Re: another xen-kernel UEFI story

> Op 12 aug. 2021, om 09:01 heeft Roger Pau Monné <royger@freebsd.org> het volgende geschreven:
> 
> Adding the freebsd-xen mailing list again.
> 
> On Wed, Aug 11, 2021 at 12:48:55AM +0200, Lizbeth Mutterhunt, Ph.D wrote:
>> Op Tuesday, 10 August 2021 15:32:45 CEST schreef u:
>>> On Tue, Aug 10, 2021 at 02:41:34PM +0200, lizbethmutterhunt@gmail.com
>> wrote:
>>>> Op Tuesday, 10 August 2021 09:38:58 CEST schreef u:
>>>>> On Mon, Aug 09, 2021 at 05:23:27PM +0200, lizbethmutterhunt@gmail.com
>> wrote:
>>>>>> could someone pleas check this link:
>>>>>> 
>> https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/xen-kernel-doesnt-start-at-all.8155
>>>>>> 6/
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> does anyone has another idea then duplicating CURRENT and RELEASE
>> via
>>>>>> Virtualbox or qemu?
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> XEN simply doesn't boot after setting xen_kernel on in
>>>>>> /boot/loader.conf,
>>>>>> we tried different ways but none worked. It's loading [text],
>> [data],
>>>>>> [syms] and the preconfig but afterwards there's just the
>> reset-button
>>>>>> option, because XEN doesn't boot.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> any help appreciated!
>>>>> 
>>>>> Hello,
>>>> 
>>>> hello royger!
>> hija!
>> 
Hello Roger!

>>>> 
>>>>> There are a couple of things to look at, first of all, do you have a
>>>>> serial console attached to the box?
>>>> 
>>>> I guess so, because there are two possibilities to start from via
>> primary
>>>> and secodary console!
>>> 
>>> The serial console is a port (usually a RS-232) on your box that you
>>> attach a cable to and connect to another computer, so you can get
>>> early text debug output:
>>> 
>>> https://www.computerhope.com/jargon/s/serial-console.htm
>>> https://tldp.org/HOWTO/Remote-Serial-Console-HOWTO/intro-why.html
>> Basically I know the RS-232 "live" in the 80s, and I was soldering a earth-
>> cable to connect two PCs without any swith via a deviate of Midnight
>> Commander. So first thought, enable serial port in bios; computer crashing
>> at
>> xen and crashes when allocating the re0. so disabled again!
> 
> I 'm afraid I'm a bit lost here, so your computer does have some kind
> of serial port?

No, no RS-232 output of course but a parallel and serial console in the BIOS! I activated the serial port and got in troubles with booting; beasties logo has been disabled, so no boot menu to unset the xen_xernel at boot prompt. XEN never booted anyway.

> Do you mean that when you enable the serial port in BIOS (I assume a
> Serial Over LAN)
Yup!
> the re0 network interface stops working. 
Yes, at the dhclient allocations it stops immediately with no output or debugger info at all. Also the keyboard was disabled and I couldn’t press CTRL+C for avoiding DHCPREQUEST.  
>> 
>>> There also some boxes that have a virtual serial console like Intel
>>> AMT Serial Over LAN:
>>> 
>>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Active_Management_Technology
>> I guess my active management is on or there's no way to enable it in the
>> BIOS
>> (ASUS P8H77M-Pro); pitty, there's no search function in the advanced bios.
>> 
>> I managed to watch BTX with 4 years and with 8 I got my first original IBM
>> PC
>> and compatible. the C64 was later in my development and I'm atoning all my
>> problem adolescence in front of the SNES here with my shell commands. Would
>> I
>> just have been become a gamer, I'm considering all the time at that point
>> of
>> regression with a problem. But they do have there own, I think!
>> 
>>> If you can setup one of those it would be handy in figuring it what's
>>> wrong, since the serial is initialized way before than the VGA adapter
>>> and could contain a message detailing what went wrong.
>> yes! yes! yes! do I need a second computer for it? I could modify my Raspi
>> 4b
>> for that or an old notebook! but I think it is a simple .log file
>> somewhere.
> 
> Sure, you just need something at the other end of the serial (null
> modem) cable. Whether it's an old laptop or a raspberry pi doesn't
> make much of a difference.
> 
I make myself a bit trusted with the matter RS-232 and not sure how to connect those two PCs… when there’s some outcome for me today, I do my best tomorrow, ok?

> Regards, Roger.
Best regards, 
Lizbeth