New Install Of Xen 4.6 Hangs On Loading Initial Ramdisk

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First post to this list. I would appreciate some help on this issue.

As background, I installed CentOS 7 on a Dell server, and then ran the following commands:

yum update http://buildlogs.CentOS.org/CentOS/7/virt/x86_64/xen/CentOS-release-xen-7-11.el7.x86_64.rpm yum –enablerepo=CentOS-virt-xen-testing update yum –enablerepo=CentOS-virt-xen-testing install xen

Doing that, I was able to successfully install Xen, create a virtual machine with its own HVM setup, logical volume, etc. and boot it just fine.

I then tried to do the same on an IBM x3550 server I

4 thoughts on - New Install Of Xen 4.6 Hangs On Loading Initial Ramdisk

  • Weird. So you don’t see any output from Xen?

    I guess that means GRUB gets stuck somehow, and doesn’t even get to actually starting Xen..

    Yeah it’s not about options to Xen and/or Linux when GRUB fails to boot the entry in the first place..

    Is this UEFI setup? Or legacy-BIOS? Did you try playing with the BIOS options?

    — Pasi

  • Thanks for the testing and the report.

    Have you tried booting the Xen4CentOS kernel (Linux-3.18.21-16) by itself
    (i.e., not under Xen)?

    Also, is there any chance you could get the output of a serial console?
    That’s pretty critical for debugging this sort of thing.

    -George

  • Not sure if this actually made it to the list the first time. 

    Here is the SERIAL output (bottom of message after your questions).  Googling the error indicates it’s something people ran into a few years back but was supposedly fixed.  Any ideas?

    I can verify that if I REMOVE the second CPU, it boots into Xen kernel no problem.  The CPU itself doesn’t matter, as I can swap either CPU into the first slot, and it boots.  First post to this list.  I would appreciate some help on this issue.

    As background, I installed CentOS 7 on a Dell server, and then ran the following commands:

    yum update http://buildlogs.CentOS.org/CentOS/7/virt/x86_64/xen/CentOS-release-xen-7-11.el7.x86_64.rpm <http://buildlogs.CentOS.org/CentOS/7/virt/x86_64/xen/CentOS-release-xen-7-11.el7.x86_64.rpm>
    yum –enablerepo=CentOS-virt-xen-testing update yum –enablerepo=CentOS-virt-xen-testing install xen

    Doing that, I was able to successfully install Xen, create a virtual machine with its own HVM setup, logical volume, etc. and boot it just fine.

    I then tried to do the same on an IBM x3550 server I’m trying to install with CentOS 7.  The CentOS 7 install went just fine.  I can boot into the standard kernel and have a working machine.  But after running the commands above to install the Xen hypervisor, the machine hangs on boot for a few moments after displaying the lines below and then reboots in a loop over and over and over:

    Loading Xen 4.6.0-2.el7 …
    Loading Linux 3.18.21-16.el7.x86_64 …
    Loading initial ramdisk …

    It never gets beyond that.  If I choose the stock kernel (no Xen) from the Grub menu, it will continue to boot into that just fine.

    My grub.cfg file has these entries of note:

     multiboot /xen-4.6.0-2.el7.gz placeholder  dom0_mem=1024M,max:1024M cpuinfo com1=115200,8n1 console=com1,tty loglvl=all guest_loglvl=all ${xen_rm_opts}
            echo    ‘Loading Linux 3.18.21-16.el7.x86_64 …’
            module  /vmlinuz-3.18.21-16.el7.x86_64 placeholder root=UUID=9dc18146-f9b3-41cc-ba9c-7314689abcde ro crashkernel=auto debug irqpoll ipv6.disable=1 console=hvc0 earlyprintk=xen nomodeset
            echo    ‘Loading initial ramdisk …’
            module  –nounzip   /initramfs-3.18.21-16.el7.x86_64.img

    What I have tried:

    1) adding debug into the vmlinuz line
    2) disabling ipv6 in that line
    3) adding root=UUID=9dc18146-f9b3-41cc-ba9c-7314689abcde to the last line AFTER /initramfs ….

    Nothing so far has made any difference.  Obviously the process works, as it works for me just fine on the Dell server.

    Underlying this machine is a SATA RAID 1 PCI card with two SSD drives attached in a RAID 1 mirror.  Not that that should matter, but I’m including it for reference. As noted previously, it boots into the stock kernel just fine.

    Any help would be appreciated.

    Thanks for the testing and the report.

    Have you tried booting the Xen4CentOS kernel (Linux-3.18.21-16) by itself (i.e., not under Xen)?

    Also, is there any chance you could get the output of a serial console?  That’s pretty critical for debugging this sort of thing. CentOS-virt mailing list
    

    ###  No such file or directory opening port
    (XEN) Bad console= option ‘tty’
     Xen 4.6.0-2.el7
    (XEN) Xen version 4.6.0-2.el7 (mockbuild@CentOS.org) (gcc (GCC) 4.8.3 20140911 (Red Hat 4.8.3-9)) debug=n Tue Nov  3 17:23:39 UTC 2015
    (XEN) Latest ChangeSet: Mon Oct 19 12:05:21 2015 +0100 git:36b6fe9-dirty
    (XEN) Bootloader: GRUB 2.02~beta2
    (XEN) Command line: placeholder dom0_mem=1024M,max:1024M cpuinfo com1=115200,8n1 console=com1,tty loglvl=all guest_loglvl=all
    (XEN) Video information:
    (XEN)  VGA is text mode 80×25, font 8×16
    (XEN)  VBE/DDC methods: V2; EDID transfer time: 2 seconds
    (XEN) Disc information:
    (XEN)  Found 1 MBR signatures
    (XEN)  Found 1 EDD information structures
    (XEN) Xen-e820 RAM map:
    (XEN)  0000000000000000 – 000000000009c800 (usable)
    (XEN)  000000000009c800 – 00000000000a0000 (reserved)
    (XEN)  00000000000e0000 – 0000000000100000 (reserved)
    (XEN)  0000000000100000 – 00000000bffcba40 (usable)
    (XEN)  00000000bffcba40 – 00000000bffcee00 (ACPI data)
    (XEN)  00000000bffcee00 – 00000000c0000000 (reserved)
    (XEN)  00000000fec00000 – 0000000100000000 (reserved)
    (XEN)  0000000100000000 – 00000001fee00000 (usable)
    (XEN)  00000001fee00000 – 00000001fef00000 (reserved)
    (XEN)  00000001fef00000 – 00000002fee00000 (usable)
    (XEN)  00000002fee00000 – 00000002fef00000 (reserved)
    (XEN)  00000002fef00000 – 00000003fee00000 (usable)
    (XEN)  00000003fee00000 – 00000003fef00000 (reserved)
    (XEN)  00000003fef00000 – 0000000840000000 (usable)
    (XEN) ACPI: RSDP 000FDFD0, 0024 (r2 IBM   )
    (XEN) ACPI: XSDT BFFCED00, 004C (r1 IBM    SERDEFNT     1000 IBM  45444F43)
    (XEN) ACPI: FACP BFFCEC40, 0084 (r2 IBM    SERDEFNT     1000 IBM  45444F43)
    (XEN) ACPI: DSDT BFFCBA40, 246C (r2 IBM    SERDEFNT     1000 INTL 20041203)
    (XEN) ACPI: FACS BFFCE980, 0040
    (XEN) ACPI: APIC BFFCEB80, 0084 (r1 IBM    SERDEFNT     1000 IBM  45444F43)
    (XEN) ACPI: SRAT BFFCEA40, 00E8 (r1 IBM    SERDEFNT     1000 IBM  45444F43)
    (XEN) ACPI: HPET BFFCEA00, 0038 (r1 IBM    SERDEFNT     1000 IBM  45444F43)
    (XEN) ACPI: MCFG BFFCE9C0, 003C (r1 IBM    SERDEFNT     1000 IBM  45444F43)
    (XEN) System RAM: 32764MB (33550748kB)
    (XEN) SRAT: PXM 0 -> APIC 0 -> Node 0
    (XEN) SRAT: PXM 0 -> APIC 1 -> Node 0
    (XEN) SRAT: PXM 0 -> APIC 6 -> Node 0
    (XEN) SRAT: PXM 0 -> APIC 7 -> Node 0
    (XEN) SRAT: Node 0 PXM 0 0-c0000000
    (XEN) SRAT: Node 0 PXM 0 100000000-840000000
    (XEN) SRAT: Node 0 PXM 0 840000000-1000000000 (hotplug)
    (XEN) NUMA: Allocated memnodemap from 83d5cd000 – 83d5ce000
    (XEN) NUMA: Using 18 for the hash shift.
    (XEN) Domain heap initialised
    (XEN) found SMP MP-table at 0009c940
    (XEN) DMI 2.4 present.
    (XEN) Using APIC driver default
    (XEN) ACPI: PM-Timer IO Port: 0x588
    (XEN) ACPI: SLEEP INFO: pm1x_cnt[1:584,1:0], pm1x_evt[1:580,1:0]
    (XEN) ACPI:             wakeup_vec[bffce98c], vec_size[20]
    (XEN) ACPI: Local APIC address 0xfee00000
    (XEN) ACPI: LAPIC (acpi_id[0x00] lapic_id[0x00] enabled)
    (XEN) Processor #0 6:15 APIC version 20
    (XEN) ACPI: LAPIC (acpi_id[0x01] lapic_id[0x01] enabled)
    (XEN) Processor #1 6:15 APIC version 20
    (XEN) ACPI: LAPIC (acpi_id[0x02] lapic_id[0x06] enabled)
    (XEN) Processor #6 6:15 APIC version 20
    (XEN) ACPI: LAPIC (acpi_id[0x03] lapic_id[0x07] enabled)
    (XEN) Processor #7 6:15 APIC version 20
    (XEN) ACPI: LAPIC_NMI (acpi_id[0x00] dfl dfl lint[0x1])
    (XEN) ACPI: LAPIC_NMI (acpi_id[0x01] dfl dfl lint[0x1])
    (XEN) ACPI: LAPIC_NMI (acpi_id[0x02] dfl dfl lint[0x1])
    (XEN) ACPI: LAPIC_NMI (acpi_id[0x03] dfl dfl lint[0x1])
    (XEN) ACPI: IOAPIC (id[0x0e] address[0xfec00000] gsi_base[0])
    (XEN) IOAPIC[0]: apic_id 14, version 32, address 0xfec00000, GSI 0-23
    (XEN) ACPI: INT_SRC_OVR (bus 0 bus_irq 0 global_irq 2 dfl dfl)
    (XEN) ACPI: INT_SRC_OVR (bus 0 bus_irq 9 global_irq 9 high level)
    (XEN) ACPI: IRQ0 used by override.
    (XEN) ACPI: IRQ2 used by override.
    (XEN) ACPI: IRQ9 used by override.
    (XEN) Enabling APIC mode:  Flat.  Using 1 I/O APICs
    (XEN) ACPI: HPET id: 0x8086a201 base: 0xfed00000
    (XEN) ERST table was not found
    (XEN) Using ACPI (MADT) for SMP configuration information
    (XEN) SMP: Allowing 4 CPUs (0 hotplug CPUs)
    (XEN) IRQ limits: 24 GSI, 760 MSI/MSI-X
    (XEN) CPU: L1 I cache: 32K, L1 D cache: 32K
    (XEN) CPU: L2 cache: 4096K
    (XEN) CPU: Physical Processor ID: 0
    (XEN) CPU: Processor Core ID: 0
    (XEN) CMCI: CPU0 has no CMCI support
    (XEN) CPU0: Thermal monitoring enabled (TM2)
    (XEN) Intel machine check reporting enabled
    (XEN) Using scheduler: SMP Credit Scheduler (credit)
    (XEN) Initializing CPU#0
    (XEN) Detected 2000.117 MHz processor.
    (XEN) Initing memory sharing.
    (XEN) alt table ffff82d0802b8b50 -> ffff82d0802b9f24
    (XEN) PCI: MCFG configuration 0: base e0000000 segment 0000 buses 00 – 14
    (XEN) PCI: Not using MCFG for segment 0000 bus 00-14
    (XEN) I/O virtualisation disabled
    (XEN) CPU0: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU            5130  @ 2.00GHz stepping 06
    (XEN) ENABLING IO-APIC IRQs
    (XEN)  -> Using new ACK method
    (XEN) ..TIMER: vector=0xF0 apic1=0 pin1=2 apic2=-1 pin2=-1
    (XEN) Platform timer is 14.318MHz HPET
    (XEN) Allocated console ring of 32 KiB.
    (XEN) mwait-idle: does not run on family 6 model 15
    (XEN) VMX: Supported advanced features:
    (XEN)  – APIC TPR shadow
    (XEN)  – MSR direct-access bitmap
    (XEN) HVM: ASIDs disabled.
    (XEN) HVM: VMX enabled
    (XEN) HVM: Hardware Assisted Paging (HAP) not detected
    (XEN) HVM: PVH mode not supported on this platform
    (XEN) CPU 0 APIC 0 -> Node 0
    (XEN) CPU 1 APIC 1 -> Node 0
    (XEN) Booting processor 1/1 eip 8c000
    (XEN) Initializing CPU#1
    (XEN) CPU: L1 I cache: 32K, L1 D cache: 32K
    (XEN) CPU: L2 cache: 4096K
    (XEN) CPU: Physical Processor ID: 0
    (XEN) CPU: Processor Core ID: 1
    (XEN) CMCI: CPU1 has no CMCI support
    (XEN) CPU1: Thermal monitoring enabled (TM2)
    (XEN) CPU1: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU            5130  @ 2.00GHz stepping 06
    (XEN) CPU 2 APIC 6 -> Node 0
    (XEN) Booting processor 2/6 eip 8c000
    (XEN) Initializing CPU#2
    (XEN) CPU: L1 I cache: 32K, L1 D cache: 32K
    (XEN) CPU: L2 cache: 4096K
    (XEN) CPU: Physical Processor ID: 3
    (XEN) CPU: Processor Core ID: 0
    (XEN) CMCI: CPU2 has no CMCI support
    (XEN) CPU2: Thermal monitoring enabled (TM2)
    (XEN) CPU2: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU            5130  @ 2.00GHz stepping 06
    (XEN) —-[ Xen-4.6.0-2.el7  x86_64  debug=n  Not tainted ]–