Booting XEN on Samsung ARM Chromebook with display support

Booting XEN on Samsung ARM Chromebook with display support

[Francesco Gringoli]

Hello guys,

"building" on the great work done by Anthony I was finally able to boot xen and dom0 on the Chromebook with display support.

Basically everything was already done by Anthony, the only problem was the .config file of the dom0 missing some options and a couple of files in arch/arm/mach-exynos which were crashing the boot process (by reading the dtb). Actually I was not able to address the problem in a clever way, but I fixed it so boot does not crash (almost) anymore.

What I get is dom0 booting and working, boot logs appear on the display like when running archlinux natively. The keyboard does not work as pointed out by Anthony but external does, so it is possible to log in and check /proc/xen is populated. There are two main issues

1) sometimes (very few) boot crashes, but late, e.g., after 2 secs
2) after minutes something weird happens, and it is not anymore possible to cat files' content, although ls + cd etc keep working.

I would like to add some files and info to the old wiki page (http://wiki.xenproject.org/wiki/Xen_ARM_with_Virtualization_Extensions/Chromebook) but it seems I can not edit it.

Best regards,
-Francesco

[Wiki access] Booting XEN on Samsung ARM Chromebook with display support

[Andrew Cooper]

On 14/02/2014 21:12, Francesco Gringoli wrote:
> Hello guys,
>
> "building" on the great work done by Anthony I was finally able to boot xen and dom0 on the Chromebook with display support.
>
> Basically everything was already done by Anthony, the only problem was the .config file of the dom0 missing some options and a couple of files in arch/arm/mach-exynos which were crashing the boot process (by reading the dtb). Actually I was not able to address the problem in a clever way, but I fixed it so boot does not crash (almost) anymore.
>
> What I get is dom0 booting and working, boot logs appear on the display like when running archlinux natively. The keyboard does not work as pointed out by Anthony but external does, so it is possible to log in and check /proc/xen is populated. There are two main issues
>
> 1) sometimes (very few) boot crashes, but late, e.g., after 2 secs
> 2) after minutes something weird happens, and it is not anymore possible to cat files' content, although ls + cd etc keep working.
>
> I would like to add some files and info to the old wiki page (http://wiki.xenproject.org/wiki/Xen_ARM_with_Virtualization_Extensions/Chromebook) but it seems I can not edit it.

Because of spam attacks, editing is disabled by default.

Use
http://xenproject.org/component/content/article/100-misc/145-request-to-be-made-a-wiki-editor.html
to get access.

~Andrew

Re: [Wiki access] Booting XEN on Samsung ARM Chromebook with display support

[Ian Campbell]

On Fri, 2014-02-14 at 21:18 +0000, Andrew Cooper wrote:
> On 14/02/2014 21:12, Francesco Gringoli wrote:
> > Hello guys,
> >
> > "building" on the great work done by Anthony I was finally able to boot xen and dom0 on the Chromebook with display support.
> >
> > Basically everything was already done by Anthony, the only problem was the .config file of the dom0 missing some options and a couple of files in arch/arm/mach-exynos which were crashing the boot process (by reading the dtb). Actually I was not able to address the problem in a clever way, but I fixed it so boot does not crash (almost) anymore.
> >
> > What I get is dom0 booting and working, boot logs appear on the display like when running archlinux natively. The keyboard does not work as pointed out by Anthony but external does, so it is possible to log in and check /proc/xen is populated. There are two main issues
> >
> > 1) sometimes (very few) boot crashes, but late, e.g., after 2 secs
> > 2) after minutes something weird happens, and it is not anymore possible to cat files' content, although ls + cd etc keep working.
> >
> > I would like to add some files and info to the old wiki page (http://wiki.xenproject.org/wiki/Xen_ARM_with_Virtualization_Extensions/Chromebook) but it seems I can not edit it.
> 
> Because of spam attacks, editing is disabled by default.
> 
> Use
> http://xenproject.org/component/content/article/100-misc/145-request-to-be-made-a-wiki-editor.html
> to get access.

FYI I saw the result of this and added write perms for Francesco on
Saturday.

Ian.

Re: Booting XEN on Samsung ARM Chromebook with display support

[Stefano Stabellini]

On Fri, 14 Feb 2014, Francesco Gringoli wrote:
> Hello guys,
> 
> "building" on the great work done by Anthony I was finally able to boot xen and dom0 on the Chromebook with display support.
> 
> Basically everything was already done by Anthony, the only problem was the .config file of the dom0 missing some options and a couple of files in arch/arm/mach-exynos which were crashing the boot process (by reading the dtb). Actually I was not able to address the problem in a clever way, but I fixed it so boot does not crash (almost) anymore.
> 
> What I get is dom0 booting and working, boot logs appear on the display like when running archlinux natively. The keyboard does not work as pointed out by Anthony but external does, so it is possible to log in and check /proc/xen is populated. There are two main issues
> 
> 1) sometimes (very few) boot crashes, but late, e.g., after 2 secs
> 2) after minutes something weird happens, and it is not anymore possible to cat files' content, although ls + cd etc keep working.
> 
> I would like to add some files and info to the old wiki page (http://wiki.xenproject.org/wiki/Xen_ARM_with_Virtualization_Extensions/Chromebook) but it seems I can not edit it.

Great job! Please do request access and update the wiki.

Anthony's branches are quite old now, many bugs have been discovered and
fixed in the upstream Xen and Linux trees in the meantime.
Although I expect that updating the Xen tree could be difficult at this
point, it is probably worth it from the stability point of view.

Re: Booting XEN on Samsung ARM Chromebook with display support

[Ian Campbell]

On Sun, 2014-02-16 at 12:56 +0000, Stefano Stabellini wrote:
> On Fri, 14 Feb 2014, Francesco Gringoli wrote:
> > Hello guys,
> > 
> > "building" on the great work done by Anthony I was finally able to boot xen and dom0 on the Chromebook with display support.
> > 
> > Basically everything was already done by Anthony, the only problem was the .config file of the dom0 missing some options and a couple of files in arch/arm/mach-exynos which were crashing the boot process (by reading the dtb). Actually I was not able to address the problem in a clever way, but I fixed it so boot does not crash (almost) anymore.
> > 
> > What I get is dom0 booting and working, boot logs appear on the display like when running archlinux natively. The keyboard does not work as pointed out by Anthony but external does, so it is possible to log in and check /proc/xen is populated. There are two main issues
> > 
> > 1) sometimes (very few) boot crashes, but late, e.g., after 2 secs
> > 2) after minutes something weird happens, and it is not anymore possible to cat files' content, although ls + cd etc keep working.
> > 
> > I would like to add some files and info to the old wiki page (http://wiki.xenproject.org/wiki/Xen_ARM_with_Virtualization_Extensions/Chromebook) but it seems I can not edit it.
> 
> Great job!

Yes, very nice.

>  Please do request access and update the wiki.
> 
> Anthony's branches are quite old now, many bugs have been discovered and
> fixed in the upstream Xen and Linux trees in the meantime.
> Although I expect that updating the Xen tree could be difficult at this
> point, it is probably worth it from the stability point of view.

I agree, ideally the tree would be rebased and whatever needed to be
(and could be) would be upstreamed. I've no idea what the divergence is
like, but at least in principal supporting a "new" platform with the
modern mainline code ought to be loads easier than it was back when
Anthony started work on this stuff.

Ian.

Re: Booting XEN on Samsung ARM Chromebook with display support

[Francesco Gringoli]

On Feb 18, 2014, at 11:21 AM, Ian Campbell <Ian.Campbell@citrix.com> wrote:

> On Sun, 2014-02-16 at 12:56 +0000, Stefano Stabellini wrote:
>> On Fri, 14 Feb 2014, Francesco Gringoli wrote:
>>> Hello guys,
>>> 
>>> "building" on the great work done by Anthony I was finally able to boot xen and dom0 on the Chromebook with display support.
>>> 
>>> Basically everything was already done by Anthony, the only problem was the .config file of the dom0 missing some options and a couple of files in arch/arm/mach-exynos which were crashing the boot process (by reading the dtb). Actually I was not able to address the problem in a clever way, but I fixed it so boot does not crash (almost) anymore.
>>> 
>>> What I get is dom0 booting and working, boot logs appear on the display like when running archlinux natively. The keyboard does not work as pointed out by Anthony but external does, so it is possible to log in and check /proc/xen is populated. There are two main issues
>>> 
>>> 1) sometimes (very few) boot crashes, but late, e.g., after 2 secs
>>> 2) after minutes something weird happens, and it is not anymore possible to cat files' content, although ls + cd etc keep working.
>>> 
>>> I would like to add some files and info to the old wiki page (http://wiki.xenproject.org/wiki/Xen_ARM_with_Virtualization_Extensions/Chromebook) but it seems I can not edit it.
>> 
>> Great job!
> 
> Yes, very nice.
> 
>> Please do request access and update the wiki.
>> 
>> Anthony's branches are quite old now, many bugs have been discovered and
>> fixed in the upstream Xen and Linux trees in the meantime.
>> Although I expect that updating the Xen tree could be difficult at this
>> point, it is probably worth it from the stability point of view.
> 
> I agree, ideally the tree would be rebased and whatever needed to be
> (and could be) would be upstreamed. I've no idea what the divergence is
> like, but at least in principal supporting a "new" platform with the
> modern mainline code ought to be loads easier than it was back when
> Anthony started work on this stuff.
I updated the page. I'm starting working on latest Xen only (at the moment) to make it booting old Linux tree described in the page.

Keep you posted.
-Francesco

Re: Booting XEN on Samsung ARM Chromebook with display support

[Ian Campbell]

On Tue, 2014-02-18 at 12:48 +0100, Francesco Gringoli wrote:
> I updated the page. I'm starting working on latest Xen only (at the
> moment) to make it booting old Linux tree described in the page.

Awesome, thank you!
Ian

Re: Booting XEN on Samsung ARM Chromebook with display support

[Held Bier]

2014-02-18 15:48 GMT+04:00 Francesco Gringoli <francesco.gringoli@ing.unibs.it>:
> On Feb 18, 2014, at 11:21 AM, Ian Campbell <Ian.Campbell@citrix.com> wrote:
>
>> On Sun, 2014-02-16 at 12:56 +0000, Stefano Stabellini wrote:
>>> On Fri, 14 Feb 2014, Francesco Gringoli wrote:
>>>> Hello guys,
>>>>
>>>> "building" on the great work done by Anthony I was finally able to boot xen and dom0 on the Chromebook with display support.
>>>>
>>>> Basically everything was already done by Anthony, the only problem was the .config file of the dom0 missing some options and a couple of files in arch/arm/mach-exynos which were crashing the boot process (by reading the dtb). Actually I was not able to address the problem in a clever way, but I fixed it so boot does not crash (almost) anymore.
>>>>
>>>> What I get is dom0 booting and working, boot logs appear on the display like when running archlinux natively. The keyboard does not work as pointed out by Anthony but external does, so it is possible to log in and check /proc/xen is populated. There are two main issues
>>>>
>>>> 1) sometimes (very few) boot crashes, but late, e.g., after 2 secs
>>>> 2) after minutes something weird happens, and it is not anymore possible to cat files' content, although ls + cd etc keep working.
>>>>
>>>> I would like to add some files and info to the old wiki page (http://wiki.xenproject.org/wiki/Xen_ARM_with_Virtualization_Extensions/Chromebook) but it seems I can not edit it.
>>>
>>> Great job!
>>
>> Yes, very nice.
>>
>>> Please do request access and update the wiki.
>>>
>>> Anthony's branches are quite old now, many bugs have been discovered and
>>> fixed in the upstream Xen and Linux trees in the meantime.
>>> Although I expect that updating the Xen tree could be difficult at this
>>> point, it is probably worth it from the stability point of view.
>>
>> I agree, ideally the tree would be rebased and whatever needed to be
>> (and could be) would be upstreamed. I've no idea what the divergence is
>> like, but at least in principal supporting a "new" platform with the
>> modern mainline code ought to be loads easier than it was back when
>> Anthony started work on this stuff.

> I updated the page. I'm starting working on latest Xen only (at the moment) to make it booting old Linux tree described in the page.
>
> Keep you posted.

Big kudos for your job, and thanks for keep working!

> -Francesco