[Bug 1847806] Re: eoan: ppc64el install on pseries-eoan VM fails to install

[Christian Ehrhardt ]

Trying to help with the cpu type here - the default for the mentioned config will be:
/usr/bin/qemu-system-ppc64le -name guest=ubuntu19.10-ppc64le-test,debug-threads=on ...
  -machine pseries-eoan,accel=tcg,usb=off,dump-guest-core=off ...

Without an explicit -cpu option set.

The libvirt XML just has no <cpu> section as all.


The default qemu picks in that case in the past was:
PowerPC power8_v2.0      PVR 004d0200
PowerPC power8           (alias for power8_v2.0)

Checking the qemu code shows:
4363 static void spapr_machine_3_1_class_options(MachineClass *mc)                    
4370     mc->default_cpu_type = POWERPC_CPU_TYPE_NAME("power8_v2.0");

With the code we can map this
(qemu versions go into the machine type, so xenial would be 2.5, bionic 2.11, ...):
new: power9_v2.0
<3.1 power8_v2.0
<2.7 power7_v2.3

So in the setup here it should be power9_v2.0 while in any release
before Eoan it would have been power8_v2.0.

I'd expect P9 should be P8 compatible, but maybe that helps in debugging this.
Downloading a ppc64 image for testing on my own ...

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Title:
  eoan: ppc64el install on pseries-eoan VM fails to install

Status in debian-installer package in Ubuntu:
  Incomplete
Status in qemu package in Ubuntu:
  New

Bug description:
  Using today's ppc64el server iso, I tried to install this on a
  pseries-eoan VM hosted on a large x86 desktop server and it failed to
  install.

  VM: 2GB memory, 20GB virtio qcow, CPUs: 2

  Installer options:
  Language: English
  Location: United Kingdom
  Detect keyboard layout? No
  Keyboard: English (UK)
  Keyboard Layout: English (UK)
  Hostname: ubuntu
  Full name for the new user: cking
  Username for your account: cking
  Choose a password for the new user: ************
  Re-enter password to verify: ************
  Partitioning method: Guided - use entire disk
  Select disk to partition: Virtual disk 1 (vda) - 21.5 GB Virtio Block Device
  Write the changes to discs? Yes

  Then installer stopped and I cannot progress. See the attached photo
  of the failure.

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