[et-mgmt-tools] Windows XP Mutiprocessor Support

[Cole Robinson]

Sameer Naik wrote:
> Hi,
> I have been using virt-manager for a long long time now.
> Recently i have been facing an issue... when i try to install windows xp
> (sp3) with multiprocessor
> support (i.e. vcpu allocation > 1) the system installs fine, but then
> virt-manager displays very high
> cpu (24-30%) utilization, even when the xp guest is idle. also when i try to
> poweroff the system, i get the "It is now
> Safe to poweroff your computer" message and also when this message is
> displayed the cpu utilzation is around
> 24-30%.
> 
> After posting a similar mail to the xend-users mailing list, i was advised
> to use ACPI=1 and APIC=1 in
> the domU configuration. But since i am using virt-manager i have no idea
> where i should put these values and
> whether i need to specify these before installing xp or whether it can be
> done after installing.
> 
> Or should i create ahand written domU configuration and use "xm create" to
> create the virtual machine?
> 
> Please Help
> 

There isn't support in virt-manager for changing acpi and apic values
of an existing guest (yet).

You can change these values via the command line:

virsh dumpxml vmname > xml
edit xml: between the <os> block and the <clock> block, add
  <features>
    <apic/>
    <acpi/>
  </features>
virsh define xml

If you are using f9 or f10, the above can be simplified with the 'virsh
edit' command, which will alter the xml in place.

Thanks,
Cole