Re: [PATCH 2/2] CI: enable FRED on PTL runner

[Andrew Cooper <andrew.cooper3@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On 09/07/2026 8:57 pm, Marek Marczykowski-Górecki wrote:
> Add new job-level EXTRA_XEN_OPTS variable, in addition to CONSOLE_OPTS.

This is stale, but easy to adjust.

> For now, add "fred" to all jobs running on PTL, but separate variable
> allows customizing it later on per-job basis.

"FRED is not yet enabled by default on Intel systems, but is expected to
function.  Explicitly turn it on for added test coverage in the short term."

The final task is to make MSR_SPEC_CTRL virtualisation for PV guests
work under FRED.  Right now, PV guests will lose speculation settings
they believe they have set, hence why FRED isn't supported on Intel yet.

>
> Signed-off-by: Marek Marczykowski-Górecki <marmarek@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> ---
>  automation/gitlab-ci/test.yaml     | 1 +
>  automation/scripts/qubes-x86_64.sh | 4 ++--
>  2 files changed, 3 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
>
> diff --git a/automation/gitlab-ci/test.yaml b/automation/gitlab-ci/test.yaml
> index 7cc52146304e..61adc1baff30 100644
> --- a/automation/gitlab-ci/test.yaml
> +++ b/automation/gitlab-ci/test.yaml
> @@ -177,6 +177,7 @@
>      PCIDEV: "56:00.0"
>      PCIDEV_INTR: "MSI-X"
>      CONSOLE_OPTS: "console=com1 com1=115200,8n1"
> +    EXTRA_XEN_OPTS: "fred"
>      SUT_ADDR: test-22.testnet
>    tags:
>      - qubes-hw22
> diff --git a/automation/scripts/qubes-x86_64.sh 
> b/automation/scripts/qubes-x86_64.sh
> index 7a59fa5f1116..065f03931bea 100755
> --- a/automation/scripts/qubes-x86_64.sh
> +++ b/automation/scripts/qubes-x86_64.sh
> @@ -260,14 +260,14 @@ TFTP=/scratch/gitlab-runner/tftp
>  CONTROLLER=control@thor.testnet
>  
>  echo "
> -multiboot2 (http)/gitlab-ci/xen $CONSOLE_OPTS loglvl=all guest_loglvl=all 
> dom0_mem=4G console_timestamps=boot watchdog $extra_xen_opts
> +multiboot2 (http)/gitlab-ci/xen $CONSOLE_OPTS loglvl=all guest_loglvl=all 
> dom0_mem=4G console_timestamps=boot watchdog ${EXTRA_XEN_OPTS-} 
> $extra_xen_opts
>  module2 (http)/gitlab-ci/vmlinuz console=hvc0 root=/dev/ram0 earlyprintk=xen
>  module2 --nounzip (http)/gitlab-ci/initrd-dom0
>  " > $TFTP/grub.cfg
>  
>  echo "#!ipxe
>  
> -kernel /gitlab-ci/xen $CONSOLE_OPTS loglvl=all guest_loglvl=all dom0_mem=4G 
> console_timestamps=boot watchdog $extra_xen_opts || reboot
> +kernel /gitlab-ci/xen $CONSOLE_OPTS loglvl=all guest_loglvl=all dom0_mem=4G 
> console_timestamps=boot watchdog ${EXTRA_XEN_OPTS-} $extra_xen_opts || reboot
>  module /gitlab-ci/vmlinuz console=hvc0 root=/dev/ram0 earlyprintk=xen || 
> reboot
>  module /gitlab-ci/initrd-dom0 || reboot
>  boot

Wouldn't this be better?

diff --git a/automation/scripts/qubes-x86_64.sh
b/automation/scripts/qubes-x86_64.sh
index 065f03931bea..9f8288cc02e3 100755
--- a/automation/scripts/qubes-x86_64.sh
+++ b/automation/scripts/qubes-x86_64.sh
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ set -ex -o pipefail
 test_variant=$1
 
 ### defaults
-extra_xen_opts=
+extra_xen_opts="${EXTRA_XEN_OPTS-}"
 wait_and_wakeup=
 timeout=120
 domU_type="pvh"


Everything is expected to append to this variable.