PXE boot not working

[Jan Smets]

/root/qemu-test/qemu-kvm/x86_64-softmmu/qemu-system-x86_64 -net tap,vlan=0,name=tap.0 -boot n -net nic,macaddr=$MAC,vlan=0,model=e1000,name=e1000.0 -chardev socket,id=monitor,host=0.0.0.0,port=$MONITORPORT,telnet,server,nowait -monitor chardev:monitor

net0: 02:5a:3b:27:00:a1 on PCI00:03.0 (open)
 [Link:up, TX:0 TXE:0 RX:0 RXE:0]
 DHCP (net0 02:5a:3b:27:00:a1)................ Connection timed out (0x4c106035)
 No more network devices

No bootable device.

After doing a system_reset ....

net0: 02:5a:3b:27:00:a1 on PCI00:03.0 (open)
 [Link:up, TX:0 TXE:0 RX:0 RXE:0]
DHCP (net0 02:5a:3b:27:00:a1).... ok
net0: 10.201.1.161/255.0.0.0 gw 10.0.0.1
Booting from filename "boot.pxe"
tftp://x.x.x./boot.pxe.. ok

And it magaically works.

using HEAD.

[Anthony Liguori (anthony-codemonkey)]

I can't reproduce this. I'm using:

commit d9b73e47a3d596c5b33802597ec5bd91ef3348e2
Author: Corentin Chary <email address hidden>
Date: Tue Jun 1 23:05:44 2010 +0200

    vnc: add missing target for vnc-encodings-*.o

I'm using the command:

sudo x86_64-softmmu/qemu-system-x86_64 -net tap,vlan=0,name=tap.0 -boot n -net nic,vlan=0,model=e1000,name=e1000.0 -chardev socket,id=monitor,host=0.0.0.0,port=1024,telnet,server,nowait -monitor chardev:monitor

The DHCP server I'm using is dnsmasq and it pxe boots as expected. I've also confirmed that pxe boot is still functional after a system_reset.

Please include information about the exact version of qemu that you are using and the DHCP server that is configured on your network. Please also try to reproduce with the latest git.

[Jan Smets (jan-smets)]

using latest git

dhcp-3.0.1-58.EL4

with configuration:

 host xxxx { filename "boot.pxe"; hardware ethernet 02:5A:3B:27:00:A1; fixed-address 10.201.1.161; }

#
## server config
#
server-identifier a.b.c.d;
server-name "some-name";
default-lease-time 600;
max-lease-time 1200;
ddns-update-style ad-hoc;
#log-facility local6;

allow booting;
allow bootp;

Latest GIT -> git clone http://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/virt/kvm/qemu-kvm.git

configured with options

./configure --target-list=x86_64-softmmu --enable-gprof --enable-debug --enable-linux-aio --enable-profiler --with-kvm-trace

Install prefix /usr/local
BIOS directory /usr/local/share/qemu
binary directory /usr/local/bin
Manual directory /usr/local/share/man
ELF interp prefix /usr/gnemul/qemu-%M
Source path /root/qemu-test/qemu-kvm
C compiler gcc
Host C compiler gcc
CFLAGS -g
QEMU_CFLAGS -Werror -m64 -fstack-protector-all -Wold-style-definition -Wold-style-declaration -I. -I$(SRC_PATH) -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -D_GNU_SOURCE -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64 -D_LARGEFILE_SOURCE -W
strict-prototypes -Wredundant-decls -Wall -Wundef -Wendif-labels -Wwrite-strings -Wmissing-prototypes -fno-strict-aliasing
LDFLAGS -Wl,--warn-common -m64 -g
make make
install install
host CPU x86_64
host big endian no
target list x86_64-softmmu
tcg debug enabled yes
Mon debug enabled yes
gprof enabled yes
sparse enabled no
strip binaries no
profiler yes
static build no
-Werror enabled yes
SDL support yes
curses support yes
curl support yes
check support no
mingw32 support no
Audio drivers oss
Extra audio cards ac97 es1370 sb16
Block whitelist
Mixer emulation no
VNC TLS support yes
VNC SASL support yes
xen support no
CPU emulation yes
brlapi support no
bluez support no
Documentation yes
NPTL support yes
GUEST_BASE yes
PIE user targets no
vde support no
IO thread no
Linux AIO support yes
Install blobs yes
KVM support yes
KVM PIT support yes
KVM device assig. yes
KVM trace support yes
fdt support no
preadv support yes
fdatasync yes
uuid support yes
vhost-net support yes

[Arsen.Shnurkov (arsen-shnurkov)]

The same to me, but rarely it does start only from third attempt

[Michal Suchanek (hramrach)]

There seems to be an issue with kvm virtual network interface being connected to a in-kernel bridge implementation.

When you configure networking that way the bridge port comes up when the kvm instance is started.

As the time from the kvm start to entering the netboot rom is minimal and the timeout before the bridge starts forwarding on new ports is long this may cause the machine never getting an address.

If you are using a bridge try setting the forwarding delay to a small value like:

iface vmbridge inet static
 bridge_ports <probably should put some network interface name here - undocumented>
 address 10.10.10.1
 netmask 255.255.255.0
 post-up brctl setfd vmbridge 3

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for QEMU because there has been no activity for 60 days.]