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

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

[Oliver Rath]

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

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

[Sasha Levin]

On Tue, 2011-12-20 at 11:01 +0100, Oliver Rath wrote:
> 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?

Are you sure that windows is using the serial device at all?

You're not emulating a keyboard there, you're emulating input from a
serial device.

-- 

Sasha.

SOLVED [was Re: Controlling (WinXP-Guest)- Textmode via chardev pipe broken?]

[Oliver Rath]

Am 20.12.2011 13:08, schrieb Sasha Levin:
> [..]
> Whats wrong?
> Are you sure that windows is using the serial device at all?
>
> You're not emulating a keyboard there, you're emulating input from a
> serial device.
>
HI Sasha,

Ive found a better solution:

It is possible to pipe the qemu-monitor:

qemu ... -monitor pipe:.winpipe/path

so Im able to send commands through the path.in pipe via
sendkey-kommand, i.e.

echo "sendkey r" > .winpipe/path.in
echo "sendkey d" > .winpipe/path.in
echo "sendkey shift-dot" > .winpipe/path.in
echo "sendkey ret" > .winpipe/path.in

Its not very komfortable, but does its job :-)

Tfh!

Regards,

Oliver