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Migrated guests do not display the boot menu on the serial console
Virtual machines (VMs) created on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 that have no graphics card (such as VMs created using the virt-install utility with the "--graphics none" option) do not show the boot menu on the serial console anymore after migrating to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 hosts. To work around this problem, add the <bios useserial='yes'/> line to the domain.xml file, which allows the boot menu to display as expected.
Note that if the XML file is modified this way, it should not be used on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.6 or earlier, as these do not benefit from changes introduced for BZ#1162759.
Description of problem:
In the past (EL6) when creating a VM with no graphics (i.e specify
--graphics none to virt-install) I could enable the bootmenu
(<bootmenu enable='yes'/>) and it would show up on the serial
console with no problem.
In RHEL7 and Fedora 20 I have to also add <bios useserial='yes'/> to
get the boot menu to show up on the serial console. This seems like a
regression of sorts.
Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
From RHEL7 RC:
libvirt-1.1.1-29.el7.x86_64
qemu-kvm-1.5.3-60.el7.x86_64 I also tried with qemu-kvm-rhev
kernel-3.10.0-121.el7.x86_64
How reproducible:
Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1. Create a guest with only serial device (no graphics) and add <bootmenu enable='yes'/> to xml.
2. Observe that you get no boot prompt.
3. Add <bios useserial='yes'/>
4. Observe you now get a boot prompt (as well as extra output which may be another bug)
Actual results:
Had to add useserial=yes to xml in order to see boot menu. To observe behavior download attachments and run scriptreplay el7-screencast.{timing,log}. Notice that menu to "press F12" only appears after adding <bios useserial='yes'/>.
Expected results:
Expected the behavior as it was in EL6. To observe old behavior download attachments and run scriptreplay el6-screencast.{timing,log}
Additional info:
If you notice the extra output when observing and think it is a bug please let me know and I can file it.
QEMU used to add the sga device automatically before commit 6023d83 [1] when -nographic was specified (libvirt specifies this option when no <graphics> elements are present in the domain XML).
[1] http://git.qemu.org/?p=qemu.git;a=commitdiff;h=6023d83
The extra output does look like a bug to me. Moving to qemu-kvm as neither of these seem to be libvirt's fault.
(In reply to Jan Tomko from comment #8)
> The extra output does look like a bug to me. Moving to qemu-kvm as neither
> of these seem to be libvirt's fault.
Should I make a separate bug for the "extra output"? Under qemu-kvm?
This was done because it was requested by Anthony. The idea was to revert it sooner or later, but that was never done.
I guess we need to fix virt-install to add the attribute when it creates the domain, and document the difference.
So, it was a bad idea in RHEL6, now we cannot have different behavior in RHEL7.0 and RHEL7.1 and have to deal with the backwards compatibility issues. Marking CondNAK design.
The virt-install part, mentioned in comment 11, is bug 1130886.
It would be good to also adjust RHEL6 libvirt, so that it avoids supplying two copies of the sgabios option ROM if the user uses <bios useserial='yes'/> and -nographic at the same time. This is bug 1162759.
Laura, can you please move this to the appropriate component so that we can have it in the release notes or the right manual?
Description of problem: In the past (EL6) when creating a VM with no graphics (i.e specify --graphics none to virt-install) I could enable the bootmenu (<bootmenu enable='yes'/>) and it would show up on the serial console with no problem. In RHEL7 and Fedora 20 I have to also add <bios useserial='yes'/> to get the boot menu to show up on the serial console. This seems like a regression of sorts. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): From RHEL7 RC: libvirt-1.1.1-29.el7.x86_64 qemu-kvm-1.5.3-60.el7.x86_64 I also tried with qemu-kvm-rhev kernel-3.10.0-121.el7.x86_64 How reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. Create a guest with only serial device (no graphics) and add <bootmenu enable='yes'/> to xml. 2. Observe that you get no boot prompt. 3. Add <bios useserial='yes'/> 4. Observe you now get a boot prompt (as well as extra output which may be another bug) Actual results: Had to add useserial=yes to xml in order to see boot menu. To observe behavior download attachments and run scriptreplay el7-screencast.{timing,log}. Notice that menu to "press F12" only appears after adding <bios useserial='yes'/>. Expected results: Expected the behavior as it was in EL6. To observe old behavior download attachments and run scriptreplay el6-screencast.{timing,log} Additional info: If you notice the extra output when observing and think it is a bug please let me know and I can file it.