Re: annual howto rampage

[Manuel Bouyer <bouyer%antioche.eu.org@localhost>]

On Thu, Jul 11, 2024 at 03:46:01PM -0400, Greg Troxel wrote:
> I often edit the howto in late december.  Now is very late december 2023 ;-)
> 
> I have gc'd info about NetBSD 8, and the mention of xm.
> 
> Specific things I'd like comments on (onlist please, either to check
> consensus or because I think others will think the useful/message ratio
> is high enough):
> 
>   - Are there any problems with 4.15?
> 
>   - Are there any problems with 4.18 (other than timekeeping)?

I'm not aware of any

> 
>   - Have we crossed over to 4.18 being the standard approach, and 4.15
>     old?  (I think so but don't want to say that without asking.)

Yes I think we should promote 4.18 now. From
https://xenbits.xen.org/docs/unstable/support-matrix.html
4.15 is not supported any more

> 
> Absent comments, I will adjust to say both 4.15 and 4.18 work, modulo
> 4.18 timekeeping, and that 4.18 is the standard apparoch.
> 
> Further for the list:
> 
>   - Is anyone working on newer xen?

Not yet. I think I'll wait for 4.20, to save some work


> 
>   - Is the problem with i386 PV guests under 4.18 about all PV, or just
>     NetBSD?

What problem are you talking about ?
It this is the requirement to use pvhsim, it's for all i386 PV guests

> 
> 
> And offlist is fine for things to add/update but not so likely controversial or
> useful to others:
> 
>   - URL for PR about timekeeping?
> 
>   - Can one now boot a NetBSD dom0 via UEFI?  If so, is there anything
>     tricky?  If not, is there a PR?

It works, I've one machine setup this way

> 
>   - Is it true that PVH and PVHVM both also require VT-X/SVM just like HVM?

Yes, the requirements are the same as HVM

> 
>   - Still true?
>       Operation of i386 PVH guests is not reliable.
>       See [PR 57199](https://gnats.netbsd.org/57199).

I've not been able to reproduce this.
i386 PVH is part of the daily tests:
https://largo.lip6.fr/~bouyer/NetBSD-tests/xen/

> 
>   - Do we know the hypervisor version that is troubled about the 33rd
>     grant table entry?
>     http://gnats.netbsd.org/58395

This seems specific to the tornadovps setup, which uses 4.14.0.88.g1d1d1f53
(maybe a custom Xen kernel too)

-- 
Manuel Bouyer <bouyer%antioche.eu.org@localhost>
     NetBSD: 26 ans d'experience feront toujours la difference
--