[sle-beta] Issues with get_user_pages and VMware

[Vincent Moutoussamy]

Hi,

Thanks a lot, Dick for the details you have provided!!!
And thanks for the report!

I’m sure you understand that we won’t go deep into openSUSE Leap issue here. We 
are keen to hear comparison and issue between openSUSE Leap and SLE, but if 
there is a concrete issue in openSUSE Leap this need to be brought to the 
openSUSE community (especially if it can't be reproduce on SLES!).

Anyway I'm glad that this was reported to openSUSE already.

Sending Good Vibes, 
Regards,
--
Vincent Moutoussamy
SUSE Beta Program and SDK Project Manager

> On 9 Aug 2017, at 17:13, Waite, Dick (External) <Dick.Waite at softwareag.com> wrote:
> 
> Grand Cloudy Afternoon Vincent,
> 
> What is VMware WS? Workstation? 
> 
> Correct, 12-5-7 build 5813279 is todays version.
> 
> It’s SLES 12 SP3 GMC until we officially release SP3 ; )
> Are you saying it’s working for you ? I’m confused by your question mark..
> 
> Sorry, no more ? Yes I have SLES12 SP-3 GMC running on a couple of physical Dells and I can run VMware Workstaion there Okay and hosts other machines Okay.
> 
> My issues were I updated two physical machines from LEAP 42.2 to LEAP 42.3 and VMware Workstation no longer builds it's interface to the OS and fails to run. This is due to the amend to "get_user_pages" and the amend was in a kernel build very close to the ones we are using on SLES12-SP-3 GMC
> 
> https://communities.vmware.com/message/2695668#2695668 <https://communities.vmware.com/message/2695668#2695668>
> 
> https://forums.opensuse.org/showthread.php/526166-VMware-WS-12-5-6-fails-to-compile-on-openSUSE-Leap-42-3-with-kernel-4-4-68-2-default/page4 <https://forums.opensuse.org/showthread.php/526166-VMware-WS-12-5-6-fails-to-compile-on-openSUSE-Leap-42-3-with-kernel-4-4-68-2-default/page4>
> 
> I have been told the kernel on my SLES12 SP-3 GMC should be 4.4.73-5.1 but on machines I have "updated" from SLES12 SP-2 GA I have as "installed" 4.4.74-92.32 and as "alternate" 4.4.73-5.1 I did the update using the ISO file on the last distribution, GMC. I thought I had seen a email saying GMC was GM, there would be no more updates ?
> 
> I have two machines that say they are SLES12-SP3 and both run well and look clean, kernel 4.4.74-92.32 but most important they also run VMware Workstation so that my QE/QA test machines can do their work. In my home_office I use LEAP because I like to use KDE and LEAP 42.2 has been stable and worked well, it also ran VMware Workstation. I noticed that LEAP 42.3 had been released, so I down loaded the ISO and updated 42.2 to 42.3 and that was not a good move. I had no issues with SLES12 SP-3 so why should I have issues with 42.3... Well it does not run VMware Workstation due to the updated "get-user_pages", which seems to have come from a 4.9 or 4.10 kernel. I'm going to wait until the weekend and if it's not resolved I'll return to LEAP 42.2, I did take a backup before updating ;o)
> 
> There are a few coding snippets on the web on how to amend VMware's source code to work with the 4.9 kernel version of "get_user_pages" and they do look like they would work, but then I do have a SLES12 SP-3 GMC that does work and I'm sure SUSE are not going to break that are they? knowing it will brake many other user applications. It's not just VMware the Oracle version of virtual machine hosting is also dead in the water, so I would image are other application that thought they would be safe using "get_user_pages" with a 4.4.nn kernel. I understand this function is only updated on a kernel update, as per 4.9 or 4.10 so it seems odd it's been updated in the middle of 4.4 life cycle don't you think ?
> 
> I have been giving information to SUSE today, but now better get back to the day job, Adabas 2050.
> 
> Wishing you well Vincent and please keep VMware running on SUSE.
> 
> __R
> 
> From: Vincent Moutoussamy [vmoutoussamy at suse.com]
> Sent: 09 August 2017 16:36
> To: Waite, Dick (External)
> Cc: sle-beta at lists.suse.com
> Subject: Re: [sle-beta] Issues with get_user_pages and VMware
> 
> Hi,
>> On 9 Aug 2017, at 10:59, Waite, Dick (External) <Dick.Waite at softwareag.com <mailto:Dick.Waite at softwareag.com>> wrote:
>> 
>> Just a heads up...
>> 
>> SUSE has made a changes to the kernel api "get_user_pages". This is in LEAP 42.3, uname -r  4.4.76-1 and it causes VMware WS not to build.
> 
> What is VMware WS? Workstation?
> 
>> I have SLES12 SP-3 GA at uname -r 4.4.74-92.32 and this runs VMware Okay ???
> 
> It’s SLES 12 SP3 GMC until we officially release SP3 ; )
> Are you saying it’s working for you ? I’m confused by your question mark..
> 
>> This came from a SLES12 SP-2 GA machine which did have zypper patch applied weekly. It was "updated" using the SLES12 SP-3 GA .iso file.
>> 
>> I also have a number of SLES12 SP-3 GA machines running uname -r 4.4.73.5 and again a zypper patch says no updates available. I have not tried to run VMware WS on these.
> 
> That’s expected, after we release a GMC, there is NO patches/updates relevant to
> GMC in our online channels and we will not publish any new patches/updates after
> GMC.
> 
>> There are a numbers of blogs on this subject. If you do use VMware WS be very careful where you run it.
> 
> Do you mind to give some hints or urls?
> 
> Regards,
> --
> Vincent Moutoussamy
> SUSE Beta Program and SDK Project Manager
> 
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