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No video display, SuSE kernel-xen-2.6.11.4-21.7
robbie at microbus
Jun 13, 2005, 11:34 AM
Post #1 of 6 (978 views)
Permalink
Hi all

This is a strange one. On upgraging to SuSE kernel-2.6.11.4-21.7, I have
suddenly found that I loose the video on boot up! The video disappears
very early in boot, possibly while Xen hypervisor is starting, printing
out the physical memory map.

If you are patient and wait for the machine to reach run level 5,
the X server starts up and you get a picture back. You can then
switch back and forth between virtual terminal 7 (X server) and
virtual terminals 1 to 6 (which remain black).

I put an osciloscope on the VGA sync to see what they were doing.
They look fine, HSync 31.5KHz, 3.6uS high 27.9uS low,
VSync 62.5Hz, 2 lines low, ~448 line high
(This is with virtual terminal 1 selected ).

I have seen this on two different machines.

First is a Mitac laptop, Athlon64 process (running 32 bit mode),
Via chip set, ATI Radeon 9600 M10 video

Second is a Pentium III board, BX chip set, Chips & Technologies
69000 video.

Software in use...

Xen:
From 'xm dmesg'
Xen version 2.0.6a-0.1 (abuild@suse.de) (gcc version 3.3.5 20050117
(prerelease
) (SUSE Linux)) Fri Jun 10 19:30:50 UTC 2005

This is the xen-2.0.6a-0.1.i586.rpm from Kurt Garloff's page.

I have also tried a xen-2.0-testing that I compiled myself
(with the rev 1.1899 "Ensure we only handle writable pagetable faults
taken in guest kernel")
Same outcome

kernel on domO:

paradox:~ # rpm -q kernel-xen
kernel-xen-2.6.11.4-21.7
paradox:~ #

This is a kernel down loaded from Kurt Garloff's Page

I also tried a kernel that I compiled myself with the
SuSE kernel sources that were release last week. I got the
same misbehaviour. I thought that this was due to my error
in configuring the kernel. I tried recompiling with
CONFIG_FB turned off, but that did not help.

My grub config:

title XEN
kernel (hd0,0)/xen.gz dom0_mem=204800
module (hd0,0)/vmlinuz-xen root=/dev/system/dom0_root_hdc
selinux=0 splash
=silent showopts
module (hd0,0)/initrd-xen

(hd0,0 is my /boot partition
these symbolic links are in place

paradox:~ # ls -l /boot/xen.gz
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 17 Jun 13 13:11 /boot/xen.gz -> xen-2.0.6a-0.1.gz
paradox:~ # ls -l /boot/vmlinuz-xen
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 25 Jun 13 13:11 /boot/vmlinuz-xen ->
vmlinuz-2.6.11.4-21.7-xen
paradox:~ # ls -l /boot/initrd-xen
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 24 Jun 13 13:11 /boot/initrd-xen ->
initrd-2.6.11.4-21.7-xen

My initrd has these modules in it:

paradox:~ # zcat /boot/initrd-2.6.11.4-21.7-xen | cpio -i -t | grep -E
'^lib/modules'
7161 blocks
lib/modules
lib/modules/2.6.11.4-21.7-xen
lib/modules/2.6.11.4-21.7-xen/kernel
lib/modules/2.6.11.4-21.7-xen/kernel/drivers
lib/modules/2.6.11.4-21.7-xen/kernel/drivers/ide
lib/modules/2.6.11.4-21.7-xen/kernel/drivers/ide/ide-core.ko
lib/modules/2.6.11.4-21.7-xen/kernel/drivers/ide/pci
lib/modules/2.6.11.4-21.7-xen/kernel/drivers/ide/pci/piix.ko
lib/modules/2.6.11.4-21.7-xen/kernel/drivers/ide/ide-disk.ko
lib/modules/2.6.11.4-21.7-xen/kernel/drivers/ide/ide-cd.ko
lib/modules/2.6.11.4-21.7-xen/kernel/drivers/md
lib/modules/2.6.11.4-21.7-xen/kernel/drivers/md/raid1.ko
lib/modules/2.6.11.4-21.7-xen/kernel/drivers/md/dm-mod.ko
lib/modules/2.6.11.4-21.7-xen/kernel/drivers/md/dm-snapshot.ko
lib/modules/2.6.11.4-21.7-xen/kernel/drivers/cdrom
lib/modules/2.6.11.4-21.7-xen/kernel/drivers/cdrom/cdrom.ko
lib/modules/2.6.11.4-21.7-xen/kernel/fs
lib/modules/2.6.11.4-21.7-xen/kernel/fs/jbd
lib/modules/2.6.11.4-21.7-xen/kernel/fs/jbd/jbd.ko
lib/modules/2.6.11.4-21.7-xen/kernel/fs/ext3
lib/modules/2.6.11.4-21.7-xen/kernel/fs/ext3/ext3.ko
paradox:~ #

None of this is causing me any great problem because
the machine is sitting in a server rack in another
room. I can ssh to it or use the serial console.

It will confuse the hell out of a new user though!

Does anyone have any suggests as to what to try to debug/fix this?

Robbie Dinn

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Re: No video display, SuSE kernel-xen-2.6.11.4-21.7 [ In reply to ]
dfbp at us
Jun 13, 2005, 11:43 AM
Post #2 of 6 (873 views)
Permalink
>My grub config:
>
> title XEN
> kernel (hd0,0)/xen.gz dom0_mem=204800
> module (hd0,0)/vmlinuz-xen root=/dev/system/dom0_root_hdc
> selinux=0 splash
Try adding console=tty0 to the line above

> =silent showopts
> module (hd0,0)/initrd-xen
>

On Mon, 2005-06-13 at 19:34 +0100, Robbie Dinn wrote:
> Hi all
>
> This is a strange one. On upgraging to SuSE kernel-2.6.11.4-21.7, I have
> suddenly found that I loose the video on boot up! The video disappears
> very early in boot, possibly while Xen hypervisor is starting, printing
> out the physical memory map.
>
> If you are patient and wait for the machine to reach run level 5,
> the X server starts up and you get a picture back. You can then
> switch back and forth between virtual terminal 7 (X server) and
> virtual terminals 1 to 6 (which remain black).
>
> I put an osciloscope on the VGA sync to see what they were doing.
> They look fine, HSync 31.5KHz, 3.6uS high 27.9uS low,
> VSync 62.5Hz, 2 lines low, ~448 line high
> (This is with virtual terminal 1 selected ).
>
> I have seen this on two different machines.
>
> First is a Mitac laptop, Athlon64 process (running 32 bit mode),
> Via chip set, ATI Radeon 9600 M10 video
>
> Second is a Pentium III board, BX chip set, Chips & Technologies
> 69000 video.
>
> Software in use...
>
> Xen:
> From 'xm dmesg'
> Xen version 2.0.6a-0.1 (abuild@suse.de) (gcc version 3.3.5 20050117
> (prerelease
> ) (SUSE Linux)) Fri Jun 10 19:30:50 UTC 2005
>
> This is the xen-2.0.6a-0.1.i586.rpm from Kurt Garloff's page.
>
> I have also tried a xen-2.0-testing that I compiled myself
> (with the rev 1.1899 "Ensure we only handle writable pagetable faults
> taken in guest kernel")
> Same outcome
>
> kernel on domO:
>
> paradox:~ # rpm -q kernel-xen
> kernel-xen-2.6.11.4-21.7
> paradox:~ #
>
> This is a kernel down loaded from Kurt Garloff's Page
>
> I also tried a kernel that I compiled myself with the
> SuSE kernel sources that were release last week. I got the
> same misbehaviour. I thought that this was due to my error
> in configuring the kernel. I tried recompiling with
> CONFIG_FB turned off, but that did not help.
>
> My grub config:
>
> title XEN
> kernel (hd0,0)/xen.gz dom0_mem=204800
> module (hd0,0)/vmlinuz-xen root=/dev/system/dom0_root_hdc
> selinux=0 splash
> =silent showopts
> module (hd0,0)/initrd-xen
>
> (hd0,0 is my /boot partition
> these symbolic links are in place
>
> paradox:~ # ls -l /boot/xen.gz
> lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 17 Jun 13 13:11 /boot/xen.gz -> xen-2.0.6a-0.1.gz
> paradox:~ # ls -l /boot/vmlinuz-xen
> lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 25 Jun 13 13:11 /boot/vmlinuz-xen ->
> vmlinuz-2.6.11.4-21.7-xen
> paradox:~ # ls -l /boot/initrd-xen
> lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 24 Jun 13 13:11 /boot/initrd-xen ->
> initrd-2.6.11.4-21.7-xen
>
> My initrd has these modules in it:
>
> paradox:~ # zcat /boot/initrd-2.6.11.4-21.7-xen | cpio -i -t | grep -E
> '^lib/modules'
> 7161 blocks
> lib/modules
> lib/modules/2.6.11.4-21.7-xen
> lib/modules/2.6.11.4-21.7-xen/kernel
> lib/modules/2.6.11.4-21.7-xen/kernel/drivers
> lib/modules/2.6.11.4-21.7-xen/kernel/drivers/ide
> lib/modules/2.6.11.4-21.7-xen/kernel/drivers/ide/ide-core.ko
> lib/modules/2.6.11.4-21.7-xen/kernel/drivers/ide/pci
> lib/modules/2.6.11.4-21.7-xen/kernel/drivers/ide/pci/piix.ko
> lib/modules/2.6.11.4-21.7-xen/kernel/drivers/ide/ide-disk.ko
> lib/modules/2.6.11.4-21.7-xen/kernel/drivers/ide/ide-cd.ko
> lib/modules/2.6.11.4-21.7-xen/kernel/drivers/md
> lib/modules/2.6.11.4-21.7-xen/kernel/drivers/md/raid1.ko
> lib/modules/2.6.11.4-21.7-xen/kernel/drivers/md/dm-mod.ko
> lib/modules/2.6.11.4-21.7-xen/kernel/drivers/md/dm-snapshot.ko
> lib/modules/2.6.11.4-21.7-xen/kernel/drivers/cdrom
> lib/modules/2.6.11.4-21.7-xen/kernel/drivers/cdrom/cdrom.ko
> lib/modules/2.6.11.4-21.7-xen/kernel/fs
> lib/modules/2.6.11.4-21.7-xen/kernel/fs/jbd
> lib/modules/2.6.11.4-21.7-xen/kernel/fs/jbd/jbd.ko
> lib/modules/2.6.11.4-21.7-xen/kernel/fs/ext3
> lib/modules/2.6.11.4-21.7-xen/kernel/fs/ext3/ext3.ko
> paradox:~ #
>
> None of this is causing me any great problem because
> the machine is sitting in a server rack in another
> room. I can ssh to it or use the serial console.
>
> It will confuse the hell out of a new user though!
>
> Does anyone have any suggests as to what to try to debug/fix this?
>
> Robbie Dinn
>
> _______________________________________________
> Xen-users mailing list
> Xen-users@lists.xensource.com
> http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
>
--
Regards,

David F Barrera
Linux Technology Center
Systems and Technology Group, IBM

"The wisest men follow their own direction. "
Euripides


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RE: No video display, SuSE kernel-xen-2.6.11.4-21.7 [ In reply to ]
m+Ian.Pratt at cl
Jun 13, 2005, 11:43 AM
Post #3 of 6 (871 views)
Permalink
> This is a strange one. On upgraging to SuSE
> kernel-2.6.11.4-21.7, I have suddenly found that I loose the
> video on boot up! The video disappears very early in boot,
> possibly while Xen hypervisor is starting, printing out the
> physical memory map.

> I have also tried a xen-2.0-testing that I compiled myself
> (with the rev 1.1899 "Ensure we only handle writable
> pagetable faults taken in guest kernel") Same outcome

Odd. Please can you try the kernel that shipped with Xen 2.0.5 to see if
we can narrow down when the issue was introduced.

Are you sure you haven't got any vga related settings in your grub
config that may have changed? What graphics card do you have?

Best,
Ian

_______________________________________________
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Xen-users@lists.xensource.com
http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
Re: No video display, SuSE kernel-xen-2.6.11.4-21.7 [ In reply to ]
robbie at microbus
Jun 13, 2005, 12:17 PM
Post #4 of 6 (868 views)
Permalink
David F Barrera wrote:
>>My grub config:
>>
>>title XEN
>> kernel (hd0,0)/xen.gz dom0_mem=204800
>> module (hd0,0)/vmlinuz-xen root=/dev/system/dom0_root_hdc
>>selinux=0 splash
>
> Try adding console=tty0 to the line above
>
>
>>=silent showopts
>> module (hd0,0)/initrd-xen
>>
>

Definitely worth a try!

The new grub boot lines:

title XEN 9.3 /dev/system/root_9.3
kernel (hd0,1)/i386/xen-2.0-testing.gz dom0_mem=512000
module (hd0,1)/i386/vmlinuz-2.6.11.4-21.7-xen
root=/dev/system/root_9.3 selinux=0 splash=silent showopts console=tty0
module (hd0,1)/i386/initrd-2.6.11.4-21.7-xen

Outcome:
No change in behaviour. Screen goes black after maybe 1/5 second, no
more than that, after selecting grub boot menu item. I am testing
with the Mitac laptop here, Xen and xenlinnux are RPM's from Kurt
Garloff's web page.

There is something printed before it all goes black it's just to
quick for the eye. Maybe I could capture the screen contents with
a darkened room and a camera :)

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Re: No video display, SuSE kernel-xen-2.6.11.4-21.7 [ In reply to ]
robbie at microbus
Jun 13, 2005, 1:12 PM
Post #5 of 6 (869 views)
Permalink
Hello Ian

Ian Pratt wrote:
>
>
>
>>This is a strange one. On upgraging to SuSE
>>kernel-2.6.11.4-21.7, I have suddenly found that I loose the
>>video on boot up! The video disappears very early in boot,
>>possibly while Xen hypervisor is starting, printing out the
>>physical memory map.
>
>
>>I have also tried a xen-2.0-testing that I compiled myself
>>(with the rev 1.1899 "Ensure we only handle writable
>>pagetable faults taken in guest kernel") Same outcome
>
>
> Odd. Please can you try the kernel that shipped with Xen 2.0.5 to see if
> we can narrow down when the issue was introduced.

I have down loaded various sources and binaries from both
www.cl.cam.ac.uk and from www.suse.de/~garloff/linux/xen/ .
I will try various combinations of these tonight.

>
> Are you sure you haven't got any vga related settings in your grub
> config that may have changed?

I don't remember making any changes to the grub config, other than
specifying different xen image or dom0 kernels or dom0 root images.

Specifically I don't have a linux kernel vga=whatever command line
parameter. I believe I have been using the ordinary VGA text mode
console, not a vesa framebuffer and not one of the vga chipset
specific framebuffer drivers either ( at least not intensionally).

Part of the reason I don't use the VESA frame buffer is that I can
never remember numbers for the modes.

> What graphics card do you have?
Ah, well we are a hardware manufacturer, so we have quite a few
different types! I have to beg from from the other engineers to get
access to them though.

I have just been looking through the xen documentation to what
other command line parameters there are for xen and linux.

xen's console=
I don't have this set currently. The default looks sensible,
but maybe I should try one of the other settings?

linux's console=
I tried console=tty0 at David Barrera's suggestion, no joy though.

linux's xencons=
I am not sure I understand from the description what this does
or if it is of interest.

Robbie Dinn

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http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
Re: No video display, SuSE kernel-xen-2.6.11.4-21.7 [ In reply to ]
robbie at microbus
Jun 14, 2005, 6:04 AM
Post #6 of 6 (866 views)
Permalink
Hi,

I am going to start a new thread on xen-devel list
with some test results.

Ian Pratt wrote:
>
> Odd. Please can you try the kernel that shipped with Xen 2.0.5 to see if
> we can narrow down when the issue was introduced.
>
> Are you sure you haven't got any vga related settings in your grub
> config that may have changed? What graphics card do you have?
>
> Best,
> Ian
>
>


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