KVM causes kernel panics ?

jan_goyvaerts · 2013-07-16 09:23:38

I'm not 100% sure about KVM being the cause - but it surely looks that running my Mint 14 client freezes the machine after a while. No way to get out of it without hard reset. I guess I can't do this too often without messing up the filesystem.

It's a Dell Precision M4500 - both the caps lock and scroll lock are flashing at the same rhythm. If I'm right this means a kernel panic. A first for me for Linux. (Before that it was in the dark ages of Unix. :-)

Unfortunately I have no clue where to look to give more info. If somebody can give me a hint where to look ?

And IF this is a known problem to anyone, is there a fix, workaround, ... for mortal users ? :-)

Thanks !

Jan

jan_goyvaerts · 2013-07-16 10:51:43

And a third panic when trying to make a Mint 15 client.

Strange thing is it doesn't happen with windows clients. :-)

Lone_Wolf · 2013-07-16 12:14:57

for clarification, archlinux is your qemu host ? (kvm is now integrated in qemu, if you're still using kvm without qemu, upgrade first!)

Check /var/log/kernel.log after reboot, it should have some clues as to what happened.

Last edited by Lone_Wolf (2013-07-16 12:15:16)

jan_goyvaerts · 2013-07-16 12:38:57

Perhaps related to this ?

https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/35980

The host is a fully updated Arch indeed; 64bit. The guest's details:

Hypervisor: KVM
Architecture: x86_64
Emulator: /usr/sbin/qemu-system-x86_64 (/usr/sbin is a symlink to /usr/bin)

kernel.log is empty. As are most of the other log files:

drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Jul 16 03:43 cups
-rw-r----- 1 root log 0 Jul 16 03:43 user.log
-rw-r----- 1 root log 0 Jul 16 03:43 syslog.log
-rw-r----- 1 root log 0 Jul 16 03:43 messages.log
-rw-r----- 1 root log 0 Jul 16 03:43 kernel.log
-rw-r----- 1 root log 0 Jul 16 03:43 everything.log
-rw-r----- 1 root log 0 Jul 16 03:43 errors.log
-rw-r----- 1 root log 0 Jul 16 03:43 daemon.log
-rw-r----- 1 root log 0 Jul 16 03:43 crond.log
-rw-r----- 1 root log 0 Jul 16 03:43 auth.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 30925 Jul 16 11:02 Xorg.0.log.old
-rw-r----- 1 root root 3258 Jul 16 12:19 lxdm.log.old
-rw-r----- 1 root root 2880 Jul 16 12:21 lxdm.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 30925 Jul 16 12:21 Xorg.0.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 415438 Jul 16 12:21 pm-powersave.log
-rw-rw-r-- 1 root utmp 897024 Jul 16 14:19 wtmp
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 365847 Jul 16 14:22 pacman.log

~/.virt-manager/virt-manager.log shown nothing special. You can see the creation of the vm and the startup. But that's it.

alphaniner · 2013-07-16 13:28:44

jan_goyvaerts wrote:

Perhaps related to this ?
https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/35980

Are you using pci-passthrough? That's not something you use without knowing about it.

kernel.log is empty. As are most of the other log files:
<a bunch of stuff that should be in a code block>

I have nothing to say about this, I just wanted to snipe at your lack of code tags...

Just kidding. How come you don't have a journal directory? Or if you do, did you check it?

~/.virt-manager/virt-manager.log shown nothing special. You can see the creation of the vm and the startup. But that's it.

Tried without virt-manager? I've never known it to cause a panic - just a whole lot of headaches - but at least you'll know exactly how the machine is being 'provisioned'. Maybe you can know this with virt-manager, I just didn't use it for long due to aforementioned headaches.

jan_goyvaerts · 2013-07-16 13:54:05

Are you using pci-passthrough? That's not something you use without knowing about it.

I don't know, so I presume it's okay then ? ;-)

Usually I'm not afraid of hacking the system. But the kernel and vm stuff is a out of my league. Especially when they cause kernel panics. Hence my call for help.

I hope I didn't miss a required change after updating...

Tried without virt-manager? I've never known it to cause a panic - just a whole lot of headaches - but at least you'll know exactly how the machine is being 'provisioned'. Maybe you can know this with virt-manager, I just didn't use it for long due to aforementioned headaches.

You mean virsh ? I didn't thought about that. I'll try once my current work is done. Otherwise I'll risk losing my work here ! :-)

I have no complaints about VirtManager. I'm especially fond of it BECAUSE it's out of my league. Filling in the blanks and there you go !

jan_goyvaerts · 2013-07-16 15:36:27

If somebody has a clue, it would be VERY welcome. Because each failed try corrupts the file system.

--------------------

It seems to be consistent behavior for Linux guests only. After a short period of time the whole lot crashes. Never had this before ! Windows guests have no such a problem.

As far as I can tell there's nothing in the logs to explain the problem. Not even in /var/log/libvirt/qemu. It shows the machine starting and that's it.

This is what I have in /var/log

$ ls -ltr
total 2016
-rw-r--r-- 1 root  root    7285 Sep 26  2012 pm-suspend.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root  root   59215 Nov 19  2012 dmesg.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root  root  112026 Nov 19  2012 boot
drwxr-xr-x 2 root  root    4096 Jan 16 09:21 audit
drwxr-xr-x 2 root  root    4096 Mar 14 20:20 old
drwxr-xr-x 5 root  root    4096 Apr  1 12:15 libvirt
drwxr-xr-x 2 root  root    4096 Jun  3 10:42 ConsoleKit
-rw-r--r-- 1 mysql mysql      0 Jun 21 11:52 mysql.error.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root  root       0 Jun 21 13:41 mysql.log
-rw------- 1 root  utmp       0 Jul  1 03:36 btmp
drwxr-xr-x 2 root  root    4096 Jul 16 03:43 cups
-rw-r----- 1 root  log        0 Jul 16 03:43 user.log
-rw-r----- 1 root  log        0 Jul 16 03:43 syslog.log
-rw-r----- 1 root  log        0 Jul 16 03:43 messages.log
-rw-r----- 1 root  log        0 Jul 16 03:43 kernel.log
-rw-r----- 1 root  log        0 Jul 16 03:43 everything.log
-rw-r----- 1 root  log        0 Jul 16 03:43 errors.log
-rw-r----- 1 root  log        0 Jul 16 03:43 daemon.log
-rw-r----- 1 root  log        0 Jul 16 03:43 crond.log
-rw-r----- 1 root  log        0 Jul 16 03:43 auth.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root  root  365847 Jul 16 14:22 pacman.log
drwxr-xr-x 3 root  root    4096 Jul 16 16:22 journal
-rw------- 1 root  root   32064 Jul 16 16:33 faillog
-rw-r--r-- 1 root  root  292584 Jul 16 16:33 lastlog
-rw-r----- 1 root  root    2880 Jul 16 16:59 lxdm.log.old
-rw-r--r-- 1 root  root   30931 Jul 16 16:59 Xorg.0.log.old
-rw-r----- 1 root  root    2880 Jul 16 17:20 lxdm.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root  root   30928 Jul 16 17:20 Xorg.0.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root  root  427168 Jul 16 17:20 pm-powersave.log
-rw-rw-r-- 1 root  utmp  912384 Jul 16 17:20 wtmp

Tried without virt-manager? I've never known it to cause a panic - just a whole lot of headaches - but at least you'll know exactly how the machine is being 'provisioned'. Maybe you can know this with virt-manager, I just didn't use it for long due to aforementioned headaches.

Same result with virsh unfortunately. Even without bringing up the VM in a window.

jan_goyvaerts · 2013-07-17 09:58:20

I'm afraid something else is going on my system. I just had a kernel panic without even using KVM. Something related to dconf. Probably the file system or harddisk has faults.

DeletedUser210616 · 2013-07-28 03:17:55

I have been getting lockups since i deployed KVM 2 weeks ago or so. IDK what is going on, im just testing CPUs and kernel builds atm

Pse · 2013-07-28 04:28:10

I don't know if this is related, but I am getting full host hardlocks (Sysrq not working, sound looping) when using the VMVGA graphics card in guests, so you may want to change that if you're using it. Cirrus and standard VGA seem to work fine.

DeletedUser210616 · 2013-07-28 18:28:33

I switched the CPU on my VM from 2 cores to 1 and it seems to be a bit more stable, so far.

i also have

/sys/module/vhost_net/parameters/experimental_zcopytx=1

atm as well

Last edited by DeletedUser210616 (2013-07-29 00:52:34)

DeletedUser210616 · 2013-07-29 00:52:18

/sys/module/vhost_net/parameters/experimental_zcopytx=0

didnt fix it for me ; testing linux-lts

Linux-LTS seemed to help, BTW

Last edited by DeletedUser210616 (2013-09-21 19:04:04)

Arch Linux

#1 2013-07-16 09:23:38

KVM causes kernel panics ?

#2 2013-07-16 10:51:43

Re: KVM causes kernel panics ?

#3 2013-07-16 12:14:57

Re: KVM causes kernel panics ?

#4 2013-07-16 12:38:57

Re: KVM causes kernel panics ?

#5 2013-07-16 13:28:44

Re: KVM causes kernel panics ?

#6 2013-07-16 13:54:05

Re: KVM causes kernel panics ?

#7 2013-07-16 15:36:27

Re: KVM causes kernel panics ?

#8 2013-07-17 09:58:20

Re: KVM causes kernel panics ?

#9 2013-07-28 03:17:55

Re: KVM causes kernel panics ?

#10 2013-07-28 04:28:10

Re: KVM causes kernel panics ?

#11 2013-07-28 18:28:33

Re: KVM causes kernel panics ?

#12 2013-07-29 00:52:18

Re: KVM causes kernel panics ?

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