FreeBSD under VMware ESXi ARM Fling

Mon Oct 19 23:49:50 UTC 2020

According to the ESXi devs, there is no SIO controller currently, and I
believe this is required for the virtual serial ports to work
https://flings.vmware.com/esxi-arm-edition/bugs/1104

I'm not sure about debugging through ESXi. I'll forward these questions to
them and see what they say.

On Mon, Oct 19, 2020 at 1:52 PM Robert Crowston <crowston at protonmail.com>
wrote:

> My initial hypothesis was wrong.
>
> I had meant, can you provide a text copy of the dmesg (collected from a
> serial port!)!
>
> But, from the video, it seems that as soon as we get to the Release APs
> phase, there is some race condition that is causing text to be concurrently
> written to the screen by multiple processors--you can see it becomes
> garbled. KDB is entered shortly before the "Release APs..." is printed to
> the screen, but text continues to be written to the console. [We don't
> really know in what order these events happen, though.] A panic() is
> triggered within a few moments. At this point, we enter termcn_cnputc(),
> and violate a KASSERT in __mtx_lock_spin_flags. This causes a recursive
> panic.
>
> For me the next logical step would be to attach a debugger to the guest
> process. Any idea if ESXi ARM allows debug or single stepping of guests?
>
>     -- RHC.
>
> On Mon, Oct 19, 2020 at 20:19, Vincent Milum Jr <freebsd-arm at darkain.com>
> wrote:
>
> > I'm not too familiar with the FreeBSD kernel itself. Here is a recording
> of booting the VM from the 13.0 2020-10-15 Snapshot ISO. There are a few
> different outcomes that seem to randomly happen when booting.
> >
> > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ls9gkQ14Z-A
> >
> > On Mon, Oct 19, 2020 at 11:49 AM Robert Crowston <
> crowston at protonmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > > > The largest issue currently is that SMP will cause the FreeBSD
> kernel to
> > > panic during boot.
> > >
> > > Could you send the panic?
> > >
> > > I’m guessing lack of spintable support.
> > >
> > >     — RHC.
> > >
> > > On Mon, Oct 19, 2020 at 07:19, Vincent Milum Jr <
> freebsd-arm at darkain.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > > Recently, VMware released what they're calling "ESXi ARM Fling" - an
> > > > ARM64/Aarch64 version of VMware ESXi server.
> > > >
> > > > Details of the release along with the download can be found here:
> > > > https://flings.vmware.com/esxi-arm-edition
> > > >
> > > > They support a number of ARM platforms already, most notably is the
> > > > Raspberry Pi
> > > > 4 (only 4GB and 8GB models). They have instructions on their site on
> how to
> > > > install and configure the UEFI firmware on the Pi for getting the
> ESXi
> > > > installer
> > > > and then ESXi itself up and running.
> > > >
> > > > UEFI builds of FreeBSD ARM64/Aarch64 mostly work "out of the box"
> under ESXi
> > > > ARM, whereas ARM 32-bit kernels are not supported by any guest OS
> under ESXi
> > > > ARM.
> > > >
> > > > There are, however, some areas that could use some improvement, or
> need some
> > > > massive work to get working.
> > > >
> > > > The largest issue currently is that SMP will cause the FreeBSD
> kernel to
> > > > panic
> > > > during boot. A VM with only one single vCPU however will boot and
> run just
> > > > fine.
> > > >
> > > > Prior to the 13.0-CURRENT snapshot 2020-10-15, the CD-Rom driver was
> not
> > > > included with the ARM64 builds, so the ISO would fail to mount
> itself on
> > > > boot. This
> > > > means the easiest way to try earlier versions, such as 12.1-RELEASE,
> you'll
> > > > need
> > > > to either convert the pre-built vmdk file from Workstation to ESXi
> format,
> > > > or
> > > > convert the raw disk image to ESXi vmdk format. This is how I
> initially got
> > > > FreeBSD up and running prior to the 2020-10-15 snapshot.
> > > >
> > > > Every version of FreeBSD I've tested on ARM is lacking several
> drivers by
> > > > default.
> > > >
> > > > uhci for USB 2.0 is not enabled by default. Ensure your VM is
> initially set
> > > > up
> > > > for USB 3.1 so the virtual keyboard and mouse will function. This is
> easy
> > > > enough
> > > > to fix post install with: uhci_load="YES"
> > > >
> > > > ums is the same as above. ESXi ARM uses USB instead of PS2 for the
> virtual
> > > > mouse, so add this post install if you want mouse support:
> ums_load="YES"
> > > >
> > > > vmxnet and pvscsi are not pre-compiled. However, they compile and
> operate
> > > > perfectly as expected without any modification on ARM.
> > > >
> > > > vmci has some x86 assembly that I've not dug into yet, so that is
> currently
> > > > not
> > > > working.
> > > >
> > > > I've documented in detail, and continue to update as I test more
> drivers
> > > > over on
> > > > my blog:
> > > >
> https://vincerants.com/freebsd-on-esxi-arm-fling-fixing-virtual-hardware/
> > > >
> > > > The ESXi UI has a known bug in that it'll list some virtual hardware
> that
> > > > doesn't actually exist inside of the VM. These are all legacy
> devices, and
> > > > should be easy enough to figure out. There are no virtual IDE/ATA or
> PS2
> > > > ports.
> > > > Keyboard and mouse now use the virtual USB controller instead.
> > > >
> > > > open-vm-tools has required a bit of work to make functional on
> FreeBSD under
> > > > ARM. There is currently a patch open with VMware with my changes to
> the
> > > > codebase
> > > > to make it functional. To make things easy, I've uploaded some
> pre-compiled
> > > > binaries to my blog, as well as included steps to compile this
> customized
> > > > package yourself. The blog will also be updated as development
> progresses
> > > > upstream with VMware.
> > > >
> https://vincerants.com/open-vm-tools-on-freebsd-under-vmware-esxi-arm-fling/
> > > >
> > > > Xorg desktop runs, and is mostly functional. I've yet to get the
> > > > xf86-input-vmmouse or xf86-video-vmware working. Xorg can use
> sysmouse and
> > > > the
> > > > console framebuffer for rendering, and this is working okay for basic
> > > > testing
> > > > right now.
> > > >
> > > > I also have an early dmesg, but this was from before getting most
> drivers
> > > > working.
> > > > https://dmesgd.nycbug.org/index.cgi?do=view&id=5693
> > > >
> > > > I welcome any additional feedback on getting FreeBSD to 100% under
> ESXi ARM!
> > > >
> > > > - Vince (darkain)
> > > > _______________________________________________
> > > > freebsd-arm at freebsd.org mailing list
> > > > https://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-arm
> > > > To unsubscribe, send any mail to "
> freebsd-arm-unsubscribe at freebsd.org"
>