Bug 424421

Summary: Xen Domain crashes when installing DomU via anaconda
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Reporter: Andreas Thienemann <athienem>
Component: xenAssignee: Xen Maintainance List <xen-maint>
Status: CLOSED DUPLICATE QA Contact: Virtualization Bugs <virt-bugs>
Severity: medium Docs Contact:
Priority: low    
Version: 5.1CC: jpazdziora
Target Milestone: ---   
Target Release: ---   
Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version: Doc Type: Bug Fix
Doc Text:
Story Points: ---
Clone Of: Environment:
Last Closed: 2007-12-14 14:31:10 UTC Type: ---
Regression: --- Mount Type: ---
Documentation: --- CRM:
Verified Versions: Category: ---
oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team: --- Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:
Attachments:
Description Flags
xend.log
none
kernel trace none

Description Andreas Thienemann 2007-12-13 23:13:50 UTC
Description of problem:
When installing a 32bit DomU on a x86_64 Dom0 the DomU crashed repeatedly.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
Fresh RHEL5.1 install.

How reproducible:
Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. xm create staging kernel=/var/lib/xen/bootstrap/i386/vmlinuz
ramdisk=/var/lib/xen/bootstrap/i386/initrd.img bootloader="" extra="ip=
10.32.4.66 netmask=255.255.255.0 dns=10.32.63.5 gateway=10.32.4.254
method=http://file/rhel5 ks=http://file/ks-small.cfg lang=en_US
keymap=de-latin1-nodeadkeys text" on_crash=preserve on_reboot=destroy
2. Wait and watch via vncviewer localhost:1
3. Domain crashes during package installation
  
Actual results:
Domain crashes

Expected results:
Domain installed

Additional info:
Rebooting the Dom0 seems to make one install run possible. A second install fails.

The log doesn't show very much:

[2007-12-13 23:56:50 xend.XendDomainInfo 3234] WARNING (XendDomainInfo:923)
Domain has crashed: name=staging id=5.
[2007-12-13 23:56:50 xend.XendDomainInfo 3234] INFO (XendDomainInfo:1886)
Preserving dead domain staging (5).


Any suggestions on debugging this?

Comment 1 Daniel Berrangé 2007-12-14 00:40:12 UTC
a) use virt-install/virt-manager instead of xm and attach the
/root/.virtinst/*.log files or /root/.virt-manager/*log files if any are created
b) give the domain enough memory - xen defaults to '128' which is not enough for
anaconda - it'll crash & burn with this little
c) attach the *full*  /var/log/xen/xend.log
d) Do *not* use a 32-bit paravirt DomU on a 64-bit Dom0 - this is known to
randomly crash.


Comment 2 Andreas Thienemann 2007-12-14 07:47:56 UTC
(In reply to comment #1)
> a) use virt-install/virt-manager instead of xm and attach the
> /root/.virtinst/*.log files or /root/.virt-manager/*log files if any are 
> created
gonna try that

> b) give the domain enough memory - xen defaults to '128' which is not enough 
> for anaconda - it'll crash & burn with this little
The domain had 1024M assigned via the config file

> c) attach the *full*  /var/log/xen/xend.log
Done

> d) Do *not* use a 32-bit paravirt DomU on a 64-bit Dom0 - this is known to
> randomly crash.
Urgh. Fixes in sight?

Comment 3 Andreas Thienemann 2007-12-14 07:49:36 UTC
Created attachment 288661 [details]
xend.log

Comment 4 Andreas Thienemann 2007-12-14 07:52:24 UTC
An additional note to b) Anaconda does usually just seem to freeze, no messages
at all.
Some times however, I can see some remnants of /dev/ram0 or something similar
written on the console.

Comment 5 Daniel Berrangé 2007-12-14 14:31:10 UTC
This is all symptomatic of running a 32-bit guest on a 64-bit HV. We know this
doesn't work in 5.1 and we can't fix it - we don't even know why its broken - it
simply doesn't work. It may work in 5.2 - we won't know until we try the full QA
cycle on it though.


Comment 6 Andreas Thienemann 2007-12-14 14:36:46 UTC
Hi Daniel,

I've got a bit more info, reconnecting the vnc viewer gives some trace information.


Comment 7 Andreas Thienemann 2007-12-14 14:37:14 UTC
Created attachment 289111 [details]
kernel trace

Hi Daniel,

I've got a bit more info, reconnecting the vnc viewer gives some trace
information.

Comment 8 Daniel Berrangé 2007-12-14 14:47:00 UTC
Unless you can reproduce the problems with a 64-bit guest, we're not going to
spend any time on this ticket. 32-on-64 is known to randomly, non-reproducably
crash - it is simply not possible to debug it. We've wasted weeks attempting to
do so in the past.

Comment 9 Bill Burns 2007-12-14 16:35:48 UTC
Ihis is a dpulicate of 250427. This has been fixed in the RHEL 5.2 stream.
If there is a separate Anaconda issue please file a separate BZ. Also if this
happens on non-PV guests, please reopen.

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 250427 ***

Comment 10 Andreas Thienemann 2007-12-17 00:38:48 UTC
As discussed in private mail, installing 2.6.18-59.el5bbHPmgmtxen as the Dom0
kernel fixes this issue.