Re: Xen 4.18 doesn't display on an iDRAC-6 console, and NetBSD console=pc locks up early in boot

[Manuel Bouyer <bouyer%antioche.eu.org@localhost>]

On Thu, Jan 11, 2024 at 11:16:34AM -0800, Greg A. Woods wrote:
> At Thu, 11 Jan 2024 17:45:43 +0100, Manuel Bouyer <bouyer%antioche.eu.org@localhost> wrote:
> Subject: Re: Xen 4.18 doesn't display on an iDRAC-6 console, and NetBSD console=pc locks up early in boot
> >
> > > 1. Xen does not display anything on the console.
> >
> > I've set up Xen on a newer system and didn't have issue with the VGA
> > console. In by case it was a UEFI setup though.
> > Are you using UEFI or legacy BIOS ?
> 
> I'm pretty sure it is using the legacy BIOS.
> 
> The machine is a Dell PE R510, and the original install was done quite
> some years ago when NetBSD-7.0 was in vogue.
> 
> Since I can't seem to send an attachment to the list at the moment I'll
> just mention that the lockup always seems to occur just after:
> 
> 	Xen vcpu0 clock: using event channel 14
> 	entropy: hardclock attached [[...]] (collecting)
> 	entropy: cpu0 attached [[...]] (off)
> 
> pckbc0 and the resulting wskbd0 have already attached just beforehand,
> but without a video recording (*) I don't know what's happened further
> back.
> 
> (*) too bad that idrac java app can't record the console as video, as
> after all that's basically what it's receiving -- it even shows the
> frames-per-second count.
> 
> > Did you try playing with the various vga= options to Xen ?
> 
> Yes, all to no avail.
> 
> I do get the menu with "vga=ask", and I can interact with /xen to choose
> different options, and some actually seem to change the display, but
> nothing I tried allowed either the "(XEN)" messages to appear, nor to
> prevent /netbsd from locking up during boot.
> 
> > With vga=keep Xen would then display the dom0's kernel message, but you
> > can't input anything to the dom0's kernel.
> 
> Sorry, I meant:
> 
>        vga=current
> 
> (which is what I have on my working /boot.cfg line)
> 
> > > I'm guessing that with "/xen console=com1,vga" that the hypervisor hides
> > > the com0 from the dom0.
> >
> > yes, that's it. But you should see the Xen boot messages on com0 then
> > (and the dom0's boot messages with comsole=xencons)
> 
> If only I had a serial console connection to that machine.....
> 
> (With the Dell iDRAC I'm told it could be possible to do IPMI SOL, but
> unfortunately the iDRAC is on a private network which I only have access
> to via an SSH tunnel, and as a result it is difficult to impossible to
> get that to work.)

On the idrac I use, I can ssh to the idrac and use 'console com2' or
'connect com2' to connect to the internal serial port

The only issue is to find the right BIOS setting to redirect what
Xen thinks is com1 to the internal serial port.

-- 
Manuel Bouyer <bouyer%antioche.eu.org@localhost>
     NetBSD: 26 ans d'experience feront toujours la difference
--