Re: [ANNOUNCE] Xen 4.15 - release status, branching tomorrow

[Roger Pau Monné <roger.pau@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On Tue, Mar 23, 2021 at 03:17:38PM +0000, Ian Jackson wrote:
> I think things are looking in reasonable shape.
> 
> I intend to branch off the 4.15 stable branch tomorrow.  I will then
> turn off debug on that branch.  There will be a commit moratorium in
> force for much of the afternoon while the branching is done -
> commmitters please check your mail or irc.
> 
> Any outstanding patches that have a release-ack but have not yet been
> committed should go in ASAP, and certainly by Friday.
> 
> I have reviewed my list of blockers and the conversation that followed
> and there are just three areas that are still of concern to me:
> 
> * io-apic issue on Ryzen 1800X
> 
>    Related Qubes issue tracking this:
>    https://github.com/QubesOS/qubes-issues/issues/6423
>    Information from
>      Jan Beulich <jbeulich@xxxxxxxx>
>      Andrew Cooper <andrew.cooper3@xxxxxxxxxx>
>      Frédéric Pierret <frederic.pierret@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
> 
>   Are we likely to get a fix in the next few days ?
> 
>   I think it may be time to reconcile ourselves to not fixing this,
>   and deciding on a suitable plan B.  Do we need to put something in
>   the release notes, or SUPPORT.md, or implement a mitigation of some
>   kind ?
> 
> * Subject: Re: xenstore_lib.h and libxenstore API/ABI problems
> 
>    In the last mail in that thread, I wrote:   
> 
>    | I suggest, instead, that we:
>    |
>    | In 4.15:
>    |
>    |  * Retain the current soname, but:
>    |  * Delete the tdb internals from the header file and cease to export
>    |    those symbols.
>    |  * Rename the expanding_buffer and sanitise_value functions, to
>    |    properly namespace them, and move them to a private header.
>    |
>    | This is of course technically a breach of the ABI stability rules but
>    | for the reasons I [give above] I don't think it will cause anyone any
>    | trouble.
> 
>    I don't think I have seen any patches in this area.  I'm concerned
>    that this is getting late.  I suspect we may have to punt this to
>    xen-next.
> 
>  * Release notes (feature list), SUPPORT.md.  This is on my plate,
>    although George is helping with the feature list (thanks!)

So there's also the series from Andrew to allow Solaris to boot
without resorting to use the 'msr_relaxed' option:

https://lore.kernel.org/xen-devel/20210316161844.1658-1-andrew.cooper3@xxxxxxxxxx/

This has been R-A:

https://lore.kernel.org/xen-devel/24658.7471.309734.168120@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/

But AFAICT it's missing a repost with some minimal adjustments?

If we don't get this in we should document on the release notes that
Solaris guests will likely require 'msr_relaxed=1' option added to the
configuration file in order to work.

Thanks, Roger.