Virt-manager with kernel 6.16.8-1-MANJARO: journal reports 'BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference'

This post is only to share experience regarding a compatibility issue between kernel version 6.16.8-1-MANJARO and Virt-Manager.

After many hours spent trying to get Virt-Manager to work with kernel 6.16.8-1-MANJARO on my laptop, I tried the same on another manjaro partition and everything worked fine. The journal no longer reports kernel bug.

The only noticeable difference between both partitions was the kernel version (6.15.11-2-MANJARO worked fine, as did the latest LTS release 6.12.48-1-MANJARO that I tried later).

I then changed the kernel version of the failing partition (and nothing else) to match the version above, which fixed the issue I was facing.

Here is the kernel error reported by 6.16.8-1-MANJARO:

Oct 01 19:40:37 herezilo NetworkManager[944]: <info>  [1759340437.7977] device (virbr0): state change: ip-check -> secondarie>
Oct 01 19:40:37 herezilo NetworkManager[944]: <info>  [1759340437.7978] device (virbr0): state change: secondaries -> activat>
Oct 01 19:40:37 herezilo NetworkManager[944]: <info>  [1759340437.7981] device (virbr0): Activation: successful, device activ>
Oct 01 19:40:39 herezilo kernel: BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000000
Oct 01 19:40:39 herezilo kernel: #PF: supervisor write access in kernel mode
Oct 01 19:40:39 herezilo kernel: #PF: error_code(0x0002) - not-present page
Oct 01 19:40:39 herezilo kernel: PGD 0 P4D 0 
Oct 01 19:40:39 herezilo kernel: Oops: Oops: 0002 [#2] SMP NOPTI
Oct 01 19:40:39 herezilo kernel: CPU: 12 UID: 0 PID: 5655 Comm: nodev-device-ev Tainted: G      D    OE       6.16.8-1-MANJAR>
Oct 01 19:40:39 herezilo kernel: Tainted: [D]=DIE, [O]=OOT_MODULE, [E]=UNSIGNED_MODULE
Oct 01 19:40:39 herezilo kernel: Hardware name: Acer Nitro AN515-45/Scala_CAS, BIOS V1.08 07/21/2021
Oct 01 19:40:39 herezilo kernel: RIP: 0010:snd_sof_pci_amd_acp63_driver_exit+0x510/0xf10 [snd_sof_amd_acp63]
Oct 01 19:40:39 herezilo kernel: Code: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00>
Oct 01 19:40:39 herezilo kernel: RSP: 0018:ffffce624e20bae8 EFLAGS: 00010286
Oct 01 19:40:39 herezilo kernel: RAX: 0000000000000000 RBX: ffff8a144a343c00 RCX: 0000000000000012
Oct 01 19:40:39 herezilo kernel: RDX: ffffffffc05d7600 RSI: ffff8a14db5e5000 RDI: ffff8a144a343c00
Oct 01 19:40:39 herezilo kernel: RBP: ffff8a14db5e5000 R08: 00000000000007ee R09: 00000000ffffffff
Oct 01 19:40:39 herezilo kernel: R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 0000000000000004 R12: 0000000000000000
Oct 01 19:40:39 herezilo kernel: R13: ffff8a14db5e5000 R14: 0000000000000001 R15: 0000000000000001
Oct 01 19:40:39 herezilo kernel: FS:  00007f70aeffd6c0(0000) GS:ffff8a17a5a1b000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000
Oct 01 19:40:39 herezilo kernel: CS:  0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033
Oct 01 19:40:39 herezilo kernel: CR2: 0000000000000000 CR3: 000000015d77b000 CR4: 0000000000f50ef0
Oct 01 19:40:39 herezilo kernel: PKRU: 55555554
1 Like

I run virt-manager on a daily basis on 6.16. The problem is more likely unique to your chipset or CPU.

I always have the LTS kernel handy to boot. The latest linux-meta kernel has, at least for me, messed something up with KVM or otherwise; rendering some or all of my guests useless. It’s rare, but it’s happened on more than one occasion for me.

But you said it also breaks in the LTS kernel? (But not in a new install on the same system?)

You also didn’t say what ā€œbreakā€ means? Your system freezes? It’s just a log entry? And what do you do to trigger it?

That aside. It’s the audio chipset module that’s throwing the register dump in your logs, which may have nothing to do with virtualistion at all.

Hello Molski,

it seems I wasn’t clear enough. I will reformulate.

LTS kernel 6.12.48-1-MANJARO is working fine.
kernel 6.15.11-2-MANJARO is working fine too.

Only kernel 6.16.8-1-MANJARO is reporting the kernel entries into the journal after virt-manager started.

The ā€˜breakage’ with 6.16 kernel is no connection succeed after starting virtmanager (ie: QEMU/Kvm connection is trying to connect forever).
However I’m able to connect using virsh. I could create a VM with this utility.

update to a newer one or stay on lts. there have been serious changes for kvm/qemu/libvirt with kernel 6.16.xx under the hood and it’s worthless to argue why a rolling-release-kernel version might suffer. your ā€œproblemā€ is related to some sound-device-module setting. live with it or sort it out. acer has never been a brand that plays well with linux.

kernel 6.16.8-1

is dead

Abandoned topic (30+ days)