Xen project Mailing List

Reading through one of the last messages links you sent me, I have found a follow-up message:
http://lists.xen.org/archives/html/xen-devel/2014-04/msg01917.html

And I'd like to give you a brief comment on line of work adopted, a strip from that message:

>I suppose there's no way we could add devices like this to a "quirks"
>file, so that users don't have to figure this out on their own?

The idea of storing a file with ALL of the possible "PHANTOM" devices IDs, is good, but as already stated in a follow-up of that message, that would require that users find out by themselves, in which case, I believe a lot of users like me are going to have to ask in this mailing list, and some of these users are just going to give up, just on the idea of having to call for support even before starting to use the software.

An excellent solution would antecipate the problem and load the correct drivers as needed.

An idea: the system could check the storage controllers and see if they need this kind of configuration, before the problem even ocurring. Through some kind of property or known issue they might share, that is causing this problem to even exist, even if the dev team didn't noticed, it doesn't mean they can't find a common property among all of those buggy controllers.

If there is no known properties among all of those "phantom" controllers, another solution would be to try the init procedures of a regular and a phantom device for all devices in two sepparate threads, just in case the device is a controller that needs it, and checking if any of the devices need these special drivers.

And last but not least, the problem can be solved after finding that the device needs a "phantom driver" and already wasted a lot of time, pretty much like a human would have done. At the first time the user tries to load the controller, once the problem is noticed, (Yes, apparently the problem is pretty well defined) the system can automatically start a script telling the "phantom driver" to be loaded to check for a possible solution and in a confirmed situation, you can change the grub configuration script automatically to add this PCI-PHANTOM options so that the next time the user restart the system the problem is already solved, being unnoticed and also, once the user enters the internet their controllers data can be sent to this "Quirks" file previously mentioned, without the user even noticing that such a workaround has been adopted, providing future users with a workaround and current users with a proper "transparency" on the bug.

Otherwise, if none of these ideas are appealing any other might be adopted, but waiting for the users to ask for help to be able to use a software almost sounds like a mechanism to limit the number of users, or controlling which users are allowed to use this software, and how much time is needed to install this software, since I have been trying for more than a month now and I haven't already gone past installation, besides, this solution is increasing the e-mails of problems to be solved.

I don't know what are the boot order of the linux kernel, it's language, and how to fix this issue, or even if the ideas posted above are possible, but that is just how I see the problem and since it is a known bug for at least a year now, It is up to you guys to see if I might be wrong or is it worth doing something about it.

Thanks anyway for all the help provided, and if I can be of any help, please send me an answer I will be glad to help.

2015-03-31 16:29 GMT-03:00 Carlos Gustavo Ramirez Rodriguez <carlosgrr@xxxxxxxxx>:

>> >First step is to get the kernel command line to match your native case.
>
>> kernel=vmlinuz-3.19.3-031903-generic ignore_loglevel
>
>Still no root= here. What does the native boot entry in your grub.cfg
>look like?

Thanks for the answer, it is working now. Perhaps you should add something to the guide for efi booting, but that is just an idea...

Here is my working configuration file:

"
[global]
default=xen

[xen]
options=console=vga loglvl=all noreboot pci-phantom=0000:0a:00,1
kernel=vmlinuz-3.19.3-031903-generic root=/dev/mapper/ubuntu--gnome--vg-root ignore_loglevel
ramdisk=initrd.img-3.19.3-031903-generic
"

>> Can you help me with the working system's dmesg? I can't find a way to
>> extract the buggy dmesg from initramfs... Below is my full dmesg:
>
>Please could you provide the output of lspci:

Here is the output, just in case it still helps to solve this SATA problem so that someone with a controller like mine doesn't have to come asking for help...
"
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v2/3rd Gen Core processor DRAM Controller (rev 09)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v2/3rd Gen Core processor PCI Express Root Port (rev 09)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v2/3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller (rev 09)
00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family USB xHCI Host Controller (rev 04)
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family MEI Controller #1 (rev 04)
00:19.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82579V Gigabit Network Connection (rev 04)
00:1a.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #2 (rev 04)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 04)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 1 (rev c4)
00:1c.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 5 (rev c4)
00:1c.6 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 7 (rev c4)
00:1c.7 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 8 (rev c4)
00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #1 (rev 04)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Z77 Express Chipset LPC Controller (rev 04)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family 6-port SATA Controller [AHCI mode] (rev 04)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family SMBus Controller (rev 04)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GK104 [GeForce GTX 770] (rev a1)
01:00.1 Audio device: NVIDIA Corporation GK104 HDMI Audio Controller (rev a1)
03:00.0 USB controller: ASMedia Technology Inc. ASM1042 SuperSpeed USB Host Controller
04:00.0 USB controller: ASMedia Technology Inc. ASM1042 SuperSpeed USB Host Controller
05:00.0 PCI bridge: PLX Technology, Inc. PEX 8608 8-lane, 8-Port PCI Express Gen 2 (5.0 GT/s) Switch (rev ba)
06:01.0 PCI bridge: PLX Technology, Inc. PEX 8608 8-lane, 8-Port PCI Express Gen 2 (5.0 GT/s) Switch (rev ba)
06:04.0 PCI bridge: PLX Technology, Inc. PEX 8608 8-lane, 8-Port PCI Express Gen 2 (5.0 GT/s) Switch (rev ba)
06:05.0 PCI bridge: PLX Technology, Inc. PEX 8608 8-lane, 8-Port PCI Express Gen 2 (5.0 GT/s) Switch (rev ba)
06:06.0 PCI bridge: PLX Technology, Inc. PEX 8608 8-lane, 8-Port PCI Express Gen 2 (5.0 GT/s) Switch (rev ba)
06:07.0 PCI bridge: PLX Technology, Inc. PEX 8608 8-lane, 8-Port PCI Express Gen 2 (5.0 GT/s) Switch (rev ba)
06:08.0 PCI bridge: PLX Technology, Inc. PEX 8608 8-lane, 8-Port PCI Express Gen 2 (5.0 GT/s) Switch (rev ba)
06:09.0 PCI bridge: PLX Technology, Inc. PEX 8608 8-lane, 8-Port PCI Express Gen 2 (5.0 GT/s) Switch (rev ba)
09:00.0 SATA controller: ASMedia Technology Inc. ASM1062 Serial ATA Controller (rev 01)
0a:00.0 SATA controller: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88SE9128 PCIe SATA 6 Gb/s RAID controller with HyperDuo (rev 11)
0c:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM43228 802.11a/b/g/n
0d:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 09)
"

Well... Since you solved all of those problems... THANK YOU!!!!
Can I send you anything to fix those issues, for a better system stability, or even an easier installation?
Now I can begin "play" with this awesome hypervisor :)

Just in case of newer problems that might need your help... See Ya!

Thankful,
Gustavo

2015-03-31 5:53 GMT-03:00 Ian Campbell <ian.campbell@xxxxxxxxxx>:

On Mon, 2015-03-30 at 10:15 -0300, Carlos Gustavo Ramirez Rodriguez wrote:

> >First step is to get the kernel command line to match your native case.

> kernel=vmlinuz-3.19.3-031903-generic ignore_loglevel

Still no root= here. What does the native boot entry in your grub.cfg
look like?

> Can you help me with the working system's dmesg? I can't find a way to
> extract the buggy dmesg from initramfs... Below is my full dmesg:

Please could you provide the output of lspci.

Ian.

Gustavo

Re: [Xen-users] UEFI Booting