PCI Passthrough with QEMU-KVM-SPICE fails

[Aaron Rogers]

lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS
Release: 12.04

apt-cache policy qemu-kvm-spice
qemu-kvm-spice:
  Installed: 1.0.50-2012.03-0ubuntu2
  Candidate: 1.0.50-2012.03-0ubuntu2
  Version table:
 *** 1.0.50-2012.03-0ubuntu2 0
        500 http://au.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise/universe amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

Attempting to passthrough a PCI device using kvm-spice fails.
Upon investigating logs, I was able to locate the following:
kvm-spice: -device pci-assign,host=25:00.0,id=hostdev0,bus=pci.0,addr=0x7: Parameter 'driver' expects device type

Appropriate config data from virtual machine:
    <hostdev mode='subsystem' type='pci' managed='yes'>
      <source>
        <address domain='0x0000' bus='0x25' slot='0x00' function='0x0'/>
      </source>
      <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x07' function='0x0'/>
    </hostdev>

If I attempt to start using just geneic qemu-kvm, PCI passes through correctly

 /usr/bin/kvm -S -M pc-1.0 -enable-kvm -m 1024 -smp 1,sockets=1,cores=1,threads=1 -name Win7 -uuid 0639053f-03ef-1d53-6bbb-fca91a597053 -nodefconfig -nodefaults -chardev socket,id=charmonitor,path=/var/lib/libvirt/qemu/Win7.monitor,server,nowait -mon chardev=charmonitor,id=monitor,mode=control -rtc base=localtime -no-shutdown -device virtio-serial-pci,id=virtio-serial0,bus=pci.0,addr=0x5 -drive file=/dev/VG_SYSTEM/VM_WIN7,if=none,id=drive-ide0-0-0,format=raw -device ide-drive,bus=ide.0,unit=0,drive=drive-ide0-0-0,id=ide0-0-0,bootindex=1 -netdev tap,fd=20,id=hostnet0 -device rtl8139,netdev=hostnet0,id=net0,mac=52:54:00:2f:ed:45,bus=pci.0,addr=0x3 -chardev pty,id=charserial0 -device isa-serial,chardev=charserial0,id=serial0 -usb -device usb-tablet,id=input0 -vnc 127.0.0.1:0 -vga cirrus -device intel-hda,id=sound0,bus=pci.0,addr=0x4 -device hda-duplex,id=sound0-codec0,bus=sound0.0,cad=0 -device pci-assign,host=25:00.0,id=hostdev0,configfd=21,bus=pci.0,addr=0x7 -device virtio-balloon-pci,id=balloon0,bus=pci.0,addr=0x6

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: qemu-kvm-spice 1.0.50-2012.03-0ubuntu2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-23.36-generic 3.2.14
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-23-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: fglrx
ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu8
Architecture: amd64
Date: Sat Jun 9 23:53:20 2012
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Release amd64 (20120425)
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_AU:en
 TERM=xterm
 LANG=en_AU.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: qemu-linaro
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Robstarusa (rob-naseca)]

This affects me as well. in Quantal. Is someone going to release a fix for this? Any idea how to force my vm (generated with virt-manager) to use kvm instead of kvm-spice?

[Robstarusa (rob-naseca)]

er, my version of kvm-qemu-spice is 1.2.0-2012.09-0ubuntu1

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[neonkandi (jodi-curtis)]

I am having problems with kvm-spice trying to use filesystem, it is giving the same message reported by many sources which reference PCI passthrough, I don't know if they rely on a similar mechanism behind the scenes, I am a bit of a noob, but I can't see a problem with the use of <filesystem>

<filesystem rtpe="mount" accessmode="squash">
    <driver type="path" />
    <source dir="/var/lib/libvirt/drivers" />
    <target dir="/host/drivers" />
    <readonly />
 </filesystem>

error: Failed to start domain VM7
error: internal error process exited while connecting to monitor: char device redirected to /dev/pts/1
kvm: -device virtio-9p-pci,id=fs0,fsdev=fsdev-fs0,mount_tag=/var/lib/libvirt/drivers,bus=pci.0,addr=0x3: Parameter 'driver' expects device type

qemu-kvm-spice:
  Installed: 1.2.0-2012.09-0ubuntu1
  Candidate: 1.2.0-2012.09-0ubuntu1
  Version table:
 *** 1.2.0-2012.09-0ubuntu1 0
        500 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ quantal/universe amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

[Aaron Rogers (uitin)]

Hi guys,
As a work around, find the emulator tag in the Xml configuration and switch it from kvm-spice to kvm.

Unfortunately it means you will loose the spice capabilities.