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[Xen-users] Xen black screens while booting in Arch Linux with UEFI GRUB



I posted this on Arch Linux Forums but didn't received any help, and due to the fact that I don't know if its an OS-related or Xen-related issue, I prefer to ask in both places to see if I can get an answer.
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=174184

Basically, the issue I have goes like this: After installing Arch Linux in UEFI mode, I install Xen on top of it following Arch Linux wiki instructions for Xen. GRUB allows me to choose to load Xen Arch, it starts to boot but suddently black screens right after saying how many CPUs it has detected. If on xen.conf I limit the amount of RAM for Dom0 then generate a grub.cfg file with the changes, it black screens after the Scrubbing RAM step, which is an extra step right after the CPU detection.

Some days ago I managed to get Xen working relatively well on my current machine (I didn't manage to do VGA passthrough - that will come at a later stage. But could install WXP on a LVM partition and the GPLPV Drivers), however, at that time I partitioned using MBR and my Boot Loader was Syslinux. As most examples on Internet for the Xen Boot Loader configuration are for GRUB, not Syslinux, I decided to reinstall from scratch and do a proper installation in UEFI mode and GPT partitioned. After several fresh and fully documented installations, I didn't manage to get Xen working since then.


Due to the fact that I'm still new on Linux (Less than two weeks using Arch Linux) and still didn't learned how to properly use debugging tools, logs and such, I can't really put a log of actual issue unless someone explains me how to do so. So for a first Post, until further instructions about what I can do to provide more info, the most data that I can give you is just a step-by-step of what I do after a fresh install of Arch Linux and Xen that causes the issue, to see if anyone can notice if I missed something which isn't on the wikis and not easy to google without the proper keywords.




HARDWARE
Processor: Xeon E3-1245 V3 (Haswell)
Motherboard: Supermicro X10SAT (Chipset C226)
RAM: 32 GB (4 * 8 GB) AMD Performance Edition RP1866 Unbuffered/Non-ECC
HD: Seagate Desktop HDD.15 4 TB
Video Card: Both integrated Intel HD Graphics 4600 and a Radeon 5770 intended for GPU passthrough on Xen, will add a second 5770 later
Power Supply: Seasonic S12II-520
Monitors: Samsung SyncMaster 2370H (DVI) and 932N+ (VGA), both currently plugged on the Intel HD Graphics 4600

Any option that the BIOS allows me to choose between Legacy-only or UEFI-only, is configured as UEFI-only. This applies to PCI Express Slots Option ROMs.
Video Card order is IGP first, so the Radeon shouldn't have video output unless after an OS is loaded.
All common-sense options (VT-x, VT-d, Hyper Threading, etc) I recognized are enabled.
Additional controllers like the ASMedia for SATA-3 Ports or Intel NIC booting ROM are disabled.



SOFTWARE
archlinux-2013.12.01-dual.iso (Latest)
I wrote the ISO to a Pendrive with dd following these instructions here to make it boot with UEFI mode
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/USB_Flash_Installation_Media#Using_dd_.28Recommended_method.29

xen package from Arch User Repository (Should be 4.3.1-2)
Some misc packages.


I do a fresh installation of Arch Linux following their wiki instructions
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Beginners%27_Guide

efivar -l gives output after booting from the UEFI Pendrive, confirming I'm running on UEFI mode.
Partitioned the HD with gdisk. Reelevant partitions are a 512 MiB EFI System Partition, a 9.5 GiB for Dom0 Arch Linux with Xen, and some bigger unformatted partitions for LVM.
Formatted only the ESP and next-to-be Dom0 partitions with FAT32 and EXT4 respectivel, using mkfs.fat and mkfs.ext4
Mounted /dev/sda2 to /mnt and /dev/sda1 to /mnt/boot.
Installed Arch Linux to /mnt via pacstrap, with both base and base-devel packages.
Used genfstab to generate /etc/fstab. Contents are the two mounted partitions.
Chrotted into /mnt with /bin/bash parameters.
Some basic configuration: /etc/vconsole.conf, uncommenting some lines on locale.gen, using locale-gen then using export on one. Symlinked appropiate timezone.
Enabled DHCP service with systemctl to have Internet ready on next boot (Wired, comes via NIC).
Used pacman to install grub, efibootmgr and dosfstools.
Installed GRUB with grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot --bootloader-id=arch_grub --recheck
Modified /etc/default/grub to add GRUB_DISABLE_SUBMENU=y line to fix some errors that were popping out with grub-mkconfig and latest Arch Linux ISO.
Generated grub.cfg with grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
Exited, umounted both partitions, rebooted.

On the Boot tab, BIOS sees UEFI:arch_grub. It boots fine.
After first boot from the Arch Linux installation, I resume preparing for Xen:

Modified /etc/pacman.conf to uncomment the [multilib] and its include line, then did pacman -Syyu
Manually installed package-query and yaourt packages (curl -O, tar, makepkg) from the AUR repository. No issues to install either
Used yaourt to download xen. It downloads xen and its dependancies with no issues, compiles and install them

Then, I follow the instruccions here:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Xen
Use grub-mkconfig to add Xen to the GRUB menu options. It recognizes Xen image and completes sucessfully.
Create the Network Bridge xenbr0 with netctl. It works.
Use systemctl to enable xenstored.service, xenconsoled.service and xendomains.service
Reboot

Now I have the Arch Xen option in the GRUB menu. Choosing it loads the images, loads the RAMDisk, then changes my Monitor to 640x480 (Or it seems like), and starts to boot until it reachs the CPU detected step and black screens. One of the things I managed to test was editing /etc/xen/grub.cfg, by decommenting the XEN_HYPERVISOR_CMDLINE line with xsave=1 and adding dom0_mem=2048M. After remaking grub.cfg with grub-mkconfig, it does an extra step after CPU detection where it says "Scrubbing RAM", after it finishes it black screens. Several tries, fresh installations fully documented (A bit more detailed than above), I didn't manage to make it work.
The standalone Arch stills work fine. Booting with it, I checked the xenconsoled service status and it complains that it failed to start because ConditionPathExist=/proc/xen was not met. The only other place where I saw /proc/xen was on a line that is recommended to be added to fstab for xenfs, which I also tried. After rebooting, Arch Linux throws me to maintenance mode for as long as that line is there, and Arch Xen keeps black screening on the same step. I suppose it could be because /proc/xen depends on booting with the Xen image, which is what I wasn't able to do, so that error is consequence of that.
Additionally, I also did a manual install of Syslinux for UEFI. I could get it working with Arch Linux, but as soon as I choose the Xen option, it instantly crashes. I'm using the parameters from Arch Linux wiki Xen article:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/xen#Modification_of_the_bootloader



After googling a lot, I got stuck in this point and didn't really manage to go beyond it. I wasn't able to use Xen with UEFI. However, I'm not sure if Xen can or can't be used, at least for the 4.2 version I found this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XFyPo7PacM
...but not sure if it applies to 4.3+.


The only ideas I have:

1 - Parameters that I can try for xen menu option in grub.cfg
2 - I heared that Xen can be compiled as a .efi file to be used with UEFI, but don't know if its mandatory or not. I would need a detailed guide about how to do so.

I could post more data or logs if you tell me how to get them.


Thanks for reading.

 
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