Xen on FC6 : virt-install and virt-manager unable to create new guest

[LaughingBoy]

I'm having fun banging my head against the proverbial wall with Xen at the moment. Following instructions from here and running :

virt-install

I end up with the following error message:

Starting install...
libvir: Xen Daemon error : POST operation failed: (xend.err "Error creating domain: (12, 'Cannot allocate memory')")
Failed to create domain elmo4
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/sbin/virt-install", line 396, in ?
main()
File "/usr/sbin/virt-install", line 360, in main
dom = guest.start_install(conscb)
File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/virtinst/XenGuest.py", line 355, in start_install
self.domain = self.conn.createLinux(cxml, 0)
File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/libvirt.py", line 329, in createLinux
if ret is None:raise libvirtError('virDomainCreateLinux() failed', conn=self)
libvirt.libvirtError: virDomainCreateLinux() failed POST operation failed: (xend.err "Error creating domain: (12, 'Cannot allocate memory')")

After following another suggestion, I tried

virt-manager

This yielded a briefer (but similar) error message saying:

ERROR: virDomainCreateLinux() failed POST operation failed: (xend.err "Error creating domain: (12, 'Cannot allocate memory')")

I'm running as root, and the system has 2GB of RAM.
It's an Athlon X2 5000+ and I only allocated 512MB for the quest RAM (via console, but 500 via GUI - accepting defaults).

Is someone able to help me sort this one out?

Yes, I was running as root for this to determine if that was why it couldn't allocate memory...

[root@localhost Data]# uname -r -s -v -p -i
Linux 2.6.18-1.2849.fc6xen #1 SMP Fri Nov 10 13:56:52 EST 2006 athlon i386

[LaughingBoy]

As a follow up - I've tried setting "Maximum Memory" and "Initial Memory" both to all sorts of values down to as low as 50MB with the same problem:

libvir: Xen Daemon error : POST operation failed: (xend.err "Error creating domain: (12, 'Cannot allocate memory')")
Failed to create domain test

These were all created using the "simple file" storage space solution, and allocating anywhere between 100MB and 10GB.

What other "allocation of memory" could it be referring to ??

Helf!

(Attached is the dmesg from the Xen startup)

[LaughingBoy]

For some strange reason the problem has gone away after a reboot. I was unsure what would have changed, as I've rebooted into this kernel at least three times this week.

But, after a quick read of a message on the mailing list (who uses them now-a-days anyhow?) It was able to (attempt to) boot up a Vista RC2 image.

It Blue-Screened mind you, with:

*** STOP: 0X0000005C (0X00003000, 0X00000001, 0X00000008, 0X00000000)

Nothing else was on the screen... weird.

Unsure what a 5C BSOD means... any help with that? I'll try another version of Windows while I await an answer.

[LaughingBoy]

I managed to get it to begin the installation of an XP setup, but when I came back from a coffee while it was "copying files" the VM has gone.
Does anyone know how to get it back? I tried to use the virt-manager to "restore" the saved machine by selecting the file chosen as the VM's image, but I get the following:

libvir: Xen Daemon error : POST operation failed: (xend.err 'Restore failed')
libvir: error : library call virDomainRestore failed, possibly not supported

Is that a Xen bug?
I also get:

Error restoring domain '/usr/local/data/xp.img'. Is the domain already running?

The virt-manager GUI only shows the Domain-0 - nothing else. <confused>

I tried to re-install XP in a new VM, and it gets all the way to "You must now reboot inside 15 seconds...", reboots and BAM - window / VM gone. How do I get it back?

More help, please?

[pjfg]

The virt-manager GUI seems buggy in my experience. What did you name your VM? There should be a config file in /etc/xen, so try:

xm create your-vm-name

[LaughingBoy]

I tried that, and it started up ... kinda. It showed in the GUI that it was "running", so I tried to attach to it, and all I got was a black screen.

I shut it down, and tried again with a different screen using "create" (Is that just silly using that keyword?), and I found the same thing... just a black screen. Nothing happened.

Then... any further attempts would result in a Error 12 - Cannot allocate memory. If this is a bug, do I file it under Xen kernel, virt-manager, xm, what? :-/

I just wanted to run a copy of Windows under FC6...

[LaughingBoy]

I rebooted again this morning, hoping that might solve another problem, but now I get extremely unreliable use from virt-manager (see attached).

"Starting" the VMs from the console (xm create) starts them (apparently) but I never see anything after that. running virt-manager, I select "Open" and ... well... I get a black window.

Ideas people... I need ideas! How do I get this to work?!

[cctjon]

Same issue with Dell XPS 400 and Pentium D 950 with VT. The initial file copy goes fine, then the reboot, which means shutdown in this case. When I do the "xm create vmname" I too see the system start in vm manager but the console is blacked out? Eventually, the cpu utilization of the vm goes to 0% so I am pretty sure it is stalling out. This stuff has a long way to go to be ready for prime time. I downloaded the actual XenSource Distro tonight. I am going to try that and see if same issue happens in the next day or so and will report back. If it does not, then we can only assume this is a Fedora 6 specific problem ( could be 5 too? anyone tried FC5?)

[a_cecere]

de-active SELinux

[LaughingBoy]

de-active SELinux

Hi a_cecere, thanks for your suggestion. I didn't think of that, but I'm reasonably sure I don't bother turning it on by default anymore. That is to say, on any new system I install, I don't bother enabling SELinux, because of the problems that it's introduced. They may have fixed a lot recently, but I don't require it at work.

Because I adopted this approach, I'm reasonably sure it's not the cause. I can't verify this until Monday when I'm back at work, though.

L.B.

[LaughingBoy]

selinux was indeed off :

[root@localhost ~]# getenforce
Disabled

It turns out it was a bug in Xen somewhere, and has been fixed as of version 3.0.3-6.fc6

Hope this helps anyone else following this thread.