Created attachment 178271 [details]
output hwinfo --all

Server: Fujitsu-Siemens Primergy RX200S3, XEON 2Mhz, LSI MeaRaid SAS controller configured as Raid 1 for 2x73 GB SAS hd, Matrox MGA G200e SE P1 vidoe controller.
[FYI: Fedora 7 XEN 3.1 worked fine, despite minor problems with screen resolution and refresh rate.]

Installing openSuse 10.3 with XEN and restarting the PC in order to boot into XEN resulted in a hard crash. The last visible line on the console read "Loading CPUFreq modules (CPUFreq not supported)", preceeded by segfault messages from boot.cleanup (line 23), then syslog, acpid, KonsoleKit, HAL deamon. Based on earlier experiments I suspect earlyxdm to have crashed.

I booted knoppix and secured /var/log, see attachment var-log-copy. A subsequent boot into 10.3 non-XEN worked fine. I changed inittab to runlevel 3.

Subsequently booting into XEN resulted in a segfault of auditd (line 98) and in the message "starting xend" without further info. The console did not work well: hitting enter brought chunks of output indicating that the boot process had reached a sort of runlevel 3, but no meaningful work was possible. However, ctrl-alt-F2 produced a working login screen. As root I issued then init 5 with the same result: hard crash.

The subsequent boot into XEN went without a single segfault message, but with a mysterious line "starting xend .... missing". Again the console stalled. Using F2, I logged in as user xenadm and issued startx. The first green background screen with openSuse in the middle arrived, but at that stage the system freezed.

I booted knoppix again and copied /var/log, see var-log-copy2. In this shapshot the "old" messages refer to the first attempt to boot into XEN with runlevel 3. I removed the empty folders and files and the irrelevant mail-related files.


This run of installing openSuse 10.3 with XEN served the generation of attachments. My previous experiments show the same pattern: non-reproducible segfaults already before and after runlevel 3. Only the crash occurs reliably when starting the display manager or window manager.

The non-reproducibility of the segfaults suggests that XEN and X are (may be) innocent. The culprit is probably a missing initialisation of a hardware register, a pointer, a memory map, etc. somewhere at an earlier stage. The fact that Fedora 7 with the same (major) version of XEN (3.1) works reliably points in the same direction. That's why I am posting this problem independently from the others I looked at: 297441, 312010, 299623, 300496. Please reclassify.

I am ready to perform whatever tests you want me to do if you are short of test servers. Unfortunately I can do that only after the 22nd of October, next week I'll be on the rails. That's why I am providing many attachments (compressed ones as well, sorry), perhaps you will need them.

When I am back the boxed version of 10.3 will be available in Vienna. I will repeat the tests, just to be absolutely sure that there is nothing wrong with the self-burned DVD. However, I have no reason to worry, all checks were O.K.


Best regards,
Greg Erdoedy