Problems with e1000 network card on qemu.git

[Lucas Meneghel Rodrigues <lmr@redhat.com>]

Hi folks:

As most of you might know, we run some daily sanity and functional tests
with both qemu-kvm.git and qemu.git. I decided to write asking for help
with regards to what it appears to be a problem with the e1000 nw card
(the default). Here is a list of what it fails pretty much every day for
qemu.git:

1) Problems logging into guest with e1000 card

kvm.qemu-git.RHEL.5.5.i386.e1000.boot                                                        FAIL  Could not log into guest 'vm1'                       
kvm.qemu-git.RHEL.5.5.i386.e1000.reboot                                                      FAIL  Could not log into guest 'vm1'                       
kvm.qemu-git.RHEL.5.5.i386.e1000.shutdown                                                    FAIL  Could not log into guest 'vm1'                       

^ At first I thought this was some sort of intermittent, harmless
problem, but it reproduces fairly frequently, thing that pretty much
doesn't happen with virtio. 

kvm.qemu-git.RHEL.5.5.i386.virtio_net.boot	GOOD	completed successfully
kvm.qemu-git.RHEL.5.5.i386.virtio_net.reboot	GOOD	completed successfully
kvm.qemu-git.RHEL.5.5.i386.virtio_net.shutdown	GOOD	completed successfully

Looking at test logs and screenshots the only thing that I found
abnormal was:

2010-09-23 05:51:02: EXT3-fs: recovery complete.
2010-09-23 05:51:02: EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
2010-09-23 05:51:05: type=1404 audit(1285235453.446:2): enforcing=1 old_enforcing=0 auid=4294967295 ses=4294967295
2010-09-23 05:51:06: type=1403 audit(1285235454.059:3): policy loaded auid=4294967295 ses=4294967295
2010-09-23 05:53:16: hdc: drive_cmd: status=0x41 { DriveReady Error }
2010-09-23 05:53:16: hdc: drive_cmd: error=0x04 { AbortedCommand }
2010-09-23 05:53:16: ide: failed opcode was: 0xec

^ Serial logs for the RHEL5.5 guest. If someone wants the full serial
log, please let me know.

2) Qemu dies during unattended install

kvm.qemu-git.RHEL.5.5.x86_64.e1000.unattended_install.cdrom                                  ERROR Guest died before end of OS install 

^ This is the bug

https://bugs.launchpad.net/qemu/+bug/588955

Which is, according to preliminary investigation done, a bug on the
slirp code. IMHO, we really need to start looking into those issues,
even because e1000 is the default network card.

Cheers,

Lucas