[arch-general] pacman Segfault on full system update

[Ralf Mardorf]

On Sat, 25 Jun 2022 07:54:24 -0400, Genes Lists via arch-general wrote:
>Hi David - curious if you've tried or willing to try using kvm - if it 
>works might be a better path forward; thought clearly some work to
>migrate.

Hi,

I run a Debian Edu 11 guest in QEMU/KVM via Virtual Machine Manager on
an Arch Linux host, but for good reasons I stay with my Windows 11 and
older Windows guests with Virtualbox. One of the reasons to stay with
Virtualbox is file sharing between guest and host.

However, I'm using aur/virtualbox-bin with an Arch host running 4.19
rt-patched LTS kernels [1]. At least my Windows 7, 10 and 11 guests
don't suffer from issues with either virtualbox-bin 6.1.34-1 and
6.1.34-2.

I don't know if it is fixed yet, but the reason I build my own 4.19 LTS
kernels are

1. The host doesn't work with new kernels and the "intel" driver.
Migrating to the "modesetting" driver is a PITA, no help for me.
However, older 5+ kernels should still work with the "intel"
driver.
2. Those "good" 5+ kernels with the rt patch applied don't work with
DKMS to build the Virtualbox modules.
Disclaimer: It might be fixed, I just didn't test 5.18.6.arch1-1 and a
lot of earlier Arch kernel packages.

My point is, that temporarily building current 4.19 kernels for the
host and/or the guest might solve the issue for other users, too.

Note, 4.19 with or without the rt-patch is still LTS by
https://www.kernel.org/ , but 4.19 it is also SuperLTS by
https://wiki.linuxfoundation.org/civilinfrastructureplatform/start
until 2029.

Regards,
Ralf

[1]
[rocketmouse at archlinux ~]$ grep virtualbox-bin\ \( /var/log/pacman.log | grep up | tail -2
[2022-04-21T05:54:09+0200] [ALPM] upgraded virtualbox-bin (6.1.32-1 -> 6.1.34-1)
[2022-06-18T03:24:03+0200] [ALPM] upgraded virtualbox-bin (6.1.34-1 -> 6.1.34-2)
[rocketmouse at archlinux ~]$ pacman -Q linux{,-rt{,-cornflower,-pussytoes,-securityink}}|cut -d\  -f2
5.18.6.arch1-1
4.19.246_rt110-0.1000
4.19.245_rt109-0.300
4.19.240_rt108-0.300
4.19.237_rt107-0.300