KVM Guest installed from console. But how to get to the guest's console?

Posted by badbishop on Server Fault See other posts from Server Fault or by badbishop
Published on 2011-04-10T15:17:51Z Indexed on 2011/11/13 9:55 UTC
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I'm trying to install a fully virtualized guest (Fedora 14 x86_64) on KVM (RHEL 6), using command-line only (both hypervisor and guest). It goes without errors, and without a tangible result . I'd like to know how to do a text-only installation.

So, here's what I've done:

# virt-install \
--name=FE --ram=756 --vcpus=1 \
--file=/var/lib/libvirt/images/FE.img  --network bridge:br0 \
--nographics --os-type=linux  \
--extra-args='console=tty0' -v \
--cdrom=/media/usb/Fedora-14-x86_64-Live-Desktop.iso 


Starting install...
Creating domain...                                                                                                                                                        |    0 B     00:00     
Connected to domain FE
Escape character is ^]
ÿ

Now what? As I understand after googling for a couple of days, I should see the guest's output from the text installation, but nothing happens. virt-viewer cannot connect to it, kindly suggesting that I explore all the options by adding --help (which I did). If I reconnect with virsh, I see this:

Domain installation still in progress. You can reconnect to 
the console to complete the installation process.
[root@v ~]
# virsh console FEConnected to domain FE
Escape character is ^]

This shows that VM is running

# virsh list
 Id Name                 State
----------------------------------
  8 FE                   running

Qemu log:

LC_ALL=C PATH=/sbin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/usr/bin /usr/libexec/qemu-kvm -S -M rhel6.0.0 -enable-kvm -m 756 -smp 1,sockets=1,cores=1,threads=1 -name FE -uuid 6989d008-7c89-424c-d2d3-f41235c57a18 -nographic -nodefconfig -nodefaults -chardev socket,id=monitor,path=/var/lib/libvirt/qemu/FE.monitor,server,nowait -mon chardev=monitor,mode=control -rtc base=utc -no-reboot -boot d -drive file=/var/lib/libvirt/images/FE.img,if=none,id=drive-ide0-0-0,format=raw,cache=none -device ide-drive,bus=ide.0,unit=0,drive=drive-ide0-0-0,id=ide0-0-0 -drive file=/media/usb/Fedora-14-x86_64-Live-Desktop.iso,if=none,media=cdrom,id=drive-ide0-1-0,readonly=on,format=raw -device ide-drive,bus=ide.1,unit=0,drive=drive-ide0-1-0,id=ide0-1-0 -netdev tap,fd=20,id=hostnet0 -device rtl8139,netdev=hostnet0,id=net0,mac=52:54:00:0a:65:8d,bus=pci.0,addr=0x2 -chardev pty,id=serial0 -device isa-serial,chardev=serial0 -usb -device virtio-balloon-pci,id=balloon0,bus=pci.0,addr=0x3 
char device redirected to /dev/pts/1

Output of /etc/libvirt/qemu/FE.xml

# cat /etc/libvirt/qemu/FE.xml 
<domain type='kvm'>
  <name>FE</name>
  <uuid>6989d008-7c89-424c-d2d3-f41235c57a18</uuid>
  <memory>774144</memory>
  <currentMemory>774144</currentMemory>
  <vcpu>1</vcpu>
  <os>
    <type arch='x86_64' machine='rhel6.0.0'>hvm</type>
    <boot dev='hd'/>
  </os>
  <features>
    <acpi/>
    <apic/>
    <pae/>
  </features>
  <clock offset='utc'/>
  <on_poweroff>destroy</on_poweroff>
  <on_reboot>restart</on_reboot>
  <on_crash>restart</on_crash>
  <devices>
    <emulator>/usr/libexec/qemu-kvm</emulator>
    <disk type='file' device='disk'>
      <driver name='qemu' type='raw' cache='none'/>
      <source file='/var/lib/libvirt/images/FE.img'/>
      <target dev='hda' bus='ide'/>
      <address type='drive' controller='0' bus='0' unit='0'/>
    </disk>
    <disk type='block' device='cdrom'>
      <driver name='qemu' type='raw'/>
      <target dev='hdc' bus='ide'/>
      <readonly/>
      <address type='drive' controller='0' bus='1' unit='0'/>
    </disk>
    <controller type='ide' index='0'>
      <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x01' function='0x1'/>
    </controller>
    <interface type='bridge'>
      <mac address='52:54:00:0a:65:8d'/>
      <source bridge='br0'/>
      <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x02' function='0x0'/>
    </interface>
    <serial type='pty'>
      <target port='0'/>
    </serial>
    <console type='pty'>
      <target port='0'/>
    </console>
    <memballoon model='virtio'>
      <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x03' function='0x0'/>
    </memballoon>
  </devices>
</domain>

I'm obviously missing something that many others don't, but what is it? Thanx in advance!

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