oxidecomputer / oxidecomputer/propolis

Serial console not coming back after guest reboot

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bug
Dominant language
Rust
Stars
270
Forks
42
Avg merge
4d 5h
Merged PRs (30d)
6

Description

We have observed that after issuing a reboot from within the guest the serial console can sometimes break, but the guest seems to function correctly otherwise. For example one can still SSH into the guest.

We did notice that spamming the Enter key after typing reboot on the console seemed to make this issue more likely to hit. We also tested commits as far back as sept 2025 and we were able to see the broken behavior.

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First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by reproducing a guest reboot through the serial console, including the reported Enter-key input pattern, and compare the console with SSH access afterward. Done means the serial console reliably returns and remains usable after the guest reboots.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
rust
Domain
operating-systems
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Quiet
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
45/100

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