Arch Linux

Description:

With upgrade of qemu-kvm to 0.15.0-1 on x86-64, I can't start windows XP anymore. It was working fine before though...

The following option makes startup useless (blue screen if starting console, hangs for ever if any other thing including safe mode):

-soundhw ac97

If using virtio for network as follows:

-net nic,model=virtio

Then the following warning always pops up several times:

qemu-kvm: virtio_ioport_write: unexpected address 0x13 value 0x0

And things keep working but network never starts and eventually any user interface dies.

Once the previous is changed by non virtio as follows:

-net nic,model=rtl8139

I got rid of the warnings, but then I still got no user interface working after a while. So I also changed loading the disk image as virtio:

-drive file=$1,if=virtio

By just plain disk image:

-hda $1

And I could advance further. The time I got user interfaces working was a bit longer. Unfortunately after some little more time the user interfaces all die...

I'm trying several things, but nothing seems to work. What shows as a key for a bit improvement is getting rid of sound and also virtio drivers. Getting rid of virtio drivers is a shame, since those allowed a little bit of acceleration on the VM.

BTW, I'm using the right modules:

% lsmod | 'grep' kvm
kvm_intel 53373 3
kvm 328912 1 kvm_intel

And I have been for quiet a while...

Thanks,

Javier.


Additional info:
* package version(s)

% pacman -Ss qemu-kvm
extra/qemu-kvm 0.15.0-1 [installed]
Latest KVM QEMU is a generic and open source processor emulator which
achieves a good emulation speed by using dynamic translation.

% pacman -Ss linux
...
core/linux 3.0.2-1 (base) [installed]
The Linux Kernel and modules
...

* config and/or log files etc.

+++++++++++++++
#!/bin/sh

USERID=`whoami`
IFACE=`sudo tunctl -b -u $USERID`
sudo ifconfig $IFACE 0.0.0.0 promisc up
sudo brctl addif br0 $IFACE

ARGS_GEN="-enable-kvm -drive file=$1,if=virtio -boot order=c -m 512 -rtc base=localtime"
ARGS_NET="-net nic -net tap,ifname=$IFACE,script=no,downscript=no"
ARGS_BIOS0="-smbios file=/home/vasqueja/.qemu_kvm/bios_bin/smbios_type_0.bin"
ARGS_BIOS1="-smbios file=/home/vasqueja/.qemu_kvm/bios_bin/smbios_type_1.bin"
ARGS_VGA="-vga std"
#ARGS_AUDIO="-soundhw ac97"
ARGS_AUDIO=""
ARGS_USB="-usb -usbdevice tablet"
ARGS_CPU=""
ARGS_NIC="-net nic,model=virtio"

echo "Starting QEMU with:"
echo "..."
echo General arguments: $ARGS_GEN
echo Network arguments: $ARGS_NET
echo BIOS0 arguments: $ARGS_BIOS0
echo BIOS1 arguments: $ARGS_BIOS1
echo VGA arguments: $ARGS_VGA
#echo SMB arguments: $ARGS_SMB
echo AUDIO arguments: $ARGS_AUDIO
echo USB arguments: $ARGS_USB
echo CPU arguments: $ARGS_CPU
echo NIC arguments: $ARGS_NIC
echo "...."

qemu-kvm $ARGS_GEN $ARGS_NET $ARGS_BIOS0 $ARGS_BIOS1 $ARGS_VGA $ARGS_AUDIO $ARGS_USB $ARGS_CPU $ARGS_NIC
sudo brctl delif br0 $IFACE
sudo tunctl -d $IFACE
+++++++++++++++


Steps to reproduce:

Start qemu-kvm through the little script shared or equivalent set of options...