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 Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1563887 Title: qemu-system-ppc64 freezes on starting image on ppc64le To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/qemu/+bug/1563887/+subscriptions -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs