Re: Xen 4.4 development update: Is PVH a blocker?

[Konrad Rzeszutek Wilk <konrad.wilk@oracle.com>]

On Fri, Dec 13, 2013 at 07:21:07PM +0000, George Dunlap wrote:
> This information will be mirrored on the Xen 4.4 Roadmap wiki page:
>  http://wiki.xen.org/wiki/Xen_Roadmap/4.4
> 
> Our timeline had us start the code freeze last Friday.  However, we
> have not released an RC0 because we have been waiting for PVH dom0
> support.  Adding bug fixes during RCs makes sense, but RC0 should
> contain all of the functionality we expect to be in the final release.
> 
> PVH dom0 support is making progress, however it's not that clear when
> it will actually be ready to be checked in.  The current discussion is
> about refcounting the new p2m type, which is a tricky and delicate
> operation (though luckily one which should be limited to domains which
> use that type -- at the moment, exclusively PVH dom0s).
> 
> If we continue to wait, it is likely that the release will slip.  The question
> then is, how long should we continue to wait before we cut our losses and
> say we'll wait for PVH dom0 until 4.5?
> 
> It would be very nice to have an RC out before Christmas, so
> enthusiasts can play around with it over the holidays.  One option
> would be to set a date to cut the first RC -- say, next Friday 20
> December -- and just use the most recent changeset to pass the
> push-gate, whether it has dom0 PVH or not.
> 
> Or we can just wait, and take stock of the situation again in January.

I would of course want to see PVH dom0 in it. I am right now re-working
Mukesh's patches to be applicable for Linux and I hope to get all of this
done by next week.

Which would be really neat to have it all working when v3.14 merge
windows open and Xen 4.4 RC0 is out.

In regards to having RC before X-Mas. Meeh.


> 
> Thoughts?
> 
> In other news, I will be on holiday and / or travelling for
> conferences until 20 January; during that time, Ian Campbell has
> agreed to take over my role as Release Coordinator.

Woot! Enjoy the travels.
 
> 
> = Timeline =
> == Open ==

> * qemu-upstream not freeing pirq
>  > http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/xen/devel/281498
>  > http://marc.info/?l=xen-devel&m=137265766424502
>  status: patches posted; latest patches need testing
>  Not a blocker.

I can't test it, b/c qemu-upstream does not work with PCI passthrough
anymore.

> 
> * Race in PV shutdown between tool detection and shutdown watch
>  > http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/xen/devel/282467
>  > Nothing to do with ACPI
>  status: Patches posted
>  Not a blocker.

Need to rework them.
> === Big ticket items ===
> 
> * PVH dom0 (w/ Linux)
>   blocker
>   owner: mukesh@oracle, george@citrix
>   status (Linux): Acked, waiting for ABI to be nailed down

That is kind of down. I had reposted the Linux one and I am
reworking them to be easier to grok.