From: Rémi Bougard <rb@unicsdev.com>
Subject: vmd: Alpine VM no longer boots after sysupgrade -s (vioblk_notifyq errors)
To: tech@openbsd.org
Date: Fri, 29 May 2026 12:34:17 +0200

Hello,

Since a last sysupgrade -s this morning, my Alpine Linux VM no longer boots under vmd.

$ uname -a
OpenBSD altair2.home.local 7.9 GENERIC.MP#525 amd64

Symptoms:
* VM starts successfully with vmctl
* Console attaches correctly
* No login prompt or kernel output is displayed
* vmd process reaches 100% CPU
* VM is unreachable on the network

Only relevant log messages I can see in /var/log/daemon:

vmd: started alpine (vm 1) successfully, tty /dev/ttyp4
vioblk_notifyq: unsupported vioblk command 1723871590
vioblk_notifyq: unchained cmd descriptor

I also tested with a fresh Alpine ISO (alpine-virt-3.20.3-x86_64.iso) and observed a similar failure:

vioscsi_notifyq: virtqueue not enabled

The VM begins booting, then the console clears and vmd consumes 100% CPU.

Configuration:

switch "bridged" {
	interface bridge0
}

vm "alpine" {
	owner rb
	memory 8G
	disk "/home/rb/vms/alpine.qcow2"
	interface {
		switch "bridged"
		lladdr FE:E1:BB:D1:2B:78
	}
}

Can someone help ?

Regards,
RB