unable to start a freshly created VM (the first VM on a fresh install). Qubes 4.0-RC2

[Wael Nasreddine]

Hello,

I'm trying to create a Standalone VM to run ArchLinux dedicated for work, but the VM fails to start, and the following message appears in the journal:

Nov 26 16:48:13 dom0 qmemman.systemstate[2304]: Xen free = 48447639678 too small for satisfy assignments! assigned_but_unused=48423368750, domdict={'3': {'memory_maximum': 4194304000, 'slow_memset_react': False, 'no_progress': False, 'last_target': 4179545269, 'memory_current': 4181286912, 'id': '3', 'mem_used': 353308672, 'memory_actual': 4181286912}, '8': {'memory_maximum': 150994944, 'slow_memset_react': False, 'no_progress': False, 'last_target': 150994944, 'memory_current': 150994944, 'id': '8', 'mem_used': None, 'memory_actual': 150994944}, '1': {'memory_maximum': 419430400, 'slow_memset_react': False, 'no_progress': False, 'last_target': 402653184, 'memory_current': 417345536, 'id': '1', 'mem_used': None, 'memory_actual': 417345536}, '5': {'memory_maximum': 4194304000, 'slow_memset_react': False, 'no_progress': False, 'last_target': 4179396425, 'memory_current': 4181147648, 'id': '5', 'mem_used': 337453056, 'memory_actual': 4181147648}, '2': {'memory_maximum': 150994944, 'slow_memset_react': False, 'no_progress': False, 'last_target': 150994944, 'memory_current': 150994944, 'id': '2', 'mem_used': None, 'memory_actual': 150994944}, '0': {'memory_maximum': 68253908992, 'slow_memset_react': False, 'no_progress': False, 'last_target': 52683417646, 'memory_current': 4260048896, 'id': '0', 'mem_used': 929218560, 'memory_actual': 52683417646}, '11': {'memory_maximum': 4194304000, 'slow_memset_react': False, 'no_progress': False, 'last_target': 401604608, 'memory_current': 419430400, 'id': '11', 'mem_used': None, 'memory_actual': 419430400}, '12': {'memory_maximum': 150994944, 'slow_memset_react': False, 'no_progress': False, 'last_target': 150994944, 'memory_current': 150994944, 'id': '12', 'mem_used': None, 'memory_actual': 150994944}, '7': {'memory_maximum': 4194304000, 'slow_memset_react': False, 'no_progress': False, 'last_target': 4180124003, 'memory_current': 4181835776, 'id': '7', 'mem_used': 402833408, 'memory_actual': 4181835776}, '6': {'memory_maximum': 150994944, 'slow_memset_react': False, 'no_progress': False, 'last_target': 150994944, 'memory_current': 150994944, 'id': '6', 'mem_used': None, 'memory_actual': 150994944}, '4': {'memory_maximum': 150994944, 'slow_memset_react': False, 'no_progress': False, 'last_target': 150994944, 'memory_current': 150994944, 'id': '4', 'mem_used': None, 'memory_actual': 150994944}}


It seems to be a memory issue, which is weird given I have only the essentials + personal VM running on a 64Gb system.

I posted as many details about the issue and my system in this gist https://gist.github.com/kalbasit/cb3d6a0a9f068f819706d08fe073b18a

Am I doing it wrong or is there a problem with my installation?

[Yuraeitha]

I can't say if it'll work. However if this feature is turned on (should be by default), maybe try disable the dynamic RAM allocation in the VM-preferences GUI advanced tab, or with qvm-prefs in terminal?

It's similar with Windows VM atm, it seemingly has no Qubes tools inside the VM, so it can't talk with it, and thereby not dynamically allocate any memory.

Maybe this is the fault?

[Wael Nasreddine]

Removing the dynamic memory did get rid of the error, but the VM is still dying on boot.

[Tom Zander]

On Monday, 27 November 2017 07:03:51 CET Wael Nasreddine wrote:
> I'm trying to create a Standalone VM to run ArchLinux dedicated for work,
> but the VM fails to start,

Where did you get the archlinux VM from?

I successfully managed to get this working over the weekend by;
a) following the basics (dns install etc) here (point3 & 4).
Don’t do point 5 - 10.
https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/building-archlinux-template/

b) follow the simplest guide from this report;
https://github.com/QubesOS/qubes-issues/issues/3185

Then continue with points 10 - from the official docs.


Generally, after a weekend of intense working with qubes4r2 (testing) I
would say that creating new VMs based on a template and starting them is a
bit of a hit-and-miss.
I’m guessing that the daemon in dom0 has some race conditions that sometimes
leaves newly created vms broken. Stress the system less and it seems to work
more stable.

--
Tom Zander
Blog: https://zander.github.io
Vlog: https://vimeo.com/channels/tomscryptochannel

[Wael Nasreddine]

On Monday, November 27, 2017 at 1:19:04 AM UTC-8, Tom Zander wrote:
> On Monday, 27 November 2017 07:03:51 CET Wael Nasreddine wrote:
> > I'm trying to create a Standalone VM to run ArchLinux dedicated for work,
> > but the VM fails to start,
>
> Where did you get the archlinux VM from?

I created a new VM, not based on any template (a menu option in the create new VM prompt). The VM never got passed Bios boot, similar to [0] without the window re-appearing; So I was never able to actually install it.

>
> I successfully managed to get this working over the weekend by;
> a) following the basics (dns install etc) here (point3 & 4).
> Don’t do point 5 - 10.
> https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/building-archlinux-template/
>
> b) follow the simplest guide from this report;
> https://github.com/QubesOS/qubes-issues/issues/3185
>
> Then continue with points 10 - from the official docs.
>

Thanks for the tip, I might try that as well.

>
> Generally, after a weekend of intense working with qubes4r2 (testing) I
> would say that creating new VMs based on a template and starting them is a
> bit of a hit-and-miss.
> I’m guessing that the daemon in dom0 has some race conditions that sometimes
> leaves newly created vms broken. Stress the system less and it seems to work
> more stable.
>
> --
> Tom Zander
> Blog: https://zander.github.io
> Vlog: https://vimeo.com/channels/tomscryptochannel

[0]: https://github.com/QubesOS/qubes-issues/issues/3185#issuecomment-338470156