Re: XP blue screen with qemu-kvm-0.11.0

[Michael Tokarev <mjt@tls.msk.ru>]

Ross Boylan wrote:
> On Sat, 2009-10-31 at 15:21 +0300, Michael Tokarev wrote:
[]
>> Switch to alsa to get your audio working.
> I don't see an alsa option for kvm/qemu.  I'm already running alsa, but
> under KDE which tends to grab the device.

Which device you think KDE grabs?
OSS device (/dev/dsp) can only be opened once, subsequent attempts will
return EBUSY.  But alsa devices can be opened multiple times.  "Grabbing"
alsa devices is not supported.

For alsa usage in kvm, see -audio-help option.  My package (from corpit.ru)
is built with alsa being the default driver.

>>> The VM starts; I see the initial XP screen with the 4 colors; I see the
>>> background I get when I log in (it logs me in directly without prompt);
>>> and then (pretty fast) I get a blue screen.  The stop code is 0x8E, and
>>> the text says to check disk space and BIOS options.
>> What's the bios files your kvm uses?  Are they by a change
>> from some old qemu install?
> They appear to be from the latest install, since strace shows various
> bios files loading from /usr/local/kvm/share.  The invoking environment
> was a little different from the real run, since strace vdeq ....
> apparently traced vdeq but not kvm calls.  So I just ran the kvm bare.

Ok.

>> Does kvm deb from http://www.corpit.ru/debian/tls/kvm/ expose the same
>> issue?
> Yes.  However, as it fails it left a reverberating sound (fragment of
> the Windows login tone).

That's semi-expected after a crash.  Unlike with real hardware, when
everything including the sound card gets reset by the bios right after
a crash, your host continues running and your sound card continues
executing the commands.

> I tried starting in safe mode.  XP said there was new hardware: the
> video (-vga std).  It could not find a driver on the internet(!? the
> device was identified as a VGA controller).  Then it told me the driver
> had been installed (after I hit finish).  I rebooted in regular mode.
> This time there was no sound, but the machine failed again with STOP
> 0x8E (as before).  The video appeared to be working throughout this,
> showing a window that exceeded vanilla VGA resolution.

-vga std creates a generic but 100% fake video card in guest.  The
card understands standard VESA/VGA commands and modes, but windows
does not know who the vendor is, since it does not try to emulate
any real device (like cirrus for example).  It's an "unnamed" device
of class "VGA device".  No doubt windows can't find a driver for a
non-existing device, even in internet.  But the thing is that the
default generic video driver works with this adaptor just fine.
But windows thinks is't not the most appropriate driver and marks
this device in the device tree.

But this all has nothing to do with your issues.  Audio, VGA and
straceing - it's all ok.  Your main problem appears to be the
broken disk image.  May be it's kvm's fault, maybe windows -
it's very difficult to say by now.

/mjt