[virt-tools-list] Lilo succeeds with kvm but not virt-manager

[Daniel Janzon]

On 06/05/2010 06:00 PM, virt-tools-list-request at redhat.com wrote:
> Message: 1
> Date: Fri, 4 Jun 2010 17:55:17 +0100
> From: "Richard W.M. Jones"<rjones at redhat.com>
> To: Daniel Janzon<daniel.janzon at edgeware.tv>
> Cc: virt-tools-list at redhat.com
> Subject: Re: [virt-tools-list] Lilo bootloader succeeds with kvm but
> 	not	virt-manager
> Message-ID:<20100604165517.GA4612 at amd.home.annexia.org>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
>
> On Fri, Jun 04, 2010 at 02:03:12PM +0200, Daniel Janzon wrote:
>    
>> I installed Linux Suse as a guest in virt-manager/KVM and had trouble to
>> install grub. So I used good old Lilo instead. When running Suse in
>> virt-manager Lilo fails with
>>
>>    LILO - Keytable read/checksum error on bootup
>>
>> When I go
>>
>>    kvm -m 512 -hda SLES-10.3.img
>>      
> libvirt won't have such a simple command line.  There could be other
> KVM options which affect things at boot.
>
> I have a couple of suggestions:
>
> (1) Find out the full libvirt command line.  Easiest is to start the
> domain under virt-manager and quickly use the 'ps ax' command.  (There
> is a more "official" way to convert libvirt XML into a qemu command
> line but I cannot recall what that is at the moment).
>    

Smart! I did that and found out that it is the boot=on drive option that 
is the cause of the problem:

     -drive file=/root/SLES-10.3.img,if=ide,index=0,boot=on

For some reason it only works when it is set to boot=off. I tried 
<boot>off</boot> and boot="off" in the target tag in the corresponding 
disk tag in the XML file, but with no luck. I also tried to remove the 
<boot dev='hd'/> from the os tag. I did do a "/etc/init.d/libvirt-bin 
reload" just in case. Is there any way to get control the boot option 
from the XML file?

> (2) Use virt-rescue or guestfish and see if you can install grub in
> the domain.  In guestfish it'd be something like this:
>
>    guestfish -i GuestName
>    ><fs>  mkdir-p /boot/grub
>    ><fs>  grub-install /boot /dev/sda1
>
> (You might need to change those command slightly and read the man page
> for virt-rescue, guestfish and/or grub-install).
>    

Ok, thanks for the tip. I will consider it if it impossible to control 
the boot option as explained above. Or maybe I'll just settle with being 
annoyed and start the machine from the command line :)


All the best,
Daniel Janzon