Re: [gentoo-user] QEMU setup questions

[Kerin Millar <kerframil@fastmail.co.uk>]

On 24/07/2013 10:50, Walter Dnes wrote:
>    So I emerged QEMU, which pulled in some dependancies.  Things are not
> going well...
>
> 1) The following warning shows up in elog...
>
>> WARN: pretend
>> You have decided to compile your own SeaBIOS. This is not supported
>> by upstream unless you use their recommended toolchain (which you are
>> not).  If you are intending to use this build with QEMU, realize you
>> will not receive any support if you have compiled your own SeaBIOS.
>> Virtual machines subtly fail based on changes in SeaBIOS.
>    I don't see any USE flags about this.
The "binary" flag is an IUSE default but you're preventing the flag from 
being enabled somehow.
>
> 2) I download a Gentoo install ISO, and create a 7 gig raw file sda.raw,
> and start qemu-kvm
>
> $ qemu-kvm -hda sda.raw -cdrom installx86.iso -boot d
> Could not access KVM kernel module: Permission denied
> failed to initialize KVM: Permission denied
>
> but... but... but... I am a member of group "kvm".
Check that KVM support is available in the kernel (CONFIG_KVM_INTEL or 
CONFIG_KVM_AMD as appropriate). Another thing to bear in mind is that 
older kernels are unable to load the module on an on-demand basis. I 
can't remember exactly in which version they changed that. You should 
end up with the following device node:

# ls -l /dev/kvm
crw-rw---- 1 root kvm 10, 232 Dec  2  2012 /dev/kvm

>
> 3) su to root and retry to start QEMU
>
> # qemu-kvm -hda sda.raw -cdrom installx86.iso -boot d
> qemu-system-x86_64: pci_add_option_rom: failed to find romfile "pxe-e1000.rom"
> VNC server running on `127.0.0.1:5900'
>
> So root has sufficient permission, but there's a problem with the BIOS,
> possibly related to item 1) above
>
> Note; I can run as regular user, either of the 2 commands...
> $ qemu-system-i386 -hda sda.raw -cdrom installx86.iso -boot d
> $ qemu-system-x86_64 -hda sda.raw -cdrom installx86.iso -boot d
> This doesn't run into permission problem 2), but still runs into the
> rom not found problem 3).
>
> 4) At least VNC is running.  I emerged tigervnc and tried it
>
> $ vncviewer
>
> TigerVNC Viewer 64-bit v1.2.0 (20130723)
> Built on Jul 23 2013 at 21:36:16
> Copyright (C) 1999-2011 TigerVNC Team and many others (see README.txt)
> Seehttp://www.tigervnc.org  for information on TigerVNC.
> X_ChangeGC: BadFont (invalid Font parameter) 0x0
>
> ...and the dialog box is all blanks, presumably because of the missing
> fonts.
VNC servers and clients vary in their capabilities rather more than they 
ought to. I would suggest tightvnc as I've found that to work splendidly 
with qemu.

--Kerin