RE: Booting Issue

[Paul Durrant <xadimgnik@xxxxxxxxx>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: win-pv-devel <win-pv-devel-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of 
> Connor Davis
> Sent: 17 December 2020 18:51
> To: win-pv-devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Booting Issue
> 
> Hi All,
> 
> What is the expected behavior wrt Windows booting up if the Xen platform PCI 
> device isn't present
> after a previous run where the PV drivers loaded and ran correctly with the 
> platform device present?
> On my system it is currently preventing Windows from booting.

Hi Connor,

  What is *supposed* to happen is that the XENFILT driver detects the absence 
of the PCI to which XENBUS is bound and prevents
emulated devices from being unplugged, which should allow the boot to continue.

> 
> Another possibly related issue is occasionally an update will cause Windows 
> to complain that
> a boot critical file is missing, usually pointing to xenbus.sys. Is there a 
> way to tell Windows that
> the PV drivers are not boot critical so that Windows will continue booting 
> even if it doesn't load
> the PV drivers properly?
> 

  Not seen that before... perhaps it's a new 'feature' of Windows. XENBUS would 
be considered boot critical as it is the parent of
XENVBD which, on the previous boot, was presumably hosting the system disk. 
This will need some investigation unfortunately. What
version of Windows are you running? 10, Server 2019?

  Cheers,

    Paul