KVM ubuntu 12.04.2 guest installation with kickstart config fails

[Tobias Verbeke]

* a kickstart tree with the ubuntu 12.04.2 server amd64 files is available on the KVM host (CentOS 6.3) (mounted via NFS)
* the kickstart file is available as a local file on the KVM host
* installation is done using virt-install

virt-install --connect qemu:///system --name test --location=/kickstart-trees/ubuntu1204 --ram=2048 --vcpus=2 --disk vol=iscsi-storage/unit:0:0:31,cache=none --os-type=linux --network=bridge:br0,model=virtio --network=bridge:br1,model=virtio --initrd-inject=/home/someuser/ubuntu1204ks.cfg -x "ks=file:/ubuntu1204ks.cfg console=tty0 console=ttyS0,115200"

Starting install...
Retrieving file version.info... | 116 B 00:00 ...
ERROR Couldn't find hvm kernel for Ubuntu tree.

the virt-install.log file contains the information below - it seems it is erroneously looking for

/kickstart-trees/ubuntu1204/install/netboot/ubuntu-installer/i386/linux

instead of

/kickstart-trees/ubuntu1204/install/netboot/ubuntu-installer/amd64/linux

[...]
[Mon, 20 May 2013 22:54:11 virt-install 64569] DEBUG (ImageFetcher:83) Fetching URI: /kickstart-trees/ubuntu1204/install/netboot/version.info
[Mon, 20 May 2013 22:54:11 virt-install 64569] DEBUG (ImageFetcher:94) Saved file to /var/tmp/virtinst-version.info.ffa3bq
[Mon, 20 May 2013 22:54:11 virt-install 64569] DEBUG (OSDistro:965) Detected an Ubuntu distro
[Mon, 20 May 2013 22:54:11 virt-install 64569] DEBUG (virt-install:619) Guest.has_install_phase: True
[Mon, 20 May 2013 22:54:11 virt-install 64569] DEBUG (Installer:182) scratchdir=/var/lib/libvirt/boot
[Mon, 20 May 2013 22:54:11 virt-install 64569] DEBUG (OSDistro:65) Attempting to detect distro:
[Mon, 20 May 2013 22:54:11 virt-install 64569] DEBUG (ImageFetcher:169) local hasFile: Couldn't find /kickstart-trees/ubuntu1204/.treeinfo
[Mon, 20 May 2013 22:54:11 virt-install 64569] DEBUG (ImageFetcher:169) local hasFile: Couldn't find /kickstart-trees/ubuntu1204/Fedora
[Mon, 20 May 2013 22:54:11 virt-install 64569] DEBUG (ImageFetcher:169) local hasFile: Couldn't find /kickstart-trees/ubuntu1204/Server
[Mon, 20 May 2013 22:54:11 virt-install 64569] DEBUG (ImageFetcher:169) local hasFile: Couldn't find /kickstart-trees/ubuntu1204/Client
[Mon, 20 May 2013 22:54:11 virt-install 64569] DEBUG (ImageFetcher:169) local hasFile: Couldn't find /kickstart-trees/ubuntu1204/RedHat
[Mon, 20 May 2013 22:54:11 virt-install 64569] DEBUG (ImageFetcher:169) local hasFile: Couldn't find /kickstart-trees/ubuntu1204/CentOS
[Mon, 20 May 2013 22:54:11 virt-install 64569] DEBUG (ImageFetcher:169) local hasFile: Couldn't find /kickstart-trees/ubuntu1204/SL
[Mon, 20 May 2013 22:54:11 virt-install 64569] DEBUG (ImageFetcher:169) local hasFile: Couldn't find /kickstart-trees/ubuntu1204/directory.yast
[Mon, 20 May 2013 22:54:11 virt-install 64569] DEBUG (ImageFetcher:169) local hasFile: Couldn't find /kickstart-trees/ubuntu1204/current/images/MANIFEST
[Mon, 20 May 2013 22:54:11 virt-install 64569] DEBUG (ImageFetcher:169) local hasFile: Couldn't find /kickstart-trees/ubuntu1204/images/daily/MANIFEST
[Mon, 20 May 2013 22:54:11 virt-install 64569] DEBUG (ImageFetcher:169) local hasFile: Couldn't find /kickstart-trees/ubuntu1204/current/images/MANIFEST
[Mon, 20 May 2013 22:54:11 virt-install 64569] DEBUG (ImageFetcher:83) Fetching URI: /kickstart-trees/ubuntu1204/install/netboot/version.info
[Mon, 20 May 2013 22:54:11 virt-install 64569] DEBUG (ImageFetcher:94) Saved file to /var/lib/libvirt/boot/virtinst-version.info.YZspoD
[Mon, 20 May 2013 22:54:11 virt-install 64569] DEBUG (OSDistro:965) Detected an Ubuntu distro
[Mon, 20 May 2013 22:54:11 virt-install 64569] DEBUG (ImageFetcher:169) local hasFile: Couldn't find /kickstart-trees/ubuntu1204/install/netboot/ubuntu-installer/i386/linux
[Mon, 20 May 2013 22:54:11 virt-install 64569] ERROR (cli:440) Couldn't find hvm kernel for Ubuntu tree.
[Mon, 20 May 2013 22:54:11 virt-install 64569] DEBUG (_util:233) Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/sbin/virt-install", line 629, in start_install
    noboot=options.noreboot)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/virtinst/Guest.py", line 1206, in start_install
    self._prepare_install(meter, dry)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/virtinst/Guest.py", line 963, in _prepare_install
    meter=meter)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/virtinst/DistroInstaller.py", line 425, in prepare
    dev = self._prepare_kernel_and_initrd(guest, meter)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/virtinst/DistroInstaller.py", line 364, in _prepare_kernel_and_initrd
    self.os_type)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/virtinst/OSDistro.py", line 156, in acquireKernel
    scratchdir, type)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/virtinst/OSDistro.py", line 150, in _acquireMedia
    None, media_cb)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/virtinst/OSDistro.py", line 131, in _locationCheckWrapper
    return callback(store, fetcher)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/virtinst/OSDistro.py", line 143, in media_cb
    media = store.acquireKernel(guest, fetcher, progresscb)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/virtinst/OSDistro.py", line 274, in acquireKernel
    { "distro": self.name, "type" : self.type })
RuntimeError: Couldn't find hvm kernel for Ubuntu tree.

[Mariano Guezuraga (mguezuraga)]

Also affects me, with some diferences (no NFS mounted image, no kickstart)

virt-install \
  --connect qemu:///system \
  --network network=test \
  --virt-type kvm \
  --name ubuntu \
  --ram 512 \
  --arch=x86_64 \
  --disk path=/var/lib/libvirt/images/ubuntu.img,size=7 \
  --nographics \
  --location /dev/sr0

Starting install...
Retrieving file version.info... | 116 B 00:00 ...
ERROR Couldn't find hvm kernel for Ubuntu tree.

Relevant log portion:
[Wed, 22 May 2013 14:32:46 virt-install 5556] DEBUG (OSDistro:965) Detected an Ubuntu distro
[Wed, 22 May 2013 14:32:46 virt-install 5556] DEBUG (ImageFetcher:169) local hasFile: Couldn't find /var/lib/libvirt/boot/virtinstmnt.ry0m3M/install/netboot/ubuntu-installer/i386/linux
[Wed, 22 May 2013 14:32:46 virt-install 5556] DEBUG (ImageFetcher:205) Cleaning up mount at /var/lib/libvirt/boot/virtinstmnt.ry0m3M
[Wed, 22 May 2013 14:32:46 virt-install 5556] ERROR (cli:440) Couldn't find hvm kernel for Ubuntu tree.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[zhouqiang (bridgeunions)]

It affects me too,the log file was the same as Tobias Verbeke

[Brian J. Murrell (brian-interlinx)]

So "Confirmed" but nothing done about it?

[Ronald (ronald23)]

its a known bug in virt-manager. few options to work around it:

1) upgrade virt-manager
2) if last package does not include the fix, adapt file virtinst/urlfetcher.py according to this commit: https://github.com/virt-manager/virt-manager/commit/3f15a489cda87f8028828d567848193dd2640a43
3) you can also create a symlink before the install process starts as work around in the install tree (you have to 'unpack' the iso): sudo ln -s <nfs_mount_dir>/install/netboot/ubuntu-installer/amd64 <nfs_mount_dir>/install/netboot/ubuntu-installer/i386

hope it helps.