Description of problem: I can't install an IA64 RHEL4.8 guest on a RHEL5.5 IA64 host, neither with ou without paravirtualisation. $ virt-install -n rhel4 -r 512 -f /var/lib/libvirt/images/rhel4.dsk -s 6 --nographics \ -l http://download.englab.brq.redhat.com/pub/rhel/released/RHEL-4/U8/AS/ia64/tree/ Starting install... ERROR Couldn't find xen kernel for Red Hat Enterprise Linux tree Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): $ virt-install --hvm -n rhel4 -r 512 -f /var/lib/libvirt/images/rhel4.dsk -s 6 --nographics \ -l http://download.englab.brq.redhat.com/pub/rhel/released/RHEL-4/U8/AS/ia64/tree/ Starting install... Retrieving file boot.iso... | 25 MB 00:01 ERROR POST operation failed: xend_post: error from xen daemon: (xend.err 'Error creating domain: Kernel image does not exist: /usr/lib/xen/boot/hvmloader') Domain installation may not have been successful. If it was, you can restart your domain by running 'virsh start rhel4'; otherwise, please restart your installation. ERROR POST operation failed: xend_post: error from xen daemon: (xend.err 'Error creating domain: Kernel image does not exist: /usr/lib/xen/boot/hvmloader') Traceback (most recent call last): File "/usr/sbin/virt-install", line 889, in ? main() File "/usr/sbin/virt-install", line 751, in main start_time, guest.start_install) File "/usr/sbin/virt-install", line 813, in do_install dom = install_func(conscb, progresscb, wait=(not wait)) File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/virtinst/Guest.py", line 541, in start_install return self._do_install(consolecb, meter, removeOld, wait) File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/virtinst/Guest.py", line 633, in _do_install self.domain = self.conn.createLinux(install_xml, 0) File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/libvirt.py", line 974, in createLinux if ret is None:raise libvirtError('virDomainCreateLinux() failed', conn=self) libvirtError: POST operation failed: xend_post: error from xen daemon: (xend.err 'Error creating domain: Kernel image does not exist: /usr/lib/xen/boot/hvmloader') How reproducible: Always. Steps to Reproduce: 1. Use virt-install as seen above. 2. 3. Actual results: Error. Expected results: Install succeeds. Additional info:
Does installing a RHEL5 IA64 guest work? Can you provide the output of virsh capabilities virt-install command with --debug
Apparently this is a known issue, you need to install the xen-ia64-guest-firmware package. There are code legality/licensing issues that prevent xen from having a hard dependency on it apparently. So I think virtinst is doing everything correct here, closing as NOTABUG