[libvirt-users] Guests ignoring config changes

I have a libvirt/kvm setup on a Gentoo system which I've been using happily for a couple of years. Recently, after a round of updates, I started encountering all sorts of strange behavior, which I'll mostly skip for now... My current issue is that guest domains appear to be ignoring changes made with 'virsh edit <domain>'. Two examples: My primary desktop VM is crashing on boot, so I'm trying to boot it with an install/rescue CD. In my client definition file I have: <os> <type arch='x86_64' machine='pc-0.13'>hvm</type> <boot dev='cdrom'/> <boot dev='hd'/> </os> ...and the cdrom defined elsewhere in the file points to a real ISO file, which I know is bootable. But when I start the guest, it ignores the CD and boots from the (buggy) system image on the hd device. This still happens if I remove the "<boot dev='hd'/>" line altogether. Second example: I created another VM, definition copied from the one above, so that I wouldn't be playing around with anything important. On first boot it complains: error: internal error process exited while connecting to monitor: char device redirected to /dev/pts/3 inet_listen_opts: bind(ipv4,127.0.0.1,5911): Address already in use inet_listen_opts: FAILED ...Oops, forgot to fix my VNC port. So I edited the VM using "virsh edit", found the VNC line, changed "port=5911" to "port=5912". Saved, verified that my change appears in the XML file on disk, tried again to start the guest, and got the same complaint about port 5911 being in use. "virsh dumpxml" shows the corrrected port number, but for some reason the change isn't making it through to the guest. I've tried restarting libvirtd, with no effect, so I'm guessing there must be some cache of VM configuration data that isn't being updated when I edit my guest definitions? What am I doing wrong? Thanks, --Michael