Hi guys.

I cannot start a domain - I wonder if the firmware, in xml, have anything to do with it or issue is different?

Jul 17 11:07:41 virtqemud[5658]: Unable to read from monitor: Connection reset by peer
Jul 17 11:07:41 virtqemud[5658]: internal error: QEMU unexpectedly closed the monitor (vm='ubusrv2'): 2026-07-17T09:07:41.089484Z qemu-kvm: -blockdev {"node-name":"libvirt-2-format","read-only":false,"discard":"unmap","cache":{"direct":true,"no-flush":false},"driver":"qcow2","encrypt":{"format":"luks","key-secret":"libvirt-2-format-encryption-secret0"},"file":"libvirt-2-storage","backing":null}: Could not initialize refcount handling: Input/output error
Jul 17 11:07:41 virtqemud[5658]: internal error: process exited while connecting to monitor: 2026-07-17T09:07:41.089484Z qemu-kvm: -blockdev {"node-name":"libvirt-2-format","read-only":false,"discard":"unmap","cache":{"direct":true,"no-flush":false},"driver":"qcow2","encrypt":{"format":"luks","key-secret":"libvirt-2-format-encryption-secret0"},"file":"libvirt-2-storage","backing":null}: Could not initialize refcount handling: Input/output error

Above happens with:

  <os firmware='efi'>
    <type arch='x86_64' machine='pc-q35-rhel10.2.0'>hvm</type>
    <firmware>
      <feature enabled='no' name='enrolled-keys'/>
      <feature enabled='yes' name='secure-boot'/>
    </firmware>
    <loader readonly='yes' type='pflash' format='raw'>/usr/share/edk2/ovmf/OVMF_CODE.secboot.fd</loader>
    <nvram template='/usr/share/edk2/ovmf/OVMF_VARS.fd' templateFormat='raw' format='raw'>/var/lib/libvirt/qemu/nvram/ubusrv2_VARS.fd</nvram>

if I do not use EFI than domain starts, no above virtqemud errors, but guest does not boot, expectedly I think - I used to boot a ok.

qemu-img shows no issues.

Any thoughts?
many thanks, L.