Virtual machines under Xen Hypervisor (DomU) running in Xen PV mode use a
special, nonstandard synthetized CPU topology which "just works" under
kernels 6.9.x while newer kernels wrongly assuming a "crash kernel" and
disable SMP (reducing to one CPU core) because the newer topology
implementation produces a wrong error "[Firmware Bug]: APIC enumeration
order not specification compliant" after new topology checks which are
improper for Xen PV platform. As a result, the kernel disables SMT and
activates just one CPU core within the VM (DomU).
The patch disables the regarding checks if it is running in Xen PV
mode (only) and bring back SMP / all CPUs as in the past to such DomU
VMs.
Signed-off-by: Niels Dettenbach <nd@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
---
The current behaviour leads all of our production Xen Host platforms
(amd64 - HPE proliant) unusable after updating to newer linux kernels
(with just one CPU available/activated per VM) while older kernels and
other OS (current NetBSD PV DomU) still work fully (and stable since many
years on the platform).
Xen PV mode is still provided by current Xen and widely used - even
if less wide as the newer Xen PVH mode today. So a solution probably
will be required.
So we assume that bug affects stable@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx as well.
dmesg from affected kernel:
-- snip --
[ 0.640364] CPU topo: Enumerated BSP APIC 0 is not marked in APICBASE MSR
[ 0.640367] CPU topo: Assuming crash kernel. Limiting to one CPU to prevent machine INIT
[ 0.640368] CPU topo: [Firmware Bug]: APIC enumeration order not specification compliant
[ 0.640376] CPU topo: Max. logical packages: 1
[ 0.640378] CPU topo: Max. logical dies: 1
[ 0.640379] CPU topo: Max. dies per package: 1
[ 0.640386] CPU topo: Max. threads per core: 1
[ 0.640388] CPU topo: Num. cores per package: 1
[ 0.640389] CPU topo: Num. threads per package: 1
[ 0.640390] CPU topo: Allowing 1 present CPUs plus 0 hotplug CPUs
[ 0.640402] Cannot find an available gap in the 32-bit address range
-- snap --
after patch applied:
-- snip --
[ 0.369439] CPU topo: Max. logical packages: 1
[ 0.369441] CPU topo: Max. logical dies: 1
[ 0.369442] CPU topo: Max. dies per package: 1
[ 0.369450] CPU topo: Max. threads per core: 2
[ 0.369452] CPU topo: Num. cores per package: 3
[ 0.369453] CPU topo: Num. threads per package: 6
[ 0.369453] CPU topo: Allowing 6 present CPUs plus 0 hotplug CPUs
-- snap --
We tested the patch intensely under productive / high load since 2 days now with no issues.
references:
arch/x86/kernel/cpu/topology.c
[line 448]
-- snip --
/*
* XEN PV is special as it does not advertise the local APIC
* properly, but provides a fake topology for it so that the
* infrastructure works. So don't apply the restrictions vs. APIC
* here.
*/
--snap --
--- linux/arch/x86/kernel/cpu/topology.c 2024-09-11 17:42:42.699278317 +0200
+++ linux/arch/x86/kernel/cpu/topology.c.orig 2024-09-11 09:53:16.194095250 +0200
@@ -132,14 +132,6 @@
u64 msr;
/*
- * assume Xen PV has a working (special) topology
- */
- if (xen_pv_domain()) {
- topo_info.real_bsp_apic_id = topo_info.boot_cpu_apic_id;
- return false;
- }
-
- /*
* There is no real good way to detect whether this a kdump()
* kernel, but except on the Voyager SMP monstrosity which is not
* longer supported, the real BSP APIC ID is the first one which is
