kvm modules not autoloaded on ppc64el

[Steve Langasek]

[Impact]
on ppc64el, the kvm modules are not autoloaded. The qemu-system-x86 package contains an init script that loads the kvm modules for the platform, but there is no corresponding init script for ppc64el, where the kvm-hv module needs to be loaded.

[Test Case]
Install qemu, reboot and ensure kvm-hv module is loaded.

[Regression Potential]
This adjusts the upstart scripts to do what a user would have to normally do manually.

[Serge Hallyn (serge-hallyn)]

Seems like the best thing would be to move qemu-system-x86.qemu-kvm.upstart to qemu-system-common.qemu-kvm.upstart (and same with .default and .init) and have the jobs check for the right architectures.

[Steve Langasek (vorlon)]

On Tue, Sep 16, 2014 at 02:43:08PM -0000, Serge Hallyn wrote:
> Seems like the best thing would be to move qemu-system-x86.qemu-
> kvm.upstart to qemu-system-common.qemu-kvm.upstart (and same with
> .default and .init) and have the jobs check for the right architectures.

Note that currently qemu-system-x86 ships an init script named
qemu-system-x86 and an upstart job named qemu-kvm. These need to be made
consistent. On Ubuntu, we're currently running *both* of them at boot time.

I'm not convinced that it's better to name it qemu-kvm and put it in a
common package, than to have each native arch-specific package to ship its
own. These startup scripts are dead weight on other architectures, better
to optimize them out at package build time.

[Serge Hallyn (serge-hallyn)]

We can become more clever about the packaging later, but this proposed debdiff should
   1. clean up the old qemu-system-x86 sysvinit job
   2. install a qemu-kvm upstart job on ppcc64le

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package qemu - 2.1+dfsg-4ubuntu4

---------------
qemu (2.1+dfsg-4ubuntu4) utopic; urgency=medium

  * debian/qemu-system-x86.qemu-kvm.upstart: create /dev/kvm in a
    container. (LP: #1370199)
  * load kvm module on ppc64le at boot (LP: #1369785)
    - debian/rules: install qemu-kvm on ppc64el
    - add debian/qemu-system-ppc.qemu-kvm.{upstart,default} to autoload the
      kvm-hv module if available
  * qemu-system-x86.maintscript: remove accidentally installed
    /etc/init.d/qemu-system-x86 (from 2.0.0+dfsg-6ubuntu1 and a few earlier)
  * rename qemu-system-x86 init script to qemu-kvm so it gets installed in
    ubuntu.
 -- Serge Hallyn <email address hidden> Wed, 17 Sep 2014 14:20:12 -0500

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[ChristianEhrhardt (paelzer)]

Hi Jorge,
I saw you updating this long dormant issue, also I saw smoser updating a dup to this on the same day. I assume there was something triggering this.

Please do mind that all the fixes that were made >=Utopic only are for the kvm-hv module.
It seems that second level kvm-pr based virtualization is always a bit "less encouraged" and for that no auto-loading is in place. This was before my time, but in some sense that serves a bit as a "please do know what you do" barrier and could be ok.

That said, are you working on backporting and preparing the fix for Trusty (since you assigned yourself)?

[ChristianEhrhardt (paelzer)]

Closing this old issue as it seems to be neither important nor active.
The kvm_hv is working and that is what people should use anyway.
I think it is ok'ish to need the extra step if you are in the unsupported second level virtualization.