[libvirt-users] libvirt, OSX and VirtualBox - how?

[Matthias Bolte]

2011/11/6 Brian Candler <B.Candler at pobox.com>:
> I have a new OSX Lion Macbook and would like to control VirtualBox using
> "virsh" (as I do with KVM under Ubuntu).
>
> I've got this far:
>
> * Installed VirtualBox

Which version?

> But now I'm a bit stuck :-)
>
> I ran VirtualBox itself, and created a test VM successfully.
>
> If I try to use virsh, this is what I get:
>
> Brians-MacBook-Air:~ $ virsh -c vbox:///session
> error: internal error unable to initialize VirtualBox driver API
> error: failed to connect to the hypervisor

vbox:///session is the correct URI.

> Brians-MacBook-Air:~ $ virsh -c vbox+unix:///session
> error: Failed to connect socket to '@/Users/brian/.libvirt/libvirt-sock': No such file or directory
> error: failed to connect to the hypervisor
>
> If I try to start libvirtd, this is what I get:
>
> Brians-MacBook-Air:~ $ /usr/local/sbin/libvirtd
> 00:00:18.970: -1: info : libvirt version: 0.9.6
> 00:00:18.970: -1: error : virNetSocketNewListenUNIX:340 : Failed to bind socket to '@/Users/brian/.libvirt/libvirt-sock': No such file or directory
>
> [but directory /Users/brian/.libvirt was created]

IIRC the problem here is that libvirtd uses anonymous UNIX sockets
that are specific to Linux. Anyway, you don't need libvirtd for
VirtualBox, virsh -c vbox:///session is just fine.

> However, VirtualBox itself is running OK:
>
> Brians-MacBook-Air:~ $ VBoxManage list vms
> "test" {d0d74c25-1dfc-44a4-8a2b-1d25b7972e7c}
>
> Furthermore, dtruss suggests that virsh is finding the installed VirtualBox:
>
> Brians-MacBook-Air:~ $ sudo dtruss -f virsh -c vbox:///session 2>&1 | grep -i virtualbox
> error: internal error unable to initialize VirtualBox driver API
> 48916/0x3cc08:  write_nocancel(0x2, "internal error unable to initialize VirtualBox driver API\n\0", 0x3A)               = 58 0
> 48916/0x3cc08:  access("/usr/lib/virtualbox/VBoxXPCOMC.dylib\0", 0x0, 0x0)       = -1 Err#2
> 48916/0x3cc08:  access("/usr/lib/virtualbox-ose/VBoxXPCOMC.dylib\0", 0x0, 0x0)   = -1 Err#2
> 48916/0x3cc08:  access("/usr/lib64/virtualbox/VBoxXPCOMC.dylib\0", 0x0, 0x0)     = -1 Err#2
> 48916/0x3cc08:  access("/usr/lib64/virtualbox-ose/VBoxXPCOMC.dylib\0", 0x0, 0x0) = -1 Err#2
> 48916/0x3cc08:  access("/usr/lib/VirtualBox/VBoxXPCOMC.dylib\0", 0x0, 0x0)       = -1 Err#2
> 48916/0x3cc08:  access("/opt/virtualbox/VBoxXPCOMC.dylib\0", 0x0, 0x0)           = -1 Err#2
> 48916/0x3cc08:  access("/opt/VirtualBox/VBoxXPCOMC.dylib\0", 0x0, 0x0)           = -1 Err#2
> 48916/0x3cc08:  access("/opt/virtualbox/i386/VBoxXPCOMC.dylib\0", 0x0, 0x0)      = -1 Err#2
> 48916/0x3cc08:  access("/opt/VirtualBox/i386/VBoxXPCOMC.dylib\0", 0x0, 0x0)      = -1 Err#2
> 48916/0x3cc08:  access("/opt/virtualbox/amd64/VBoxXPCOMC.dylib\0", 0x0, 0x0)     = -1 Err#2
> 48916/0x3cc08:  access("/opt/VirtualBox/amd64/VBoxXPCOMC.dylib\0", 0x0, 0x0)     = -1 Err#2
> 48916/0x3cc08:  access("/usr/local/lib/virtualbox/VBoxXPCOMC.dylib\0", 0x0, 0x0) = -1 Err#2
> 48916/0x3cc08:  access("/usr/local/lib/VirtualBox/VBoxXPCOMC.dylib\0", 0x0, 0x0) = -1 Err#2
> 48916/0x3cc08:  access("/Applications/VirtualBox.app/Contents/MacOS/VBoxXPCOMC.dylib\0", 0x0, 0x0)               = 0 0
> 48916/0x3cc08:  stat64("/Applications/VirtualBox.app/Contents/MacOS/VBoxXPCOMC.dylib\0", 0x7FFF685D0980, 0x7FFF685D1810)                 = 0 0
> 48916/0x3cc08:  open("/Applications/VirtualBox.app/Contents/MacOS/VBoxXPCOMC.dylib\0", 0x0, 0x0)                 = 4 0
> 48916/0x3cc08:  stat64("/Applications/VirtualBox.app/Contents/MacOS/VBoxRT.dylib\0", 0x7FFF685D0750, 0x7FFF685D15D0)             = 0 0
> 48916/0x3cc08:  open("/Applications/VirtualBox.app/Contents/MacOS/VBoxRT.dylib\0", 0x0, 0x0)             = 4 0
> 48916/0x3cc08:  stat64("/Applications/VirtualBox.app/Contents/MacOS/VBoxXPCOM.dylib\0", 0x7FFF685D0750, 0x7FFF685D15D0)          = 0 0
> 48916/0x3cc08:  open("/Applications/VirtualBox.app/Contents/MacOS/VBoxXPCOM.dylib\0", 0x0, 0x0)          = 4 0

That's good, so libvirt actually finds the required XPCOM library.

The error you're getting indicates that libvirt has a problem
initializing the XPCOM library.

> Has anybody got libvirt + OSX Lion + VirtualBox working, and if so, how did
> you do it?

I don't have an OSX at hand for testing, but you can try

LIBVIRT_LOG_FILTERS=1:vbox virsh -c vbox:///session

and post the output here. This might give a hint about what's wrong.

-- 
Matthias Bolte
http://photron.blogspot.com