Red Hat Bugzilla – Bug 439945
e1000 should not be default NIC
Last modified: 2008-04-01 09:54:31 EDT
Description of problem: e1000 NIC is should not be the default, because WinXP does not have a driver for it, by default. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): kvm-64-2.fc9 How reproducible: Every time Steps to Reproduce: 1. Install KVM from rawhide on Fedora 8 2. Boot WinXP or Linux Actual results: WinXP: Popup to say 'new hardware found' but no driver is found Linux: lspci shows this is not rtl8139 as expected Expected results: rtl8139 for maximum compatability Additional info: If we wish to use the new driver (say to get better IO with the guest), it should be selected on the kvm command line, perhaps set by libvirt and the installer based on selected OS, not by default. If this was in tandem with some libvirt/virt-manger change, then a conflicts in the RPM is required.
Yeah, I agree thats less than ideal... However, the e1000 driver is a great deal better for any kind of modern linux guest. ;( Ideally we could get libvirt to allow this to be set on a per guest basis, perhaps even defaulting on xp guests to rtl8139 and e1000 for linux guests. Any opinions from the libvirt folks?
That's certainly doable, but not for F9 given that we're way past feature freeze.
That's why we changed it early was so we could learn about any problems like this. Changing it back to rtl8139 for now... hopefully the relevant libvirt/virt-manager bits can get done for Fedora 10