WARNING - OLD ARCHIVES

This is an archived copy of the Xen.org mailing list, which we have preserved to ensure that existing links to archives are not broken. The live archive, which contains the latest emails, can be found at http://lists.xen.org/
   
 
 
Xen 
 
Home Products Support Community News
 
   
 

xen-users

Re: [Xen-users] at the end of my wits

To: "Steve Brueckner" <steve@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, christopher.fanning@xxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [Xen-users] at the end of my wits
From: "David Greenberg" <dgrnbrg@xxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 3 Jul 2007 15:29:22 -0400
Cc: Xen users mailing list <xen-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Delivery-date: Tue, 03 Jul 2007 12:27:20 -0700
Dkim-signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=beta; h=domainkey-signature:received:received:message-id:date:from:sender:to:subject:cc:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:references:x-google-sender-auth; b=H4ym1CR5WD0EqTPfepNpS7zHM/1BEAKgmGA78iAU3Uerg2nNc4/GSYwKJKgilpFfHNyrW5Vm/SA24mbPM+y8FhpT6X6sr+DsGa49+7efU+LLRQvoJA6+vfTp2SjG4RfAQiFXf5UMNBJ9pEgOHpofa7uO3QL3SL4lfUqoFKBSGZ0=
Domainkey-signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=beta; h=received:message-id:date:from:sender:to:subject:cc:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:references:x-google-sender-auth; b=GHzFjcVvLPtycj6zE52RD846Eg7yDDWOMqEJX00nDoM33oUzz+Xv/2WoR8r4rmMuC4j9H8nrlTNNlbsBSwWeSoxalPfYOasxspuBOSyv7ZcVXTfIWk7AEw0h8fcSVERiJBmbF+LfRWqY7Y/qKdTqkFqVx68iqHlDtHhv9Qfwz8o=
Envelope-to: www-data@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
In-reply-to: <60D45469A1AAD311A04C009027B6BF6806225AFE@SERVER20>
List-help: <mailto:xen-users-request@lists.xensource.com?subject=help>
List-id: Xen user discussion <xen-users.lists.xensource.com>
List-post: <mailto:xen-users@lists.xensource.com>
List-subscribe: <http://lists.xensource.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/xen-users>, <mailto:xen-users-request@lists.xensource.com?subject=subscribe>
List-unsubscribe: <http://lists.xensource.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/xen-users>, <mailto:xen-users-request@lists.xensource.com?subject=unsubscribe>
References: <60D45469A1AAD311A04C009027B6BF6806225AFE@SERVER20>
Sender: xen-users-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I believe that certain parts of the chipset are unsupported in kernel 2.6.18.  Ubuntu feisty has Xen ported to 2.6.19, and that will successfully boot on the Asus motherboard 100% of the time.  I got it to boot and recognize all 7 internal sata drives I was using.  There is a potential bug that may affect you if you use driver domains, however.  I didn't isolate the bug, but be aware that it potentially exists (softraid corruption when using a driver domain with 6 usb controllers and the only graphics card passed to it).

Cheers,
David

On 7/3/07, Steve Brueckner <steve@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Chris Fanning wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I'm at the end of my wits.
> I desperately need some ideas.
>
> Not long ago I posted here with problems booting xen on a P5Pdeluxe
> motherboard.
> When I boot this machine with vanilla debian etch, there are no
> problems.
>
> ata1: SATA link up 3,0 Gpb (SStatus 123 Scontrol 200)
> ata1: qc timeout (cmd 0xec)
> ata1: failed to identify (I/0 error, err_mask = 0x0104)
> ata1: port is slow to resond, please be patient
> ata1: failes to respond (30 secs)
> ata1: COMRESET failed, device not ready
> ata1: hardreset failded
>
> But this doesn't always happen. 50% of the time, the process stalls
> for about 6 secs on.
> ACP: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:1f.2[B] -> GSI 19 (low level) -> IRQ 18
> And then continues correctly.
>
> The machine also stalls during boot at usb hub detection, and NIC
> detection (or loading module).
>
> Well, I gave up, thought it was some weird hardware issue, and
> decided to use that machine as my own PC (because it boots etch just
> fine).
>
> So I started afresh with an asus P5LD2 and I've got exactly the same
> problem.!!
>
> The only thing that these two machines have in common is the
> powercord and I've changed that too!
>
> I'm not new to Xen, I've installed at least 15 since 3.0.1 These
> problems occur with my own compiled kernels and the debian packaged
> kernels.
>
> Any ideas please?
>
> Chris.

Sorry, no help from me.  I just wanted to say I'm still in the same
boat as you, although I use Fedora and a Dell Optiplex 745 machine.

Mine boots about 5% of the time; I wish it would boot 50% of the time!
My errors are similar to yours but not identical due to different
distro.  I can boot the vanilla Fedora 7 kernel, but not the Fedora 7
Xen kernel package or the manually compiled Xen kernel.

What do we have in common?  Error messages during or immediately
before or after ata detection.  Both the 965 and 945 chipsets lack
native ata support, so it's either not present (in my case) or tacked
on with a 3rd party device by motherboard manufacturers (in your
case).  In both cases, however, it seems Xen can cause a lot of
trouble with detecting ata, whether it's physically present or not.
Others have posted that Xen works fine with their 965 boards, so
unfortunately this isn't a consistent problem.

I have determined that my problem seems to be occuring during the
ramdisk's (initrd) loading of modules, before the kernel even gets to
start booting.  There's problems with the ata drivers.  The thing is,
no amount of remaking or fiddling with my initrd contents seems to fix
this, but I'm no Linux guru so maybe there is a fix.

Chris, does your system use an initrd or does it boot straight from
the kernel?  This might be useful information, although I don't know
what it would tell us at this point.

I believe we've dismissed the previously suggested notion that this is
a hardware problem, since you and I have had it on 3 separate models
of boards.  I've flashed my BIOS to the latest version, and done as
much troubleshooting as I know how, but still no luck fixing it.

All I can think to do is wait for the next release of a new Xen kernel.
I'd love it if someone could give us a better option, though.

Steve Brueckner, ATC-NY


_______________________________________________
Xen-users mailing list
Xen-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users

_______________________________________________
Xen-users mailing list
Xen-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>