[Automated-testing] Looking for a Debian kernel provisioning solution

[Geert Uytterhoeven]

Hi Tim,

On Fri, Jan 26, 2018 at 7:44 PM,  <Tim.Bird at sony.com> wrote:
> Also, is kexec supported on
> all Linux platforms?  What platforms are supported in the lab now?

I guess it should be supported on most mainstream architectures.

I have a script to TFTP a kernel and kexec to it, using the same server
infrastructure I use for TFTPing a kernel and starting it from the bootloader:

    # cat $(type -p tftp-kexec)
    #!/bin/bash
    IMAGE=zImage
    set -e
    ( echo verbose; echo get $(hostname)/$IMAGE /tmp/$IMAGE ) | tftp
my-tftp-server
    kexec -l /tmp/$IMAGE --append="$(cat /proc/cmdline)"
    kexec -e
    #

I mainly use it to test booting kernels that are too large for a
specific bootloader
version.

Unfortunately it seems my kexec binary (from Debian Jessie) is a bit old for
current kernels:

    # tftp-kexec
    tftp> Verbose mode on.
    tftp> getting from my-tftp-server:koelsch/zImage to /tmp/zImage [netascii]
    Received 4345824 bytes in 10.1 seconds [3442237 bits/sec]
    tftp> Modified cmdline:ignore_loglevel ip=dhcp root=/dev/nfs
nfsroot=192.168.97.21:/home/koelsch/debian-armhf
    Unable to find /proc/device-tree//chosen/linux,stdout-path,
printing from purgatory is diabled

Ah, Linux no longer copies stdout-path to linux,stdout-path

    unrecoverable error: short read
from"/proc/device-tree//testcase-data/large-property-PAGE_SIZEx8"

Woops, can't handle the device tree test cases?

    #

But in general it should just work ;-)

Gr{oetje,eeting}s,

                        Geert

--
Geert Uytterhoeven -- There's lots of Linux beyond ia32 -- geert at linux-m68k.org

In personal conversations with technical people, I call myself a hacker. But
when I'm talking to journalists I just say "programmer" or something like that.
                                -- Linus Torvalds