[Pkg-xen-devel] Bug#794071: "xenconsole: Could not open tty `': No such file or directory" during PV guest boot

[Andy Smith]

Package: xen-utils-common
Version: 4.4.1-9+deb8u1
Severity: normal

Dear Maintainer,

When booting a PV guest (xl create -c /etc/xen/foo.conf), immediately
after pygrub has determined which kernel/initramfs it will use, the
following error messages are logged:

xenconsole: Could not open tty `': No such file or directory
libxl: error: libxl_exec.c:118:libxl_report_child_exitstatus: console child [0] exited with error status 2

The boot does however continue normally including all expected console
output from the guest. The resulting console is perfectly usable once
the guest's login prompt is reached.

Then, once the console is exited with ctrl-], the terminal settings are
messed up such that no text is echoed and pressing return does not
advance to the next line. Terminal usability can be restored by using
"stty sane" or "reset" at this point.

Searching the web for the above error messages only reveals people who
say that xenconsoled wasn't running, however in this case xenconsoled
*is* running (and the console does work, both continuing from the "xl
create -c …" and also if connected to with "xl console …").

Here is an example guest config:

name       = "debtest1"
memory     = 1024
vif        = [ "mac=00:16:5e:00:02:39, ip=192.168.82.225, vifname=v-debtest1" ]
bootloader = "/usr/lib/xen-default/bin/pygrub"
disk       = [ "phy:/dev/vg/debtest1_xvda,xvda,w",
               "phy:/dev/vg/debtest1_xvdb,xvdb,w", ]

The kernel command line that pygrub will extract is:

linux (kernel <kernel:/boot/vmlinuz-3.16.0-4-amd64>)(ramdisk <ramdisk:/boot/initrd.img-3.16.0-4-amd64>)(args "root=UUID=bb7a41e3-67f4-436a-8a80-07ec26573360 ro console=hvc0")

however it happens with all my guests regardless of distribution or
version.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: 8.1
  APT prefers stable-updates
  APT policy: (500, 'stable-updates'), (500, 'stable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 3.16.0-4-amd64 (SMP w/16 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_GB.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_GB.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)

Versions of packages xen-utils-common depends on:
ii  lsb-base        4.1+Debian13+nmu1
ii  python          2.7.9-1
ii  ucf             3.0030
ii  udev            215-17+deb8u1
ii  xenstore-utils  4.4.1-9+deb8u1

xen-utils-common recommends no packages.

xen-utils-common suggests no packages.

-- Configuration Files:
/etc/xen/scripts/vif-route changed [not included]
/etc/xen/xl.conf changed [not included]

-- no debconf information