4.15 based test kernel for PVE 5.x available

fabian

Proxmox Staff Member
Staff member
Jan 7, 2016
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a pve-kernel-4.15 meta package depending on a preview build based on Ubuntu Bionic's 4.15 kernel is available on pvetest. it is provided as opt-in package in order to catch potential regressions and hardware incompatibilities early on, and allow testing on a wide range of systems before the default kernel series gets switched over to 4.15 and support for our 4.13 based kernel is phased out at some point in the future.

in order to try it out on your test systems, configure the pvetest repository and run
Code:
apt update
apt install pve-kernel-4.15

the pve-kernel-4.15 meta package will keep the preview kernel updated, just like the pve-kernel-4.13 meta package (recently pulled out of the proxmox-ve package) does for the stable 4.13 based kernel.

also on pvetest, you will find a pve-headers-4.15 header meta package in case you need them for third-party module building, a linux-tools-4.15 package with compatible perf, as well as an updated pve-firmware package with the latest blobs.

notable changes besides the major kernel update include the removal of out-of-tree Intel NIC modules, which are not (yet) compatible with 4.15 kernels. this removal will be re-evaluated at some later point before the final switch to 4.15 as new stable kernel in PVE 5.

there are no plans to support both 4.13 and 4.15 in the long term - once the testing phase of 4.15 is over 4.15 will become the new default kernel and 4.13 will receive no updates anymore.

happy testing and looking forward to feedback!
 
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when does it get into the stable repository ?

As soon as we consider it as stable.

Proxmox VE 5.2 will use 4.15 as default kernel, for 5.1 it will be an optional kernel.
 
CPU: Ryzen 1700

machine: q35 is broke now
CPU: host is broke now too, awful performance, high CPU load, Windows 10 is told that it has 265MB L3 Cache instead of 16MB, OpteronG4/G5 are broken, G3 awful performance

well, unusable right now

pveversion --verbose
proxmox-ve: 5.1-42 (running kernel: 4.15.3-1-pve)
pve-manager: 5.1-47 (running version: 5.1-47/97a08ab2)
pve-kernel-4.13: 5.1-42
pve-kernel-4.15: 5.1-1
pve-kernel-4.15.3-1-pve: 4.15.3-1
pve-kernel-4.13.13-6-pve: 4.13.13-42
pve-kernel-4.13.13-5-pve: 4.13.13-38
pve-kernel-4.13.13-3-pve: 4.13.13-34
pve-kernel-4.13.4-1-pve: 4.13.4-26
pve-kernel-4.10.17-4-pve: 4.10.17-24
pve-kernel-4.10.17-3-pve: 4.10.17-23
pve-kernel-4.10.17-2-pve: 4.10.17-20
pve-kernel-4.10.17-1-pve: 4.10.17-18
pve-kernel-4.10.8-1-pve: 4.10.8-7
pve-kernel-4.10.5-1-pve: 4.10.5-5
pve-kernel-4.10.1-2-pve: 4.10.1-2
pve-kernel-4.4.35-1-pve: 4.4.35-77
corosync: 2.4.2-pve3
criu: 2.11.1-1~bpo90
glusterfs-client: 3.8.8-1
ksm-control-daemon: 1.2-2
libjs-extjs: 6.0.1-2
libpve-access-control: 5.0-8
libpve-apiclient-perl: 2.0-4
libpve-common-perl: 5.0-28
libpve-guest-common-perl: 2.0-14
libpve-http-server-perl: 2.0-8
libpve-storage-perl: 5.0-17
libqb0: 1.0.1-1
lvm2: 2.02.168-pve6
lxc-pve: 2.1.1-3
lxcfs: 2.0.8-2
novnc-pve: 0.6-4
proxmox-widget-toolkit: 1.0-12
pve-cluster: 5.0-21
pve-container: 2.0-19
pve-docs: 5.1-16
pve-firewall: 3.0-5
pve-firmware: 2.0-4
pve-ha-manager: 2.0-5
pve-i18n: 1.0-4
pve-libspice-server1: 0.12.8-3
pve-qemu-kvm: 2.11.1-3
pve-xtermjs: 1.0-2
pve-zsync: 1.6-15
qemu-server: 5.0-23
smartmontools: 6.5+svn4324-1
spiceterm: 3.0-5
vncterm: 1.5-3
zfsutils-linux: 0.7.6-pve1~bpo9
 
Last edited:
What about the cpu model problem?

The only way to get the VMs partialy running is with kvm64 CPU model, but latency is very high
 
Last edited:
What about the cpu model problem?

The only way to get the VMs partialy running is with kvm64 CPU model, but latency is very high

can you try downgrading to pve-qemu-2.9 ?
 
preview kernel is now available in pve-no-subscription as well, so no need to configure pvetest just for the kernel/header packages.
 
agent: 1
balloon: 0
bios: ovmf
boot: cdn
bootdisk: scsi0
cores: 8
cpu: kvm64
efidisk0: ssdpool:vm-100-disk-1,size=128K
#hostpci0: 07:00,pcie=1,x-vga=on
hotplug: network,usb
ide0: none,media=cdrom
keyboard: de
machine: q35
memory: 12288
name: win10
net0: virtio=72:DC:5B:51:AD:D2,bridge=vmbr0
numa: 0
ostype: win10
scsi0: ssdpool850:vm-100-disk-1,discard=on,size=447G
scsihw: virtio-scsi-pci
smbios1: uuid=76521a3b-440f-4ccb-980a-8f85d6043e98
sockets: 1
tablet: 0
can you try downgrading to pve-qemu-2.9 ?
proxmox-ve: 5.1-42 (running kernel: 4.15.3-1-pve)
pve-manager: 5.1-47 (running version: 5.1-47/97a08ab2)
pve-kernel-4.13: 5.1-42
pve-kernel-4.15: 5.1-1
pve-kernel-4.15.3-1-pve: 4.15.3-1
pve-kernel-4.13.13-6-pve: 4.13.13-42
pve-kernel-4.13.13-5-pve: 4.13.13-38
pve-kernel-4.13.13-3-pve: 4.13.13-34
pve-kernel-4.13.4-1-pve: 4.13.4-26
pve-kernel-4.10.17-4-pve: 4.10.17-24
pve-kernel-4.10.17-3-pve: 4.10.17-23
pve-kernel-4.10.17-2-pve: 4.10.17-20
pve-kernel-4.10.17-1-pve: 4.10.17-18
pve-kernel-4.10.8-1-pve: 4.10.8-7
pve-kernel-4.10.5-1-pve: 4.10.5-5
pve-kernel-4.10.1-2-pve: 4.10.1-2
pve-kernel-4.4.35-1-pve: 4.4.35-77
corosync: 2.4.2-pve3
criu: 2.11.1-1~bpo90
glusterfs-client: 3.8.8-1
ksm-control-daemon: 1.2-2
libjs-extjs: 6.0.1-2
libpve-access-control: 5.0-8
libpve-apiclient-perl: 2.0-4
libpve-common-perl: 5.0-28
libpve-guest-common-perl: 2.0-14
libpve-http-server-perl: 2.0-8
libpve-storage-perl: 5.0-17
libqb0: 1.0.1-1
lvm2: 2.02.168-pve6
lxc-pve: 2.1.1-3
lxcfs: 2.0.8-2
novnc-pve: 0.6-4
proxmox-widget-toolkit: 1.0-12
pve-cluster: 5.0-21
pve-container: 2.0-19
pve-docs: 5.1-16
pve-firewall: 3.0-5
pve-firmware: 2.0-4
pve-ha-manager: 2.0-5
pve-i18n: 1.0-4
pve-libspice-server1: 0.12.8-3
pve-qemu-kvm: 2.9.1-9
pve-xtermjs: 1.0-2
pve-zsync: 1.6-15
qemu-server: 5.0-23
smartmontools: 6.5+svn4324-1
spiceterm: 3.0-5
vncterm: 1.5-3
zfsutils-linux: 0.7.6-pve1~bpo9

Tried following:
cpu: host
Result: Verry slow (unusable) in top it eats 700%+ CPU while it should idle (take over a minute until taks bar is shown)

args: -cpu host
Result: Windows wont boot

args: -cpu host,+lahf_lm,+sep,+kvm_pv_unhalt,+kvm_pv_eoi,hv_vendor_id=proxmox,hv_spinlocks=0x1fff,hv_vapic,hv_time,hv_reset,hv_vpindex,hv_runtime,hv_relaxed,enforce,kvm=off
Result: VM very slow and reboots after a while on load w/o any log Entry

Same happens on -cpu max or EPYC

The only way is kvm64 model, but a lot of CPU extensions are missing, which results in way lower performance
 
Last edited:
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agent: 1
balloon: 0
bios: ovmf
boot: cdn
bootdisk: scsi0
cores: 8
cpu: kvm64
efidisk0: ssdpool:vm-100-disk-1,size=128K
#hostpci0: 07:00,pcie=1,x-vga=on
hotplug: network,usb
ide0: none,media=cdrom
keyboard: de
machine: q35
memory: 12288
name: win10
net0: virtio=72:DC:5B:51:AD:D2,bridge=vmbr0
numa: 0
ostype: win10
scsi0: ssdpool850:vm-100-disk-1,discard=on,size=447G
scsihw: virtio-scsi-pci
smbios1: uuid=76521a3b-440f-4ccb-980a-8f85d6043e98
sockets: 1
tablet: 0
proxmox-ve: 5.1-42 (running kernel: 4.15.3-1-pve)
pve-manager: 5.1-47 (running version: 5.1-47/97a08ab2)
pve-kernel-4.13: 5.1-42
pve-kernel-4.15: 5.1-1
pve-kernel-4.15.3-1-pve: 4.15.3-1
pve-kernel-4.13.13-6-pve: 4.13.13-42
pve-kernel-4.13.13-5-pve: 4.13.13-38
pve-kernel-4.13.13-3-pve: 4.13.13-34
pve-kernel-4.13.4-1-pve: 4.13.4-26
pve-kernel-4.10.17-4-pve: 4.10.17-24
pve-kernel-4.10.17-3-pve: 4.10.17-23
pve-kernel-4.10.17-2-pve: 4.10.17-20
pve-kernel-4.10.17-1-pve: 4.10.17-18
pve-kernel-4.10.8-1-pve: 4.10.8-7
pve-kernel-4.10.5-1-pve: 4.10.5-5
pve-kernel-4.10.1-2-pve: 4.10.1-2
pve-kernel-4.4.35-1-pve: 4.4.35-77
corosync: 2.4.2-pve3
criu: 2.11.1-1~bpo90
glusterfs-client: 3.8.8-1
ksm-control-daemon: 1.2-2
libjs-extjs: 6.0.1-2
libpve-access-control: 5.0-8
libpve-apiclient-perl: 2.0-4
libpve-common-perl: 5.0-28
libpve-guest-common-perl: 2.0-14
libpve-http-server-perl: 2.0-8
libpve-storage-perl: 5.0-17
libqb0: 1.0.1-1
lvm2: 2.02.168-pve6
lxc-pve: 2.1.1-3
lxcfs: 2.0.8-2
novnc-pve: 0.6-4
proxmox-widget-toolkit: 1.0-12
pve-cluster: 5.0-21
pve-container: 2.0-19
pve-docs: 5.1-16
pve-firewall: 3.0-5
pve-firmware: 2.0-4
pve-ha-manager: 2.0-5
pve-i18n: 1.0-4
pve-libspice-server1: 0.12.8-3
pve-qemu-kvm: 2.9.1-9
pve-xtermjs: 1.0-2
pve-zsync: 1.6-15
qemu-server: 5.0-23
smartmontools: 6.5+svn4324-1
spiceterm: 3.0-5
vncterm: 1.5-3
zfsutils-linux: 0.7.6-pve1~bpo9

Tried following:
cpu: host
Result: Verry slow (unusable) in top it eats 700%+ CPU while it should idle (take over a minute until taks bar is shown)

args: -cpu host
Result: Windows wont boot

args: -cpu host,+lahf_lm,+sep,+kvm_pv_unhalt,+kvm_pv_eoi,hv_vendor_id=proxmox,hv_spinlocks=0x1fff,hv_vapic,hv_time,hv_reset,hv_vpindex,hv_runtime,hv_relaxed,enforce,kvm=off
Result: VM very slow and reboots after a while on load w/o any log Entry

Same happens on -cpu max or EPYC

The only way is kvm64 model, but a lot of CPU extensions are missing, which results in way lower performance

we'll see whether we can reproduce this somehow on our EPYC and Ryzen testlab hardware..
 
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so it seems we can reproduce some issues on new AMD hardware, we'll test whether the next 4.15 which is already in the pipeline fixes them and investigate otherwise. thanks for the feedback!
 
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Tested here on my backupserver 4.15.3-1-pve #1 SMP PVE 4.15.3-1. Works fine, but the flag "spec_ctrl" is no build in.
 
Tested here on my backupserver 4.15.3-1-pve #1 SMP PVE 4.15.3-1. Works fine, but the flag "spec_ctrl" is no build in.

the spectre/meltdown mitigations are closer to the upstream ones now, which means IBRS/IBPB usage will slowly get added back following upstream stable commits.
 
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