I give up! How should the xml-file look? In http://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsConsole it says something like: </devices> <console type='pty'> <source path='/dev/pts/4'/> <target port='0'/> </console> </devices> But in Xen example (http://libvirt.org/drvxen.html) it looks like: <devices> <console tty='/dev/pts/5'/> </devices> I have latest versions from source on both libvirt (Mercurial) and virt-manager (CVS). Before I updated virt-manager (from Ubuntus Hardy-version) I had a choice for serial console which opened a console window which was all "Black" inside. After upgrade of virt-manager I got no contact with any serial console at all. My guest is a qemu image of OpenBSD with console configured to first serial port. I could see that the image is ok, if I reconfig the xml-file to use vnc instead. Then I see that OpenBSD is trying to use serial port as console. Output from /var/log/libvirt/qemu/obsd64.log: /usr/bin/kvm -M pc -m 512 -smp 1 -name obsd64 -nographic -monitor pty -no-acpi -boot c -drive file=/home/cs/kvm/OpenBSD/obsd64.hda,if=ide,index=0,boot=on -net nic,macaddr=00:16:3e:17:9d:f7,vlan=0 -net user,vlan=0 -serial pty -parallel none -usb char device redirected to /dev/pts/1 char device redirected to /dev/pts/2 When I have the following xml-fil (/etc/libvirt/qemu/obsd64.xml): <domain type='qemu'> <name>obsd64</name> <uuid>5b315a1a-530a-1f13-fcb7-54098c9968a7</uuid> <memory>524288</memory> <currentMemory>524288</currentMemory> <vcpu>1</vcpu> <os> <type arch='x86_64' machine='pc'>hvm</type> <boot dev='hd'/> </os> <clock offset='utc'/> <on_poweroff>destroy</on_poweroff> <on_reboot>restart</on_reboot> <on_crash>destroy</on_crash> <devices> <emulator>/usr/bin/kvm</emulator> <disk type='file' device='disk'> <source file='/home/cs/kvm/OpenBSD/obsd64.hda'/> <target dev='hda' bus='ide'/> </disk> <interface type='user'> <mac address='00:16:3e:17:9d:f7'/> </interface> <console tty='/dev/pts/1'/> </devices> </domain> And the log from virt-manager says: [Mon, 19 May 2008 13:11:32 virt-manager 3973] DEBUG (manager:413) VM obsd64 started [Mon, 19 May 2008 13:11:36 virt-manager 3973] DEBUG (details:1010) Trying console login [Mon, 19 May 2008 13:11:36 virt-manager 3973] DEBUG (details:1015) No graphics configured in guest [Mon, 19 May 2008 13:11:36 virt-manager 3973] DEBUG (details:528) In hw_selected with null tree iter [Mon, 19 May 2008 13:11:36 virt-manager 3973] DEBUG (details:528) In hw_selected with null tree iter [Mon, 19 May 2008 13:11:36 virt-manager 3973] DEBUG (details:1010) Trying console login [Mon, 19 May 2008 13:11:37 virt-manager 3973] DEBUG (details:1015) No graphics configured in guest Is this working/tested? Regards Claes PS I have tried many many variants on <console>.......