OpenSolaris

Flag Day: x86 cross call changes and old versions of VirtualBox

Date: Tue, 28 Apr 2009 11:24:17 -0700
From: Joe Bonasera <joe.bonasera at sun dot com>
To: on-all at eng dot sun dot com, onnv-gate at onnv dot eng dot sun dot com
Subject: Flag Day: x86 cross call changes and old versions of VirtualBox

The integration of:

6770898 Performance of x86 cross calls
6785779 enabling xc_traptrace will panic or hang the system

is a flag day for any users of old, pre-2.1.4, versions of VirtualBox.
If you do not use VirtualBox on Solaris, then you can skip the rest of this
messsage.

The VirtualBox "vbi" kernel module makes use of the kernel-private cross
call interfaces and will most likely panic() your system at boot or when
you run an VirtualBox. You must upgrade to VirtualBox version 2.1.4 or later
*before* installing or BFUing these kernel changes. VirtualBox 2.1.4
and later versions have been available for several months and are fully
compatible with both old and new kernels.

If you forget to update to latest VirtualBox before BFU or Install of a
new kernel, you can rescue a panic()ing system with the following steps:

1 - boot using the Solaris failsafe, OpenSolaris livecd or Solaris xVM
     The Solaris xVM option from GRUB is the simplest of these.

2 - by hand, remove /platform/kernel/i86pc/kernel/misc/vbi and
     /platform/kernel/i86pc/kernel/misc/amd64/vbi from the system

3 - rebuild the boot archive and reboot.

4 - upgrade to the latest version VirtualBox.