[libvirt] Problem in handling fast prints from QEMU to stderr

[Dan Kenigsberg]

On Thu, Nov 26, 2009 at 11:51:48AM +0000, Daniel P. Berrange wrote:
> On Wed, Nov 25, 2009 at 06:49:24PM +0200, Saul Tamari wrote:
> > Hi,
> > 
> > I think I spotted a bug in the way libvirtd handles stderr output from QEMU VMs.
> > 
> > When starting a VM and QEMU outputs too much output data to stderr
> > (during a given time period), libvirtd will fail and report the
> > following error to /var/log/messages:
> > libvirtd: 13:44:40.695: error : internal error Out of space while
> > reading console log output
> > 
> > I looked at the libvirt code a bit and it seems like the
> > stderr-handling code (I think its in qemudReadLogOutput()) is
> > time-dependent and if a 4K buffer overflows it will stop running this
> > VM.
> > As a workaround I added some usleep(250000) near the fprintf() calls
> > (inside QEMU) and I now manage to get the VM running.
> > 
> > Is this the way libvirtd is supposed to behave?
> 
> We only look at stdout to find the path for the PTY based char devices.
> This is the first thing QEMU prints out to stderr when operating normally
> and easily fits in 4K.  So the real question is why is your QEMU binary
> spewing so much junk to stdout/stderr before the PTY paths ?  Is there
> anything of interest in /var/log/libvirt/qemu/$GUESTNAME.log

Could it be related to the 

Nov 26 06:59:30 white-vdsa libvirtd: 06:59:30.456: error : qemudReadLogOutput:1185 : internal error Timed out while reading console log output 
Nov 26 06:59:30 white-vdsa libvirtd: 06:59:30.456: error : qemudWaitForMonitor:1304 : internal error unable to start guest:  

I'm seeing once in a while? I, too, have non-standard debug info spewing from
qemu.