Powerpc grub_func_test never exits

Powerpc grub_func_test never exits

[Glenn Washburn]

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Hi Daniel and Adrian,

I'm specifically addressing you two because judging from prior list
emails you both have run the make check tests for powerpc and so I
think are well positioned to help make progress on this issue.

When running the grub functional tests (grub_func_test), the test is
failing after an hour with a timeout on both PPC and PPC64. Looking at
the QEMU output for the functional test, I can see that it finishes.
However, the VM never exits/halts. Here's the last few lines from QEMU
output by grub:

```
gfxterm_menu: FAIL
videotest_checksum:
 tests/videotest_checksum.c:videotest_checksum:46: assert failed: 0
 unicode font not found: no server is specified
videotest_checksum: FAIL
exfctest:
exfctest: PASS
TEST FAILURE
error: no server is specified.
```

I've attached an iso that will reproduce this issue in Debian's QEMU
5.2 and 6.1. The QEMU command to run is (not all options may be needed):

$ qemu-system-ppc -M mac99,via=pmu -m 2048M -nographic -monitor
    file:/dev/null -fw_cfg name=etc/sercon-port,string=0 -serial null
    -serial file:/dev/stdout -hda grub.iso -boot c

This issue is not present in other QEMU tests, which could indicate a
GRUB issue. But if so, it doesn't seem to present itself on any other
target that I've been testing. I suspect there's a bug in GRUB that is
PPC specific that corrupts firmware memory such that halt doesn't
happen.

I'm curious how this would behave on real hardware, does it still hang?

Getting this resolved will allow my testing to properly see this as a
test failure and not a non-test error.

Glenn

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Re: Powerpc grub_func_test never exits

[John Paul Adrian Glaubitz]

Hi Glenn!

On 1/8/22 01:34, Glenn Washburn wrote:
> I've attached an iso that will reproduce this issue in Debian's QEMU
> 5.2 and 6.1. The QEMU command to run is (not all options may be needed):
> 
> $ qemu-system-ppc -M mac99,via=pmu -m 2048M -nographic -monitor
>     file:/dev/null -fw_cfg name=etc/sercon-port,string=0 -serial null
>     -serial file:/dev/stdout -hda grub.iso -boot c
> 
> This issue is not present in other QEMU tests, which could indicate a
> GRUB issue. But if so, it doesn't seem to present itself on any other
> target that I've been testing. I suspect there's a bug in GRUB that is
> PPC specific that corrupts firmware memory such that halt doesn't
> happen.
> 
> I'm curious how this would behave on real hardware, does it still hang?

I'm not at home at the moment, but I will be glad to burn this to a CD-R
and run it on my iBook G4 and report the results back. That will most
probably happen on Monday.

Adrian

-- 
 .''`.  John Paul Adrian Glaubitz
: :' :  Debian Developer - glaubitz@debian.org
`. `'   Freie Universitaet Berlin - glaubitz@physik.fu-berlin.de
  `-    GPG: 62FF 8A75 84E0 2956 9546  0006 7426 3B37 F5B5 F913

Re: Powerpc grub_func_test never exits

[John Paul Adrian Glaubitz]

Hi Glenn!

On 1/8/22 01:34, Glenn Washburn wrote:
> I've attached an iso that will reproduce this issue in Debian's QEMU
> 5.2 and 6.1. The QEMU command to run is (not all options may be needed):
> 
> $ qemu-system-ppc -M mac99,via=pmu -m 2048M -nographic -monitor
>     file:/dev/null -fw_cfg name=etc/sercon-port,string=0 -serial null
>     -serial file:/dev/stdout -hda grub.iso -boot c
> 
> This issue is not present in other QEMU tests, which could indicate a
> GRUB issue. But if so, it doesn't seem to present itself on any other
> target that I've been testing. I suspect there's a bug in GRUB that is
> PPC specific that corrupts firmware memory such that halt doesn't
> happen.
> 
> I'm curious how this would behave on real hardware, does it still hang?
> 
> Getting this resolved will allow my testing to properly see this as a
> test failure and not a non-test error.

I have burnt the ISO to a CD-R now and booted my iBook G4 with it.

It boots but gets stuck at "Welcome to GRUB!". I can hear CD-ROM access noises
from time to time but no changes on the screen so far. I'll let it running
for some time.

Let me know if you want me to try anything else.

Adrian

-- 
 .''`.  John Paul Adrian Glaubitz
: :' :  Debian Developer - glaubitz@debian.org
`. `'   Freie Universitaet Berlin - glaubitz@physik.fu-berlin.de
  `-    GPG: 62FF 8A75 84E0 2956 9546  0006 7426 3B37 F5B5 F913

Re: Powerpc grub_func_test never exits

[John Paul Adrian Glaubitz]

Hi Glenn!

On 1/14/22 09:45, John Paul Adrian Glaubitz wrote:
> I have burnt the ISO to a CD-R now and booted my iBook G4 with it.
> 
> It boots but gets stuck at "Welcome to GRUB!". I can hear CD-ROM access noises
> from time to time but no changes on the screen so far. I'll let it running
> for some time.

OK, so the machine just shut itself off. There was no other output besides the
message "Welcome to GRUB!", but I assume that is as expected and the tests run
silently, then shut the machine off.

So, it seems to work on real hardware.

Adrian

-- 
 .''`.  John Paul Adrian Glaubitz
: :' :  Debian Developer - glaubitz@debian.org
`. `'   Freie Universitaet Berlin - glaubitz@physik.fu-berlin.de
  `-    GPG: 62FF 8A75 84E0 2956 9546  0006 7426 3B37 F5B5 F913

Re: Powerpc grub_func_test never exits

[Glenn Washburn]

On Fri, 14 Jan 2022 09:48:56 +0100
John Paul Adrian Glaubitz <glaubitz@physik.fu-berlin.de> wrote:

> Hi Glenn!

Hi Adrian, thanks for testing this for me.

> On 1/14/22 09:45, John Paul Adrian Glaubitz wrote:
> > I have burnt the ISO to a CD-R now and booted my iBook G4 with it.
> > 
> > It boots but gets stuck at "Welcome to GRUB!". I can hear CD-ROM access noises
> > from time to time but no changes on the screen so far. I'll let it running
> > for some time.
> 
> OK, so the machine just shut itself off. There was no other output besides the
> message "Welcome to GRUB!", but I assume that is as expected and the tests run
> silently, then shut the machine off.
> 
> So, it seems to work on real hardware.

I forgot the output gets sent to the serial port, so that's why you
don't see anything. That's good that it works (ie shuts itself down).
That leads me to believe there's a bug in PowerPC Open Firmware.

Glenn

Re: Powerpc grub_func_test never exits

[John Paul Adrian Glaubitz]

Hi Glenn!

On 1/14/22 22:59, Glenn Washburn wrote:
> On Fri, 14 Jan 2022 09:48:56 +0100
>
> Hi Adrian, thanks for testing this for me.

You're welcome!
 
>> On 1/14/22 09:45, John Paul Adrian Glaubitz wrote:
>>> I have burnt the ISO to a CD-R now and booted my iBook G4 with it.
>>>
>>> It boots but gets stuck at "Welcome to GRUB!". I can hear CD-ROM access noises
>>> from time to time but no changes on the screen so far. I'll let it running
>>> for some time.
>>
>> OK, so the machine just shut itself off. There was no other output besides the
>> message "Welcome to GRUB!", but I assume that is as expected and the tests run
>> silently, then shut the machine off.
>>
>> So, it seems to work on real hardware.
> 
> I forgot the output gets sent to the serial port, so that's why you
> don't see anything. That's good that it works (ie shuts itself down).
> That leads me to believe there's a bug in PowerPC Open Firmware.

Ah, serial output indeed explains why I didn't see anything. The problem is that
this is an iBook G4 which doesn't have a serial output I could use, so output
to the framebuffer would be better.

Adrian

-- 
 .''`.  John Paul Adrian Glaubitz
: :' :  Debian Developer - glaubitz@debian.org
`. `'   Freie Universitaet Berlin - glaubitz@physik.fu-berlin.de
  `-    GPG: 62FF 8A75 84E0 2956 9546  0006 7426 3B37 F5B5 F913

Re: Powerpc grub_func_test never exits

[Glenn Washburn]

On Fri, 14 Jan 2022 23:05:01 +0100
John Paul Adrian Glaubitz <glaubitz@physik.fu-berlin.de> wrote:

> Hi Glenn!
> 
> On 1/14/22 22:59, Glenn Washburn wrote:
> > On Fri, 14 Jan 2022 09:48:56 +0100
> >
> > Hi Adrian, thanks for testing this for me.
> 
> You're welcome!
>  
> >> On 1/14/22 09:45, John Paul Adrian Glaubitz wrote:
> >>> I have burnt the ISO to a CD-R now and booted my iBook G4 with it.
> >>>
> >>> It boots but gets stuck at "Welcome to GRUB!". I can hear CD-ROM access noises
> >>> from time to time but no changes on the screen so far. I'll let it running
> >>> for some time.
> >>
> >> OK, so the machine just shut itself off. There was no other output besides the
> >> message "Welcome to GRUB!", but I assume that is as expected and the tests run
> >> silently, then shut the machine off.
> >>
> >> So, it seems to work on real hardware.
> > 
> > I forgot the output gets sent to the serial port, so that's why you
> > don't see anything. That's good that it works (ie shuts itself down).
> > That leads me to believe there's a bug in PowerPC Open Firmware.
> 
> Ah, serial output indeed explains why I didn't see anything. The problem is that
> this is an iBook G4 which doesn't have a serial output I could use, so output
> to the framebuffer would be better.

Agreed, the ISO was created by the make check tests which output to
serial so it can see if the output was expected. I wouldn't want to
modify the ISO for your test (at least for the initial test) to make
sure that your results wouldn't be tainted by some change caused by
mucking with the ISO.

Glenn