From owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Jul 25 15:15:38 2013 Return-Path: Delivered-To: current@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:1900:2254:206a::19:1]) (using TLSv1 with cipher ADH-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4DC202D3 for ; Thu, 25 Jul 2013 15:15:38 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from julian@freebsd.org) Received: from vps1.elischer.org (vps1.elischer.org [204.109.63.16]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 234C82E23 for ; Thu, 25 Jul 2013 15:15:37 +0000 (UTC) Received: from Julian-MBP3.local (etroy.elischer.org [121.45.226.51]) (authenticated bits=0) by vps1.elischer.org (8.14.7/8.14.6) with ESMTP id r6PFFRPY006249 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-CAMELLIA256-SHA bits=256 verify=NO) for ; Thu, 25 Jul 2013 08:15:30 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from julian@freebsd.org) Message-ID: <51F14109.4070007@freebsd.org> Date: Thu, 25 Jul 2013 23:15:21 +0800 From: Julian Elischer User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.8; rv:17.0) Gecko/20130620 Thunderbird/17.0.7 MIME-Version: 1.0 To: FreeBSD Current Subject: two Xen failures Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-BeenThere: freebsd-current@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussions about the use of FreeBSD-current List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 25 Jul 2013 15:15:38 -0000 I have a VPS on RootBSD (freebsd developer's discount). They use Xen on their vps servers. yesterday I tried to upgrade my server to -current and came across two interesting failure modes. 1/ I somehow wrote a kernel that made the loader crash when loading it (not running it). this was Not Good (TM) because the loader loads the kernel BEFORE it gets to the prompt so there was no way for me to type in the name of an alternate kernel. (actually I may have been ab;e to do it from the stage 2 loader if I could remember the syntax and hte stage 2 lader could load ELF binaries (I remember it could only do a.out .. is that still true?)) It's distressing that the loader can be made to crash from loading a misformed kernel. I still have it if anyone is still interested in pulling it apart to see what is weird about it. 2/ it is impossible for me to make a -current kernel that can mount root. it finds the drive, then it tastes it to see if there is a lable it wants, fails and then I get an infinite (apparently) set of "waiting for root device : usbus0" (or similar)messages. a kernel compiled from -current in Jan 1 this year boots just fine but I hav enot tried bisecting further (it is after all my MAIN server) I have tried a minimal kernel, a GENERIC kernel, and a XENHVM kernel. All behave the same. If I have some time I will try bisect further but I plan on asking RootBSD if htey can give me a different VPS to try fdo it on as I don't want to screw up my server.. (again). Julian