[libvirt] libxl driver issue with console/virt-viewer

[Jim Fehlig]

Dario Faggioli wrote:
> Hi Jim, everyone,
>
> I'm having an issue using the libvirt's libxl driver while installing a
> Fedora 18 (via netinstall) on both Fedora 18 or rawhide host.
>
> So, what happens is, basically, that I do not see the output from the
> installer at all, neither in the virt-viewer instance that virt-install
> does pop-up automatically, nor trying to manually connect to the VM
> (either with virt-viewer or VNC). So, when I do:
>
> [xen at zhaman ~]$ sudo virt-install --paravirt --name f18-i386 --ram
> 2048 --vcpus 2 -f /dev/vms/f18_i386 --network bridge=virbr0 --location
> http://mirrors.rit.edu/fedora/linux//releases/18/Fedora/i386/os/
> Starting install...
> Retrieving file .treeinfo...                    | 2.4 kB  00:00:00 !!!
> Retrieving file vmlinuz-PAE...                  | 9.3 MB  00:00:33 !!!
> Retrieving file initrd-PAE.img...               |  52 MB  00:04:11 !!!
> Creating domain...
>
> And then, in the virt-viewer window, I see a black screen and all it
> says is "serial0 console". using `xl console f18-i386' gives me some of
> the textual output of the installer (but nothing graphical, of course).
>   

Hmm, do you see things like /local/domain/0/backend/console/-1 in
xenstore instead of /local/domain/0/backend/console/<vm-id>?

I think you need this patch

http://xenbits.xen.org/gitweb/?p=xen.git;a=commit;h=5420f26507fc5c9853eb1076401a8658d72669da

which doesn't appear to be in Xen 4.2 afaict.

Regards,
Jim

> Both Fedora 18 and rawhide have the following version of Xen:
> [xen at zhaman ~]$ rpm -qa | grep xen
> xen-hypervisor-4.2.2-3.{fc18|fc20}.x86_64
> xen-4.2.2-3.{fc18|fc20}.x86_64
> ...
>
> Regarding libvirt, on F18 I have:
> [xen at zhaman ~]$ rpm -qa | grep libvirt
> libvirt-client-0.10.2.4-1.fc18.x86_64
> libvirt-daemon-driver-libxl-0.10.2.4-1.fc18.x86_64
> libvirt-daemon-0.10.2.4-1.fc18.x86_64
> libvirt-daemon-xen-0.10.2.4-1.fc18.x86_64
> ...
>
> While, on rawhide:
> [xen at zhaman ~]$ rpm -qa | grep libvirt
> libvirt-client-1.0.5-2.fc20.x86_64
> libvirt-daemon-driver-libxl-1.0.5-2.fc20.x86_64
> libvirt-daemon-1.0.5-2.fc20.x86_64
> libvirt-daemon-xen-1.0.5-2.fc20.x86_64
> ...
>
> I'm calling it a libxl driver problem since, with both versions, if I
> start xend, things work fine, and I can see both the textual and
> graphical phases of the Fedora installer in the virt-viewer window from
> the very beginning.
>
> I checked in /var/log/libvirt/libxl/libxl.log, but couldn't find
> anything particular. Also, I tried to `virsh edit xxx' in the libxl and
> xend cases, and the result is attached.
>
> The only difference between the two files that looks relevant to me is
> the presence of the following section in the xend version:
>
>     <console type='pty'>
>       <target type='xen' port='0'/>
>     </console>
>
> However, I tried passing "--console pty,target_type=xen" to virt-install
> when using the libxl driver, which caused a similar section to appear in
> the XML of that solution too, but _did_NOT_ solve the issue.
>
> Any idea on what can cause this?
>
> Thanks and Regards,
> Dario
>
>