Hello,

On core-updates (or is it master now?), “make check-system TESTS=basic”
fails with:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
Test begin:
  test-name: "/run/current-system is a GC root"
  source-file: "/gnu/store/irm2375f5p7nzyqqllwjfaby3ywhi5wq-basic-builder"
  source-line: 2
  source-form: (test-eq "/run/current-system is a GC root" (quote success!) (marionette-eval (quote (begin (add-to-load-path "/gnu/store/pn333fnrdazadmzvkbyzby8cfr176yrh-guix-0.14.0-8.bc880f9/share/guile/site/2.2") (use-modules (srfi srfi-34) (guix store)) (let ((system (readlink "/run/current-system"))) (guard (c ((nix-protocol-error? c) (and (file-exists? system) (quote success!)))) (with-store store (delete-paths store (list system)) #f))))) marionette))
Test end:
  result-kind: fail
  actual-value: #{\x1b;%G\x1b;%G\x1b;%G\x1b;%G\x1b;%G\x1b;%Gsuccess!}#
  expected-value: success!
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

We see similar issues with other system tests.

The “\x1b;%G” sequences correspond to the “select UTF-8” console code
(see console_codes(4)).  We’re receiving this as if we were a console,
but in fact all we want is to exchange raw bytes between the host and
the guest; we don’t want to be a full-fledged console.

I thought that using virtserialport instead of virtio-console might help
(see patch below), but the problem persists.  I’m not sure if it’s the
kernel that decides to send these codes or what.  Also unclear as to why
this happens on ‘core-updates’ and not ‘master’.

What am I missing?

Ludo’.