Here's an update. The Xenial kernel doesn;t like the emulated POWER7 cpu that the command line being used generates by default.
processor : 0 cpu : POWER7 (raw), altivec supported clock : 1000.000000MHz revision : 2.3 (pvr 003f 0203) timebase : 512000000 platform : pSeries model : IBM pSeries (emulated by qemu) machine : CHRP IBM pSeries (emulated by qemu) We can boot a Wily image (kernel 4.2.0-35) just fine with the POWER7 cpu. When booting Xenial's kernel with POWER7 cpu, it produces a stacktrace during module load: [ 9.885165] Loaded X.509 cert 'Build time autogenerated kernel key: 6687eed33bf99302166296c3e5cafe31ef38ad41' [ 9.886507] zswap: loaded using pool lzo/zbud [ 9.916000] modprobe[74]: unhandled signal 4 at 00003fffb5a4d03c nip 00003fffb5a4d03c lr 00003fffb5a25e24 code 30001 [ 9.925819] modprobe[76]: unhandled signal 4 at 00003fff85b9d03c nip 00003fff85b9d03c lr 00003fff85b75e24 code 30001 [ 9.928401] Key type trusted registered [ 9.930762] modprobe[79]: unhandled signal 4 at 00003fff7d05d03c nip 00003fff7d05d03c lr 00003fff7d035e24 code 30001 [ 9.933360] modprobe[80]: unhandled signal 4 at 00003fff8820d03c nip 00003fff8820d03c lr 00003fff881e5e24 code 30001 [ 9.936240] modprobe[83]: unhandled signal 4 at 00003fffb4fbd03c nip 00003fffb4fbd03c lr 00003fffb4f95e24 code 30001 [ 9.938873] modprobe[84]: unhandled signal 4 at 00003fff92d4d03c nip 00003fff92d4d03c lr 00003fff92d25e24 code 30001 [ 9.940335] Key type encrypted registered [ 9.940461] AppArmor: AppArmor sha1 policy hashing enabled [ 9.941005] ima: No TPM chip found, activating TPM-bypass! [ 9.942985] evm: HMAC attrs: 0x1 [ 9.947081] hctosys: unable to open rtc device (rtc0) [ 9.987867] Freeing unused kernel memory: 6144K (c000000000ea0000 - c0000000014a0000) [ 9.991123] init[1]: unhandled signal 4 at 00003fff8edfd03c nip 00003fff8edfd03c lr 00003fff8edd5e24 code 30001 [ 9.994581] Kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init! exitcode=0x00000004 [ 9.994581] [ 9.994889] CPU: 0 PID: 1 Comm: init Not tainted 4.4.0-18-generic #34-Ubuntu [ 9.995054] Call Trace: [ 9.995216] [c00000001e4c3a50] [c000000000aed6fc] dump_stack+0xb0/0xf0 (unreliable) [ 9.995336] [c00000001e4c3a90] [c000000000ae9930] panic+0x100/0x2c0 [ 9.995398] [c00000001e4c3b20] [c0000000000bd554] do_exit+0xc24/0xc30 [ 9.995443] [c00000001e4c3be0] [c0000000000bd644] do_group_exit+0x64/0x100 [ 9.995490] [c00000001e4c3c20] [c0000000000ceaac] get_signal+0x55c/0x7b0 [ 9.995534] [c00000001e4c3d10] [c000000000017424] do_signal+0x54/0x2b0 [ 9.995578] [c00000001e4c3e00] [c00000000001787c] do_notify_resume+0xbc/0xd0 [ 9.995677] [c00000001e4c3e30] [c000000000009838] ret_from_except_lite+0x64/0x68 [ 10.011069] ---[ end Kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init! exitcode=0x00000004 [ 10.011069] When we use -enable-kvm, this bypasses the tcg POWER7 cpu, and uses the host cpu type (POWER8) which is why we can boot the Xenial kernel with KVM. We need to open a linux task to help track down that issue; also if someone is testing Xenial on POWER7 hardware, that may help determine if there is a lurking qemu tcg issue, though given that Wily kernels boot fine in tcg mode; it's more likely there's something that changed/broke in the kernels since 4.2.0-35. I'm marking the qemu task invalid, and will open the linux task. ** Changed in: qemu (Ubuntu) Status: Confirmed => Invalid -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of qemu- devel-ml, which is subscribed to QEMU. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1563887 Title: qemu-system-ppc64 freezes on starting image on ppc64le Status in QEMU: Confirmed Status in linux package in Ubuntu: Confirmed Status in livecd-rootfs package in Ubuntu: Invalid Status in qemu package in Ubuntu: Invalid Bug description: qemu-system-ppc64 running on Ubuntu 16.04 beta-2 fails to start an image as part of the certification process. This on an IBM ppc64le in PowerVM mode running Ubuntu 16.04 beta-2 deployed by MAAS 1.9.1. There is no error output. ubuntu@alpine01:~/kvm$ qemu-system-ppc64 -m 256 -display none -nographic -net nic -net user,net=10.0.0.0/8,host=10.0.0.1,hostfwd=tcp::2222-:22 -machine pseries -drive file=xenial-server-cloudimg-ppc64el-disk1.img,if=virtio -drive file=seed.iso,if=virtio WARNING: Image format was not specified for 'seed.iso' and probing guessed raw. Automatically detecting the format is dangerous for raw images, write operations on block 0 will be restricted. Specify the 'raw' format explicitly to remove the restrictions. SLOF ********************************************************************** QEMU Starting Build Date = Jan 29 2016 18:58:37 FW Version = buildd@ release 20151103 Press "s" to enter Open Firmware. Populating /vdevice methods Populating /vdevice/vty@71000000 Populating /vdevice/nvram@71000001 Populating /vdevice/l-lan@71000002 Populating /vdevice/v-scsi@71000003 SCSI: Looking for devices 8200000000000000 CD-ROM : "QEMU QEMU CD-ROM 2.5+" Populating /pci@800000020000000 00 1800 (D) : 1af4 1001 virtio [ block ] 00 1000 (D) : 1af4 1001 virtio [ block ] 00 0800 (D) : 106b 003f serial bus [ usb-ohci ] 00 0000 (D) : 1234 1111 qemu vga No NVRAM common partition, re-initializing... Installing QEMU fb Scanning USB OHCI: initializing USB Keyboard USB mouse No console specified using screen & keyboard Welcome to Open Firmware Copyright (c) 2004, 2011 IBM Corporation All rights reserved. This program and the accompanying materials are made available under the terms of the BSD License available at http://www.opensource.org/licenses/bsd-license.php Trying to load: from: /pci@800000020000000/scsi@3 ... E3404: Not a bootable device! Trying to load: from: /pci@800000020000000/scsi@2 ... Successfully loaded Linux ppc64le #31-Ubuntu SMP F ProblemType: Bug DistroRelease: Ubuntu 16.04 Package: qemu-system-ppc 1:2.5+dfsg-5ubuntu6 ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.4.0-16.32-generic 4.4.6 Uname: Linux 4.4.0-16-generic ppc64le ApportVersion: 2.20-0ubuntu3 Architecture: ppc64el Date: Wed Mar 30 14:10:01 2016 KvmCmdLine: COMMAND STAT EUID RUID PID PPID %CPU COMMAND kvm-irqfd-clean S< 0 0 1172 2 0.0 [kvm-irqfd-clean] qemu-nbd Ssl 0 0 13467 1 0.0 qemu-nbd -c /dev/nbd0 xenial-server-cloudimg-ppc64el-disk1.img qemu-system-ppc Sl+ 1000 1000 18973 18896 101 qemu-system-ppc64 -m 256 -display none -nographic -net nic -net user,net=10.0.0.0/8,host=10.0.0.1,hostfwd=tcp::2222-:22 -machine pseries -drive file=xenial-server-cloudimg-ppc64el-disk1.img,if=virtio -drive file=seed.iso,if=virtio Lsusb: Error: command ['lsusb'] failed with exit code 1: ProcEnviron: TERM=xterm PATH=(custom, no user) LANG=en_US.UTF-8 SHELL=/bin/bash ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinux-4.4.0-16-generic root=UUID=92d820c8-ab25-497b-9b1e-f1435992bbf3 ro ProcLoadAvg: 1.08 0.94 0.58 2/616 19571 ProcLocks: 1: POSIX ADVISORY WRITE 886 00:13:381 0 EOF 2: POSIX ADVISORY WRITE 1339 00:13:528 0 EOF 3: FLOCK ADVISORY WRITE 1284 00:13:522 0 EOF 4: POSIX ADVISORY WRITE 2281 00:13:563 0 EOF 5: POSIX ADVISORY WRITE 1331 00:13:536 0 EOF ProcSwaps: Filename Type Size Used Priority /swap.img file 8388544 0 -1 ProcVersion: Linux version 4.4.0-16-generic (buildd@bos01-ppc64el-001) (gcc version 5.3.1 20160320 (Ubuntu/Linaro/IBM 5.3.1-12ubuntu4) ) #32-Ubuntu SMP Thu Mar 24 22:31:14 UTC 2016 SourcePackage: qemu UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install) bootlist: /pci@800000020000011/pci1014,034A@0/sas/disk@4068402c40 /pci@800000020000018/ethernet@0:speed=auto,duplex=auto,csarch,000.000.000.000,,000.000.000.000,000.000.000.000,5,5,000.000.000.000,512 /pci@800000020000018/ethernet@0,1:speed=auto,duplex=auto,csarch,000.000.000.000,,000.000.000.000,000.000.000.000,5,5,000.000.000.000,512 /pci@800000020000018/ethernet@0,2:speed=auto,duplex=auto,csarch,000.000.000.000,,000.000.000.000,000.000.000.000,5,5,000.000.000.000,512 /pci@800000020000018/ethernet@0,3:speed=auto,duplex=auto,csarch,000.000.000.000,,000.000.000.000,000.000.000.000,5,5,000.000.000.000,512 cpu_cores: Number of cores present = 8 cpu_coreson: Number of cores online = 8 cpu_smt: SMT=8 lscfg_vp: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'lscfg' lsmcode: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'lsmcode' To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/qemu/+bug/1563887/+subscriptions