kvm can't initialize due to old kvm kernel version

[Josh Ancill]

Binary package hint: kvm

When trying to use kvm version in feisty I get the following error.

mempf@Mempftop:~/kvm$ sudo kvm -boot c -hda vdisk.img -no-acpi -m 256
kvm kernel version too old
Could not initialize KVM, will disable KVM support

Please note this only started to occur after an update to kvm 11-0-ubuntu1.

[Paul Williams (pwill)]

Confirmed here with a dual-core Pentium D with VT enabled.
Confirmed also by various users on this thread: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=321521&page=2

Marking as confirmed, high importance, as it inhibits use of KVM enabled Qemu.

[Paulo Tanimoto (tanimoto)]

Confirmed in AMD64 and EMT64 platforms. Assigning to Kernel-bugs, unless somebody has a better idea.

[Kyle McMartin (kyle)]

Update merged, upload pending. Stay tuned.

[Kyle McMartin (kyle)]

Uploaded and built, bug closed.

[Matej Kenda (matejken)]

I have installed kvm 15-1ubuntu1 with Linux kernel 2.6.20-9-generic (2.6.20-9.16), but the problem mentioned in the description is still present.

[Matej Kenda (matejken)]

Part of the strace kvm that shows the problem:

open("/dev/kvm", O_RDWR) = 3
ioctl(3, 0xae01, 0) = 2
write(2, "kvm kernel version too old\n", 27kvm kernel version too old
) = 27
close(3) = 0
write(2, "Could not initialize KVM, will d"..., 51Could not initialize KVM, will disable KVM support
) = 51

[Igor (igor47)]

I have the same problem here on an Intel Core Duo T60

This happened after a kvm upgrade yesterday from 12-1ubuntu1 to 15-1ubutu1.

iisereb@serenity:~$ kvm
kvm kernel version too old
Could not initialize KVM, will disable KVM support
QEMU PC emulator version 0.9.0,

iisereb@serenity:~$ uname -a
Linux serenity 2.6.20-9-386 #2 Mon Feb 26 02:58:41 UTC 2007 i686 GNU/Linux

[Igor (igor47)]

A WORKAROUND:

I attempted to downgrade the the previous version of KVM after this problem happened, but unfortunately the previous version is no longer in the repositories.

If you need kvm as badly as I do, the workaround is to find someone with the old version still installed and use their /usr/bin/kvm binary. I simply overwrote the new version with the older version, and it seems to work with no obvious problems.

I got the older version from a coworker who is more conservative in his upgrades, but if you trust some sketchy binary some dude uploaded onto a website, attached is the kvm_12-1ubuntu1 version of the /usr/bin/kvm binary.

[Stephen Touset (stephen-touset)]

FWIW, this is a likely bad idea. The kvm binary in this case might not be tied to any other libraries in its package, but that's no guarantee for future use. Older packages, if not in the repositories, can still often be found in the pool.

Manually overwriting binaries controlled by the packaging system can cause unpredictable problems. If you do so, please back up the original version first.

[Matej Kenda (matejken)]

It appears that this problem has been solved.

I use the following packages and KVM works fine:

* linux-image-2.6.20-13-generic 2.6.20-13.21
* kvm 16-1ubuntu1

Bug can be closed.

[Clarke Wixon (cwixon)]

I wouldn't be too quick to close this -- I'm getting the same error with kvm-18 compiled from source (Feisty AMD64 2007-03-31 daily image, kernel 2.6.20-13). The same kvm release worked fine on Edgy, kernel 2.6.17-11 (same system).

It's possible this has nothing to do with the kvm package, but rather the kernel package or some other dependency. Bears further investigation.

[Sarah Kowalik (hobbsee-deactivatedaccount)]

appears to have been fixed due to http://www.mail-archive.com/feisty-changes%40lists.ubuntu.com/msg08215.html

[Christian Schürer-Waldheim (quincunx)]

No, it's still not fixed. Version 16 crashes when trying to start the ubuntu server feisty cd image (see bug #107172 and #103665). And version 18 of KVM can't use the kernel KVM modules due to not matching API versions as stated in this bug report.

[Kevin Kubasik (kkubasik)]

I'm able to use KVM, still has a hard time booting in some systems, but all said and done its functional....