On Sat, Nov 15, 2025 at 06:23:08AM +0000, Frediano Ziglio wrote: > On Fri, 14 Nov 2025 at 19:18, Andrew Cooper <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > On 14/11/2025 3:40 pm, Oleksii Kurochko wrote: > > > > > > > > > On 11/13/25 4:43 PM, Frediano Ziglio wrote: > > >> From: Frediano Ziglio <[email protected]> > > >> > > >> For xen.gz file we strip all symbols and have an additional > > >> xen-syms.efi file version with all symbols. > > >> Make xen.efi more coherent stripping all symbols too. > > >> xen-syms.efi can be used for debugging. > > >> > > >> Signed-off-by: Frediano Ziglio <[email protected]> > > > Release-Acked-By: Oleksii Kurochko <[email protected]> > > > > > > Thanks. > > > > Thanks. Unfortunately CI says no. > > > > Ubuntu's 20.04, 18.04 and 16.04 all fail: > > https://gitlab.com/xen-project/hardware/xen-staging/-/pipelines/2159622869 > > > > From 16.04: > > > > 2025-11-14T18:01:51.192964Z 01O strip xen-syms.efi -o xen.efi > > 2025-11-14T18:01:51.198151Z 01O strip:xen-syms.efi[.init]: relocation count > > is negative: File truncated > > 2025-11-14T18:01:51.198166Z 01O strip: xen.efi: Failed to read debug data > > section > > 2025-11-14T18:01:51.198169Z 01O strip:xen.efi: error copying private BFD > > data: File truncated > > 2025-11-14T18:01:51.198932Z 01O arch/x86/Makefile:207: recipe for target > > 'xen.efi' failed > > 2025-11-14T18:01:51.198937Z 01O make[3]: *** [xen.efi] Error 1 > > 2025-11-14T18:01:51.199616Z 01O build.mk:90: recipe for target 'xen' failed > > 2025-11-14T18:01:51.199619Z 01O make[2]: *** [xen] Error 2 > > 2025-11-14T18:01:51.200402Z 01O Makefile:600: recipe for target 'xen' failed > > 2025-11-14T18:01:51.200409Z 01O make[1]: *** [xen] Error 2 > > > > > > I find it hard to believe that the relocation count is really negative, > > and given that newer binuitls works, I expect this is a binutils bug. > > > > Unless the message is just misleading I find it hard to have a > negative number of items in a container. > > > Nevertheless, we need some workaround. Given that the previous > > behaviour was not to strip, I think we can reuse that for broken toolchains? > > > > Something like that ? > > diff --git a/xen/arch/x86/Makefile b/xen/arch/x86/Makefile > index a154ffe6b2..c465eb12e2 100644 > --- a/xen/arch/x86/Makefile > +++ b/xen/arch/x86/Makefile > @@ -236,7 +236,9 @@ ifeq ($(CONFIG_DEBUG_INFO),y) > $(if $(filter --strip-debug,$(EFI_LDFLAGS)),:$(space))$(OBJCOPY) \ > -O elf64-x86-64 $(TARGET)-syms.efi [email protected] > endif > - $(STRIP) $(TARGET)-syms.efi -o $@ > + $(STRIP) $(TARGET)-syms.efi -o $@ || { \ > + LANG=C strip $(TARGET)-syms.efi -o $@ 2>&1 | grep -q \ > + "relocation count is negative" && mv -f $(TARGET)-syms.efi > $@; } > ifneq ($(CONFIG_DEBUG_INFO),y) > rm -f $(TARGET)-syms.efi > endif
On Ubuntu 20.04 it fails different way:
strip: xen.efi: Data Directory size (1c) exceeds space left in section (18)
strip: xen.efi: error copying private BFD data: file in wrong format
Looks similar to:
https://lore.kernel.org/all/3TMd7J2u5gCA8ouIG_Xfcw7s5JKMG06XsDIesEB3Fi9htUJ43Lfl057wXohlpCHcszqoCmicpIlneEDO26ZqT8QfC2Y39VxBuqD3nS1j5Q4=@trmm.net/
Qubes has this patch:
https://github.com/QubesOS/qubes-vmm-xen/blob/main/0608-Fix-buildid-alignment.patch
diff --git a/xen/arch/x86/xen.lds.S b/xen/arch/x86/xen.lds.S
index 9a1dfe1b340a..26a23a7b0651 100644
--- a/xen/arch/x86/xen.lds.S
+++ b/xen/arch/x86/xen.lds.S
@@ -171,6 +171,7 @@ SECTIONS
__note_gnu_build_id_end = .;
} PHDR(note) PHDR(text)
#elif defined(BUILD_ID_EFI)
+ . = ALIGN(32);
DECL_SECTION(.buildid) {
__note_gnu_build_id_start = .;
*(.buildid)
Lets see if that helps:
https://gitlab.com/xen-project/people/marmarek/xen/-/pipelines/2167783980
And few lines earlier there is also:
ld: xen-syms.efi: warning: section .init: alignment 2**15 not representable
> It will fall back to not stripping in case that bug is detected. I
> don't know how to test it.
> (the LANG=C is to always force the English message).
If going this way, use LC_ALL=C (otherwise LC_ALL=something present in
the env would override your LANG=C). But given there are different
messages, this may not be the best option.
And TBH, I don't like silent behavior change based on (unknown) version
of binutils. Lets see if the alignment adjustment helps. While it
shouldn't be necessary on newer binutils (thanks to Jan's fix there -
see thread linked above), IMO it isn't too bad to add it, to keep older
versions happy. And it can be dropped, once we raise toolchain base
version next time.
--
Best Regards,
Marek Marczykowski-Górecki
Invisible Things Lab
signature.asc
Description: PGP signature
