Virtualisation on F7 - I give up

John Lagrue jlagrue at gmail.com
Tue Jun 12 20:22:47 UTC 2007


On 12/06/07, Andras Simon <szajmi at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 6/12/07, John Lagrue <jlagrue at gmail.com> wrote:
> > No matter what docs I read, whether I use qemu-kvm or use the Virtual
> > Machine Manager, or use virt-install, I cannot get WinXP installed on
> > a guest. It just consistently gives me the BSoD.
>
> What problems did you run into with qemu-kvm? What hardware do you
> run? Maybe someone on this list can help.  Since I did an XP install
> this way, I'm reasonably sure it can be done.
>
> >
> > It seems that all the effort is in Xen for those who want to run this
> > on the server level to supply a gazillion Linux VMs. Nothing else
> > seems to work, and as for some reason Xen refuses even to exist on my
> > F7 I can't try that - not that it would work with Windows anyway, from
> > my understanding.
> >

OK, after the cry of despair, I tried once more, and this time it
worked. But it was NOT by using the usual channels.

1. Use the Virtual Machine Manager to create a new VM and the
associated disc file of 5Gb. That will fail on a WinXP install after
the reboot into Windows because it loses any knowledge of the CDROM.

2. Run "qemu -boot d -hda CC3_1 -cdrom /dev/cdrom -m 256 -localtime"
Note: qemu, NOT qemu-kvm. If it is run with qemu-kvm then the
resulting install crashes with the BSoD every time.

Running the qemu... command seemed to get slower and slower,; it took
at least 2 hours to install WinXP Pro. But it eventually did finish.

Once the WinXP install has completed then the resulting guest can be
run either from the VMM or with qemu-kvm (yes, the -kvm version works
a treat after the installation). The subsequent installation of XPSP2
took no more than 20 mins or so.

So far, so good. But there are a few nasties now bugging me:

virsh doesn't work at all; it just reports "failed to connect to the hypervisor"

If I run the guest via the VMM then I get some semblance of a network
with a guest address 192.168.122.200. There's a working DNS lookup
that will translate names into addresses, but I can't get onto any
local or remote network. This is a showstopper! And running under the
VMM makes the mouse very erratic and difficult to operate.

Running with the qemu-kvm command presents no problems at all with the
mouse; but this too does not give me any network at all, not even DNS
lookup.

I've tried to delve into the networking of VMs but everything is
written from the Xen perspective and seems to be based on the idea of
a local network of virtual machines. I don't want that; I just want my
guests to see my network and the internet.

Any further pointers that anyone can give me?

JDL




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