Description of problem:

$ sudo virt-install -v -n F12x64 --accelerate -r 768 -f /dev/vg_thinkpad/F12x64 -l 'http://www.mirrorservice.org/sites/download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/releases/12/Fedora/x86_64/os/'


Starting install...
Retrieving file .treeinfo...                             | 2.4 kB     00:00 ... 
Retrieving file vmlinuz...                               | 6.5 MB     00:11 ... 
Retrieving file initrd.img...                            |  45 MB     01:18 ... 
ERROR    internal error unable to start guest: char device redirected to /dev/pts/1
qemu: could not load kernel '/var/lib/libvirt/boot/virtinst-vmlinuz.Rxvbss': Permission denied

Domain installation may not have been
 successful.  If it was, you can restart your domain
 by running 'virsh start F12x64'; otherwise, please
 restart your installation.
ERROR    internal error unable to start guest: char device redirected to /dev/pts/1
qemu: could not load kernel '/var/lib/libvirt/boot/virtinst-vmlinuz.Rxvbss': Permission denied
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/sbin/virt-install", line 972, in <module>
    main()
  File "/usr/sbin/virt-install", line 834, in main
    start_time, guest.start_install)
  File "/usr/sbin/virt-install", line 896, in do_install
    dom = install_func(conscb, progresscb, wait=(not wait))
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/virtinst/Guest.py", line 795, in start_install
    return self._do_install(consolecb, meter, removeOld, wait)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/virtinst/Guest.py", line 896, in _do_install
    self.domain = self.conn.createLinux(install_xml, 0)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/libvirt.py", line 1098, in createLinux
    if ret is None:raise libvirtError('virDomainCreateLinux() failed', conn=self)
libvirtError: internal error unable to start guest: char device redirected to /dev/pts/1
qemu: could not load kernel '/var/lib/libvirt/boot/virtinst-vmlinuz.Rxvbss': Permission denied

The domain is not running:

$ sudo virsh list --all
 Id Name                 State
----------------------------------

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):

python-virtinst-0.500.2-1.fc13.noarch
libvirt-0.7.6-1.fc13.i686

How reproducible:

Happens fairly reliably for me.