Re: [Xen-users] terrible problems with Xen on SLES 10.2 / 11

[Marcin Krol <mrkafk@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hello Fajar,

Thanks for answer!

Fajar A. Nugraha wrote:
> > I'm totally new to Xen and trying to run it on some platforms (x86, x64)
> > using SLES (that is what I have to use for reasons other than technical).
> Not the best reason :P
I know :-( :-P

> If you're using it as domU then you should be able to use any distro
> that you're familiar with as dom0. My favorite is RHEL5.
Trouble is, I tested with RH5 (.1, .2, .3) just to make sure there is 
nothing else wrong and I couldn't get it working either! That is, either 
network in the dom0 (that is, main/host domain IIRC?) doesn't work at 
all or kernel can't communicate with the disk and throws up lots of SCSI 
errors.
> > Several machines on which I tried using Xen simply fails to run normally
> > using Xen kernel: either network communication is not functioning at all
> > despite proper configuration (that works on non-Xen kernel), or the kernel
> > can't communicate with disks, issuing SCSI bus reset commands in loop (and
> > failing to reset it).
> What is your xen setup like? Which part is experiencing problems:
> dom0, PV domU? HVM domU?
I simply chose "Install hypervisor and tools" in YAST, changed kernel in 
/boot/grub/menu.lst to Xen-enabled and reboot. Regardless of what 
machine I try this on, it doesn't come back.
> > Hardware is mainly made by IBM (xSeries with older Xeon or Opteron CPUs).
> >
> > While booting Xen kernels on SLES they have following symptoms:
> >
> > - various FATAL errors while loading modules, like missing xen_vbd or
> > missing xen_vnif
> >
> > - when booting non-xen kernel, messages in dmesg like:
> >
> > xen_vnif: Unknown symbol balloon_update_driver_allowance
> > xen_vnif: Unknown symbol balloon_release_driver_page
> Again, what is your setup like?
Clean install of SLES 10.2 or 11, on physical machine, failing to get 
dom0 working.
> xen-vnif and xen-vbd are PV drivers for Linux HVM domU. You do NOT
> need them for dom0 or PV domU.
Good to know.

I can't fathom what is going wrong then. I'm currently trying to get 
dmesg output saved, but I have to wait some 30 minutes to get it, bc 
kernel throws various SCSI errors and tries to reset and it takes a long 
time for it to fall back into single user. When I get dmesg output, I'll 
post it here.
> Besides, AFAIK they only work for
> kernel 2.6.18.x, not for newer kernels.
> Is it perhaps a HVM domU converted to physical machine? 
No. It is plain SLES installed on physical machine, which I then try to 
enable to run Xen kernel.
> Or is it a
> machine upgraded from older suse version?
It is not upgraded either, it is clean install every time (and I tried 
it on several machines, from IBM Netvista with P4 through Thinkcentre 
with P4 through xSeries with Xeon and xSeries with Opteron).
Regards,
mk

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