lshw runs for hours in Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS VM running under Proxmox/KVM

[jmartin]

Create a new KVM virtual machine as follows:

General Tab:
- accept defaults
- choose any name

OS Tab:
- Linux 3.x/2.6 Kernel

CD/DVD:
- ISO image (ubuntu-12.04.1-server-amd64.iso on hard drive)

Hard Disk:
- IDE 0
- local
- size 8 GB
- defaults for format and cache

CPU:
- accept defaults

Memory:
- accept defaults

Network (optional):
- bridged
- virtio (paravirtualized)

Install Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS...

Log in as root and run "lshw". It just displays "DMI" and uses 100% CPU before it finishes several hours later. The output shows lots of meaningless (?) BIOS resources.

Case was reported to Canonical support who could not reproduce the issue using plain KVM. I therefore copied the VM disk image to a Ubuntu 12.04.2 LTS machine and started it within Ubuntu's KVM and lshw works fine.

KVM command line on Proxmox is:

/usr/bin/kvm -id 7001 -chardev socket,id=qmp,path=/var/run/qemu-server/7001.qmp,server,nowait -mon chardev=qmp,mode=control -vnc unix:/var/run/qemu-server/7001.vnc,x509,password -pidfile /var/run/qemu-server/7001.pid -daemonize -name dwiva184.entw.itc.loc -smp sockets=1,cores=1 -nodefaults -boot menu=on -vga cirrus -k de -m 512 -usbdevice tablet -drive if=none,id=drive-ide2,media=cdrom,aio=native -device ide-cd,bus=ide.1,unit=0,drive=drive-ide2,id=ide2,bootindex=200 -drive file=/var/lib/vz/images/7001/vm-7001-disk-1.vmdk,if=none,id=drive-ide0,aio=native -device ide-hd,bus=ide.0,unit=0,drive=drive-ide0,id=ide0,bootindex=100 -netdev type=tap,id=net0,ifname=tap7001i0,script=/var/lib/qemu-server/pve-bridge,vhost=on -device virtio-net-pci,mac=B6:AF:AD:15:01:69,netdev=net0,bus=pci.0,addr=0x12,id=net0,bootindex=300

KVM command line on Ubuntu is:

/usr/bin/kvm -chardev socket,id=qmp,path=/var/lib/libvirt/qemu/dwiva181.monitor,server,nowait -mon chardev=qmp,mode=control -daemonize -name dwiva184.entw.itc.loc -smp sockets=1,cores=1 -nodefaults -boot menu=on -vga cirrus -k de -m 512 -usbdevice tablet -drive if=none,id=drive-ide2,media=cdrom,aio=native -device ide-cd,bus=ide.1,unit=0,drive=drive-ide2,id=ide2,bootindex=200 -drive file=/var/lib/libvirt/images/dwiva181.vmdk,if=none,id=drive-ide0,aio=native -device ide-hd,bus=ide.0,unit=0,drive=drive-ide0,id=ide0,bootindex=100

pveversion reports

pve-manager: 2.2-31 (pve-manager/2.2/e94e95e9)
running kernel: 2.6.32-11-pve
proxmox-ve-2.6.32: 2.2-82
pve-kernel-2.6.32-11-pve: 2.6.32-66
pve-kernel-2.6.32-16-pve: 2.6.32-82
pve-kernel-2.6.32-14-pve: 2.6.32-74
lvm2: 2.02.95-1pve2
clvm: 2.02.95-1pve2
corosync-pve: 1.4.4-1
openais-pve: 1.1.4-2
libqb: 0.10.1-2
redhat-cluster-pve: 3.1.93-2
resource-agents-pve: 3.9.2-3
fence-agents-pve: 3.1.9-1
pve-cluster: 1.0-33
qemu-server: 2.0-69
pve-firmware: 1.0-21
libpve-common-perl: 1.0-39
libpve-access-control: 1.0-25
libpve-storage-perl: 2.0-36
vncterm: 1.0-3
vzctl: 4.0-1pve2
vzprocps: 2.0.11-2
vzquota: 3.1-1
pve-qemu-kvm: 1.2-7
ksm-control-daemon: 1.1-1

Any hints as to what might cause this problem?

 

[tom]

looks like the problem is solved with a newer version of lswh.

download the new version, e.g.:

> wget http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/l/lshw/lshw_02.16-1_amd64.deb

install it:

> sudo dpkg -i lshw_02.16-1_amd64.deb

I just tried this here, works.

 

[jmartin]

looks like the problem is solved with a newer version of lswh.

Yes, it works for me too. Thank you for responding so quickly!

 

[tom]

thanks for feedback. this version is also used in Debian Wheezy. Please also inform the Ubuntu support about the solution.

 

[jmartin]

I contacted Canonical about this problem to get the new version of lshw backported to Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS (which shouldn't be a problem since it works just fine as it is).

February 21, they wrote:

I have passed this along to our engineers who will review and consider a potential backport of lshw 02.16-1 to Precise.

February 26, they wrote:

We have found the change that may correct this issue, although it was reported for xen and not kvm. Can you please run 'gdb /usr/bin/lshw' and then type 'run', and when it hangs, Ctrl-C and type 'bt' to get a backtrace. If you can, please upload the backtrace as an attachment to this case.

I submmited the information they asked for...

Yesterday, they wrote:

Our engineers were not able to reproduce the issue under KVM. Since it can only be reproduced on Proxmox and it is not something that we support you should try to contact them for assistance.

As to virtualization environments supported by Canonical support contracts, they wrote:

For this to be filly supported you would need to branle to demonstrate and reproduce the issue using Ubuntu which uses KVM as the back-end virtualization technology and libvirt as its toolkit/API. Libvirt front ends for managing VMs include virt-manager (GUI) or virsh (CLI). Alternative management options include convirt (GUI) or convirt2 (WWW).

And:

KVM is recommended and fully supported although we do support Ubuntu as a guest in VMware ESX ver. 3.5+ (see this page to check that guest is supported.
http://is.gd/bTYGh

So I guess that's it...

 

[tom]

I retested the issue on latest Proxmox VE 2.3 and I cannot see the problem anymore.

Probably, the latest KVM updates (with seabios fixes) helped here. Please test again with 12.04 Ubuntu guest, on latest 2.3.

 

[jmartin]

Hi,

it took me a while to upgrade, but now I can confirm that the problem is fixed for me, too.

Thanks!

Regards
Johannes