 1)
[   1.0000040] ld4: 65536 MB, 16383 cyl, 16 head, 63 sec, 512 bytes/sect x 134217728 sectors
[   1.0000040] virtio35 at pci0 dev 7 function 0
[   1.0000040] virtio35: console device (id 3, rev. 0x00)
[   1.0000040] viocon0 at virtio35: features: 0x10000000<INDIRECT_DESC>
[   1.0000040] virtio35: interrupting at irq 38
[   1.0000040] virtio36 at pci0 dev 8 function 0
[   1.0000040] virtio36: entropy device (id 4, rev. 0x00)
[   1.0000040] viornd0 at virtio36: features: 0x10000000<INDIRECT_DESC>
[   1.0000040] virtio36: interrupting at irq 35
[   1.0000040] acpiged0 at acpi0 (GED, ACPI0013-GED): irq 41
[   1.0000040] acpibut0 at acpi0 (PWRB, PNP0C0C-0): ACPI Power Button
[   1.0000040] genfb0 at simplebus1: Simple Framebuffer (800x600 32-bpp @ 0x13bd00000)
[   1.0000040] wsdisplay0 at genfb0 kbdmux 1: console (default, vt100 emulation)
[   1.4696888] cpu0: failed to initialize PMU event counter
[   1.4696888] uhub0 at usb0: NetBSD (0x0000) xHCI root hub (0x0000), class 9/0, rev 3.00/1.00, addr 0
[   1.4696888] uhub1 at usb1: NetBSD (0x0000) xHCI root hub (0x0000), class 9/0, rev 2.00/1.00, addr 0
[   1.4797118] uhub2 at usb2: NetBSD (0x0000) xHCI root hub (0x0000), class 9/0, rev 3.00/1.00, addr 0
[   1.4797118] uhub3 at usb3: NetBSD (0x0000) xHCI root hub (0x0000), class 9/0, rev 2.00/1.00, addr 0
[   1.4896897] panic: kernel diagnostic assertion "wsdisplay_console_initted < 2" failed: file "/Users/cmh/Documents/Projects/NetBSD/src/sys/dev/wscons/wsdisplay.c", line 926 
[   1.5000405] cpu0: Begin traceback...
[   1.5000405] trace fp ffffc0018c58fac0
[   1.5000405] fp ffffc0018c58faf0 vpanic() at ffffc000005fa7e0 netbsd:vpanic+0x1c0
[   1.5000405] fp ffffc0018c58fb50 kern_assert() at ffffc000008aaf38 netbsd:kern_assert+0x78
[   1.5000405] fp ffffc0018c58fbf0 wsdisplay_cnattach() at ffffc0000045ee00 netbsd:wsdisplay_cnattach+0x160
[   1.5106543] fp ffffc0018c58fc40 viogpu_attach_postintr() at ffffc00000837ffc netbsd:viogpu_attach_postintr+0x874
[   1.5106543] fp ffffc0018c58fe90 config_interrupts_thread() at ffffc000005d5870 netbsd:config_interrupts_thread+0xac
[   1.5106543] tf ffffc0018c58fed0 el0_trap() at ffffc000000c2ff0 netbsd:el1_trap_exit+0x68
[   1.5207305] cpu0: End traceback...
Stopped in pid 0.114 (system) at        netbsd:cpu_Debugger+0xc:        ldp     
x29, x30, [sp],#16
db{0}>
Follow-Ups:
- Re: panic in wscons booting current evbarm64 iso under virtualization on Apple Silicon
  - From: John Klos
- Re: panic in wscons booting current evbarm64 iso under virtualization on Apple Silicon
  - From: Jonathan A. Kollasch
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