[libvirt] libvirt spice command line appears to be incorrect (was: Re: [virt-tools-list] vdagent does not start with domain defined by virt-manager 0.8.7)

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 ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Marian Krcmarik <mkrcmari(a)redhat.com&gt; Date: Mon, Apr 18, 2011 at 5:56 PM Subject: Re: [Spice-devel] vdagent does not start To: Emre Erenoglu <erenoglu(a)gmail.com&gt; Cc: spice-devel(a)lists.freedesktop.org ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Emre Erenoglu" <erenoglu(a)gmail.com&gt; > To: spice-devel(a)lists.freedesktop.org > Sent: Sunday, April 17, 2011 1:10:16 PM > Subject: [Spice-devel] vdagent does not start > Dear Developers, > > I have a virtual XP system with the spice channel enabled through the > serial port. The command line that runs qemu has (reduced): > > -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 I think you may need to specify chardev for spice so I would modify: -device virtio-serial-pci,id=virtio-serial0,bus=pci.0,addr=0x8 -chardev spicevmc,id=channel0,name=vdagent -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 with agent and virtio-serial driver installed on guest. > > However, the vdagent services does not start. when I give it a start > control, it reports to start then stop immediately. Here are the logs > I've found: -- Emre