NetBSD/xen kernel failures?

I've just recently started experimenting with Xen-3 and the
netbsd-4
branch.  The first XEN3_DOM0 kernel I built worked great
(after I put the
'noapic' command in the xen kernel command line).

I then wanted to build a custom XEN3_DOM0 kernel with all
the extraneous
device support commented out.  The resulting kernel wouldn't
boot.  Xen
complained that it wasn't a valid Xen guest kernel--that it
couldn't find
the symbol __xen_guest.  (I can't show the the actual
message since I
don't have a serial console available.)

So I rebuilt the standard XEN3_DOM0 and it now fails in the
same way.

The above two kernels were built while running under Xen.  I
rebooted into
native NetBSD/i386 and rebuilt the kernels again.  These Xen
kernels
fail with an address exception, or something like that. 
I'll have to
take better notes the next time I try them, since I don't
have a serial
console.

Has anyone seen anything like the above before?  I'm
currently rebuilding
a complete NetBSD/i386 release and will try the resulting
kernels once
more.

On a related note, I can't load a NetBSD kernel with grub,
even though
I've got the entry in the /grub/menu.lst set up as described
in the
How-To (and the grub info documentation).  It complains that
it's not an
ELF file, or is otherwise an unknown file format.  At least
the chainloader
works.

-- 
John D. Baker, KN5UKS                    NetBSD    
Darwin/MacOS X
jdbaker(at)mylinuxisp(dot)com                 OpenBSD       
    FreeBSD
BSD -- It just sits there and _works_!
GPG fingerprint:  D703 4A7E 479F 63F8 D3F4  BD99 9572 8F23
E4AD 1645

On Tue, Oct 17, 2006 at 12:01:34PM -0500, John D. Baker
wrote:
> I've just recently started experimenting with Xen-3 and
the netbsd-4
> branch.  The first XEN3_DOM0 kernel I built worked
great (after I put the
> 'noapic' command in the xen kernel command line).
> 
> I then wanted to build a custom XEN3_DOM0 kernel with
all the extraneous
> device support commented out.  The resulting kernel
wouldn't boot.  Xen
> complained that it wasn't a valid Xen guest
kernel--that it couldn't find
> the symbol __xen_guest.  (I can't show the the actual
message since I
> don't have a serial console available.)
> 
> So I rebuilt the standard XEN3_DOM0 and it now fails in
the same way.
> 
> The above two kernels were built while running under
Xen.  I rebooted into
> native NetBSD/i386 and rebuilt the kernels again. 
These Xen kernels
> fail with an address exception, or something like that.
 I'll have to
> take better notes the next time I try them, since I
don't have a serial
> console.
> 
> Has anyone seen anything like the above before?  I'm
currently rebuilding
> a complete NetBSD/i386 release and will try the
resulting kernels once
> more.
> 
> On a related note, I can't load a NetBSD kernel with
grub, even though
> I've got the entry in the /grub/menu.lst set up as
described in the
> How-To (and the grub info documentation).  It complains
that it's not an
> ELF file, or is otherwise an unknown file format.  At
least the chainloader
> works.

It may be the same issue as the one that made me loose a few
hours today
(and that I've run into before): xen doens't like large
partitions and/or
ffsv1 with blocks others than 8k. The symtoms was that it
refused to load
a new /xen.gz complaining it was outside the partition (this
was a single
140GB partition). The old /xen.gz loaded fine, but I guess
it was in
a different region of the disk. Then I made a 20GB /,
still 16k/2k block/fragment size then it complained while
decompressing 
/xen.gz. I know the binary was fine, as the same one was
booting just fine
on another box with a much smaller drive.
Then a reformatted using a 512MB / with 8k/1k block/fragment
sizes, and all is
well.

-- 
Manuel Bouyer <bouyerantioche.eu.org>
     NetBSD: 26 ans d'experience feront toujours la
difference
--

On Tue, Oct 17, 2006 at 08:11:51PM +0200, Manuel Bouyer
wrote:
> It may be [...]: xen doens't like large partitions
and/or ffsv1 with
> blocks others than 8k.

You probably mean grub.. and that wouldn't surprise me at
all.  It
also doesn't seem to follow symlinks on ffs, but will on
ext2.

--
Dan.

On Wed, Oct 18, 2006 at 06:03:32AM +1000, Daniel Carosone
wrote:
> On Tue, Oct 17, 2006 at 08:11:51PM +0200, Manuel Bouyer
wrote:
> > It may be [...]: xen doens't like large partitions
and/or ffsv1 with
> > blocks others than 8k.
> 
> You probably mean grub.. and that wouldn't surprise me
at all.  It
> also doesn't seem to follow symlinks on ffs, but will
on ext2.

Yes, grub of course. 

-- 
Manuel Bouyer <bouyerantioche.eu.org>
     NetBSD: 26 ans d'experience feront toujours la
difference
--

On Tue, Oct 17, 2006 at 12:01:34PM -0500, John D. Baker
wrote:
> I've just recently started experimenting with Xen-3 and
the netbsd-4
> branch.  The first XEN3_DOM0 kernel I built worked
great (after I put the
> 'noapic' command in the xen kernel command line).
> 
> I then wanted to build a custom XEN3_DOM0 kernel with
all the extraneous
> device support commented out.  The resulting kernel
wouldn't boot.  Xen
> complained that it wasn't a valid Xen guest
kernel--that it couldn't find
> the symbol __xen_guest.  (I can't show the the actual
message since I
> don't have a serial console available.)
> 
> So I rebuilt the standard XEN3_DOM0 and it now fails in
the same way.
> 
> The above two kernels were built while running under
Xen.  I rebooted into
> native NetBSD/i386 and rebuilt the kernels again. 
These Xen kernels
> fail with an address exception, or something like that.
 I'll have to
> take better notes the next time I try them, since I
don't have a serial
> console.
> 
> Has anyone seen anything like the above before?  I'm
currently rebuilding
> a complete NetBSD/i386 release and will try the
resulting kernels once
> more.
> 
> On a related note, I can't load a NetBSD kernel with
grub, even though
> I've got the entry in the /grub/menu.lst set up as
described in the
> How-To (and the grub info documentation).  It complains
that it's not an
> ELF file, or is otherwise an unknown file format.  At
least the chainloader
> works.

It may be the same issue as the one that made me loose a few
hours today
(and that I've run into before): xen doens't like large
partitions and/or
ffsv1 with blocks others than 8k. The symtoms was that it
refused to load
a new /xen.gz complaining it was outside the partition (this
was a single
140GB partition). The old /xen.gz loaded fine, but I guess
it was in
a different region of the disk. Then I made a 20GB /,
still 16k/2k block/fragment size then it complained while
decompressing 
/xen.gz. I know the binary was fine, as the same one was
booting just fine
on another box with a much smaller drive.
Then a reformatted using a 512MB / with 8k/1k block/fragment
sizes, and all is
well.

-- 
Manuel Bouyer <bouyerantioche.eu.org>
     NetBSD: 26 ans d'experience feront toujours la
difference
--

On Tue, Oct 17, 2006 at 08:11:51PM +0200, Manuel Bouyer
wrote:
> It may be [...]: xen doens't like large partitions
and/or ffsv1 with
> blocks others than 8k.

You probably mean grub.. and that wouldn't surprise me at
all.  It
also doesn't seem to follow symlinks on ffs, but will on
ext2.

--
Dan.

On Wed, Oct 18, 2006 at 06:03:32AM +1000, Daniel Carosone
wrote:
> On Tue, Oct 17, 2006 at 08:11:51PM +0200, Manuel Bouyer
wrote:
> > It may be [...]: xen doens't like large partitions
and/or ffsv1 with
> > blocks others than 8k.
> 
> You probably mean grub.. and that wouldn't surprise me
at all.  It
> also doesn't seem to follow symlinks on ffs, but will
on ext2.

Yes, grub of course. 

-- 
Manuel Bouyer <bouyerantioche.eu.org>
     NetBSD: 26 ans d'experience feront toujours la
difference
--