[libvirt] specifying -serial telnet: in XML

I run qemu (version 0.9.1 kvm-84) with -serial option as follows: - serial telnet::2445,server so I can telnet to 2445 and have a serial console. I tried specifying this to libvirt (version 0.6.0) using the following stanza: <serial type='tcp'> <source mode="bind" host="127.0.0.1" service="2445"/> <protocol type="telnet"/> <target port="1"/> </serial> I checked /var/log/libvirt/qemu/<guest>.log and found that libvirt added 'nowait' to the serial option: -serial telnet:127.0.0.1:2445,server,nowait which is fine (I think). But when I start my guest, and "telnet 127.0.0.1 2445" I don't get any output even though the guest boots up fine. After the guest boots $ echo foo > /dev/ttyS0 in the guest shows the 'foo' in the telnet window. But I don't get the boot/shutdown messages. I also have the vnc option in the xml, <graphics type='vnc' port='5902' autoport='no' listen='127.0.0.1'/> so if I open vncviewer, I can see the boot messages. The problem with this though is if the kernel fails to boot for some reason, the vncviewer exits and I can't find the reason the boot failed. My kernel boot command line has 'console=ttyS0' option. Is there anything else I need to ensure 'telnet 127.0.0.1 port' displays the messages ? Thanks, Sukadev