[Xen-devel] XSM in osstest, grub config, outstanding patch

[Ian Jackson <ian.jackson@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi, I'm emailing you because I know you have an interest in XSM
(and therefore in its testing in osstest).

osstest manages the booting of its test hosts using the
distro-supplied bootloader arrangements for its dom0s.  For Debian
that is update-grub.  Currently, osstest has a hacked-up local copy of
the Xen bit of update-grub, /etc/grub.d/20_linux_xen.  This is in
serious danger of diverging from upstream, which is quite bad.

I am intending to drop this file from osstest installs of Debian dom0s
after stretch (ie, for Debian buster).  Currently all the deviations
from upstream we have been carrying are fixed, except for one
XSM-related change.

That change is in the one described in upstream bugtracker here:
  https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?43420
According to the osstest commit message for f12512e44919, this is not
quite the same version as is being used by osstest.

This upstream bug is blocked because of unanswered questions about the
naming and discovery of policy files.  According to Wei, we don't have
a good story about how a user-supplied policy file ought to supplant
the one which comes from the Xen build system.

Anyway, without this change, when osstest tries to set up XSM on
Debian buster it will not find a bootloader entry with the right
policy file.  It will then fail that test.

To avoid this in the most expedient way, it would be good to get a
version of this fix into grub upstream before then.

Failing that, as I would be reluctant to continue to carry an
ever-diverging piece of grub configuration, I think it would be
necessary for there to at least be an upstream bug report with a ready
(or nearly-ready) patch; in which case I could provide osstest with a
copy of buster's 20_linux_xen file with that patch applied.

In any case, we will want something close to a ready-to-apply patch in
the upstream bugtracker.

I am emailing you this now because I have just discovered it.  Happily
this will give people plenty of time to debate the policy file naming
issue.

Thanks,
Ian.

_______________________________________________
Xen-devel mailing list
Xen-devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
https://lists.xenproject.org/mailman/listinfo/xen-devel