[libvirt-users] installing and accessing a VM? - newbie question maybe

[vrms at netcologne.de]

I have been coming closer to what I want (at least for the installation process) using this now

sudo virt-install --name=my_domain --ram=512 --vcpus=1 \
--location=/path/to/ubuntu-16.04.1-server-amd64.iso \
--disk /path/to/vm.qcow2,device=disk,bus=virtio,size=32 \
--network bridge:br0 \
--os-type=linux  \
--nographics \
--extra-args='console=tty0 console=ttyS0,115200n8 serial'

I get a console view of the VM in the hosts console and can attend and guide the installation process as hoped for. I guess --extra-args='console=tty0 console=ttyS0,115200n8 serial' is what enables this. This seems not to be persisting though.
After the post-installation's reboot I am at the beginning again

Connected to domain ubn1604
Escape character is ^]

and the '--extra-args' are not supported by 'virsh console'

so, is there any way to get the 'console=tty0 console=ttyS0,115200n8 serial' up again after a reboot?
--devname sounds promising but:

   virsh console --devname 'console=tty0 console=ttyS0,115200n8 serial' [my_domain] 

only gets me

   internal error: cannot find character device console=tty0 console=ttyS0,115200n8 serial

(same with variations of the above)



> On September 1, 2016 at 1:31 PM Martin Kletzander <mkletzan at redhat.com> wrote:
> 
> On Thu, Sep 01, 2016 at 10:11:38AM +0800, vrms at netcologne.de wrote:
> 
> > wanted to follow up on that part (thanks about all comment suggestion regarding virt-viewer and vcn, etc. I will test them as well but would prefer the 'console way' if possible
> > 
> > On August 29, 2016 at 2:44 PM Martin Kletzander <mkletzan at redhat.com> wrote:
> > 
> > > *   When you are connected you don't see anything because the VM doesn't
> > > have console properly set up, I'd guess.
> > 
> > the xml file of my machines (all of them actually) have the below in the 'console' section.
> > 
> > ...
> >  
> >  
> >  
> >  ...
> > 
> > Is it this has to be adjusted in order to 'properly set up the console' ?
> > any pointers what to put here? tried 'bash' for 'type' but that didn't work
> > 
> > best ...Gunnar
> 
> This is fine, there is no need to do anything here. As I said, the only
> thing you need to do is convince the guest kernel to use that ttyS0 as a
> console (by appending console=ttyS0 as a kernel cmdline parameter).
> Details on how to do that are explained in my previous mail.
> 
> Also, there is no need to guess parts of the configuration, we have a
> documentation for the XML [1], as well as bunch of other things [2] and
> working man pages.
> 
> Martin
> 
> [1] https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html
> [2] https://libvirt.org/docs.html