[virt-tools-list] libvirt spice command line appears to be incorrect

[Cole Robinson]

On 04/25/2011 04:27 AM, Richard W.M. Jones wrote:
> [Copying this to libvir-list]
> 
> On Mon, Apr 25, 2011 at 01:07:37AM +0400, Emre Erenoglu wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> I'm the package maintainer for virt-manager and related packages for Pardus
>> distribution. While testing the latest libvirt, virtinst & virt-manager
>> packages, I've come across a strange issue and I would like to get your
>> valuable opinion.
>>
>> I add all spice related devices and everything works good, except the
>> vdagent inside the windows xp guest. The virtio serial driver is loaded
>> correctly. As I track down the issue, I found out that libvirt is starting
>> qemu-kvm with parameters which do not match the ones adviced by the spice
>> people. Please see below email discussion with them on this. The offending
>> line seems to be the chardev parameter.  qemu-kvm is started by virt-manager
>> with the following parameter for chardev:
>>
>> -chardev null,id=channel0
>>
>> and the full spice related parameters are:
>>
>> -device virtio-serial-pci,id=virtio-serial0,bus=pci.0,addr=0x8 -chardev
>> null,id=channel0 -device
>> virtserialport,bus=virtio-serial0.0,nr=0,chardev=channel0,name=com.redhat.spice.0
>> -usb -device usb-tablet,id=input0 -spice
>> port=5900,addr=127.0.0.1,disable-ticketing -vga qxl -device
>> qxl,id=video1,bus=pci.0,addr=0x7
>>
>> while spice people adviced:
>>
>> -chardev spicevmc,id=channel0,name=vdagent
>>
>> and the rest of the parameters to match it. See below mail on the details.
>> I don't know if this is really the issue, but I also recognize the following
>> inside the domain XML:
>>
>>     <channel type='null'>
>>       <target type='virtio' name='com.redhat.spice.0'/>
>>       <address type='virtio-serial' controller='0' bus='0' port='0'/>
>>     </channel>
>>
>> the "channel type" is listed as "null", while I assume it should have been
>> listed as "spicevmc". (not sure of this, I saw this in some other
>> websites).  When I edit the domain xml with virsh edit, it saves my changes
>> but the "null" stays the same how many times I try to change it.
>>
>> Please note that I've applied the following patches to virtinst 0.500.6:
>>
>> constrain-spicevmc-usage-correct.patch
>> virtinst-fix-channel-parse.patch
>> virtinst-spicevmc-fixes.patch
>>
>> which I obtained from the git. I also patched virt-manager 0.8.7 with the
>> following I obtained from the git:
>>
>> chardev-hide-unsupported-params-for-selected-type.patch
>> only-show-relevant-char-device-fields.patch
>> show-char-device-target-name.patch
>> chardev-propose-to-add-remove-spice-agent.patch
>> allow-setting-char-device-target-name.patch
>> fix-adding-removing-channel-device.patch
>>
>> Any idea what I might be missing to get the vdagent run inside the windows
>> guest?
>>
>> Many thanks,
>>
>> Emre Erenoglu

What libvirt version are you using? spicevmc requires libvirt 0.8.8. However
if libvirt is silently reverting to 'null' it's a bug either way.

- Cole