Controlling (WinXP-Guest)- Textmode via chardev pipe broken?

[Oliver Rath <rath@mglug.de>]

Hi List,

Im trying to control a winxp installation process (esp. the text-mode
part) via pipe through kvm. Im using the git-version of kvm from
yesterday (2011-12-19), build with these parameters:

~/qemu-kvm$ ./configure --enable-sdl
~/qemu-kvm$ make
~/qemu-kvm$ sudo make install

What works:

1. Generating ~/.winpipe/path.{in,out}via mkdir .winpipe; mkfifo
.winpipe/path.in; mkfifo .winpipe/path.out
2. Creating emty image via qemu-img create win.img 20G
3. Starting kvm via: qemu-system-x86_64 -m 1G -hda win.img -cdrom
winxpsp3.iso -chardev pipe,id=mywinpipe,path=.winpipe/path

What doesn't:

1. Piping some text via echo "R" > .winpipe/path.in (i.e. for starting
repair console in winxp-textmode) doesnt have any effect
2. Reading from path.out via cat ~/.winpipe/path.out (nothing happens
except the vm ends, then the command "cat .winpipe/path.out" ends, too)
has no result, only waiting
3. There is no .pipe/ directory inside winxp, wether on C: nor on D:
(looked in via starting repair-console with "R")


Whats wrong?

Tfh!

Oliver