Black screen with -vga std

Bug #987409 reported by MikeB
38
This bug affects 7 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
qemu-kvm-spice (Ubuntu)
Confirmed
Medium
Unassigned

Bug Description

When using "/usr/bin/kvm" to launch a guest, -vga std works fine, however if I use "/usr/bin/kvm-spice" and don't change anything else, I just get a blank screen and no output whatsoever (not even BIOS output before the OS starts) but the guest does start and runs fine other than that. This happens with both Windows and Linux guests.

Here is the exact command that is run from libvirt:

This command works fine:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
/usr/bin/kvm -S -M pc-1.0 -cpu core2duo,+lahf_lm,+sse4.1,+xtpr,+cx16,+tm2,+est,+vmx,+ds_cpl,+pbe,+tm,+ht,+ss,+acpi,+ds -enable-kvm -m 1500 -smp 2,sockets=2,cores=1,threads=1 -name Windows_7_Home -uuid becefc71-2413-a760-2a7b-6b3b602efebc -nodefconfig -nodefaults -chardev socket,id=charmonitor,path=/var/lib/libvirt/qemu/Windows_7_Home.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=0x6 -drive file=/var/lib/libvirt/images/Windows_7_Home.img,if=none,id=drive-virtio-disk0,format=raw,cache=none,aio=native -device virtio-blk-pci,bus=pci.0,addr=0x8,drive=drive-virtio-disk0,id=virtio-disk0,bootindex=1 -netdev tap,fd=18,id=hostnet0 -device virtio-net-pci,netdev=hostnet0,id=net0,mac=52:54:00:78:64:fd,bus=pci.0,addr=0x3 -chardev pty,id=charserial0 -device isa-serial,chardev=charserial0,id=serial0 -usb -device usb-tablet,id=input0 -vnc 0.0.0.0:0 -vga std -device AC97,id=sound0,bus=pci.0,addr=0x4 -device virtio-balloon-pci,id=balloon0,bus=pci.0,addr=0x5

This command (only change is the kvm-spice binary is used) gives a blank (black) screen:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
/usr/bin/kvm-spice -S -M pc-1.0 -cpu core2duo,+lahf_lm,+sse4.1,+xtpr,+cx16,+tm2,+est,+vmx,+ds_cpl,+pbe,+tm,+ht,+ss,+acpi,+ds -enable-kvm -m 1500 -smp 2,sockets=2,cores=1,threads=1 -name Windows_7_Home -uuid becefc71-2413-a760-2a7b-6b3b602efebc -nodefconfig -nodefaults -chardev socket,id=charmonitor,path=/var/lib/libvirt/qemu/Windows_7_Home.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=0x6 -drive file=/var/lib/libvirt/images/Windows_7_Home.img,if=none,id=drive-virtio-disk0,format=raw,cache=none,aio=native -device virtio-blk-pci,bus=pci.0,addr=0x8,drive=drive-virtio-disk0,id=virtio-disk0,bootindex=1 -netdev tap,fd=18,id=hostnet0 -device virtio-net-pci,netdev=hostnet0,id=net0,mac=52:54:00:78:64:fd,bus=pci.0,addr=0x3 -chardev pty,id=charserial0 -device isa-serial,chardev=charserial0,id=serial0 -usb -device usb-tablet,id=input0 -vnc 0.0.0.0:0 -vga std -device AC97,id=sound0,bus=pci.0,addr=0x4 -device virtio-balloon-pci,id=balloon0,bus=pci.0,addr=0x5

If I use the /usr/bin/kvm-spice binary with cirrus display driver, it works fine, but that is the only driver I can get to work with the spice binary.

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: nvidia
ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu6
Architecture: amd64
Date: Mon Apr 23 09:45:43 2012
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm
 SHELL=/bin/bash
 LANG=en_CA.UTF-8
 LANGUAGE=
SourcePackage: qemu-linaro
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to precise on 2012-04-23 (0 days ago)

Revision history for this message
MikeB (mikeb-timetrex) wrote :
Revision history for this message
Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote :

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

Changed in qemu-kvm-spice (Ubuntu):
status: New → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
MikeB (mikeb-timetrex) wrote :

I don't see how this is a duplicate of bug #823494 seeing as that bug was marked as fixed many months ago and only applies to the QXL driver, and with this bug I was only using the VGA driver.

There have also been several other bug postings of similar blank screen problems with the kvm-spice binary, so even if this is a duplicate bug it clearly isn't fixed.

Revision history for this message
Serge Hallyn (serge-hallyn) wrote :

Agreed, this is not a dup.

@MikeB,

your kvm command excuted by libvirt is not using kvm-spice. Do you have the qemu-kvm-spice package installed?

Revision history for this message
Serge Hallyn (serge-hallyn) wrote :

Sorry, ignore that last comment.

Changed in qemu-kvm-spice (Ubuntu):
importance: Undecided → Medium
Revision history for this message
Serge Hallyn (serge-hallyn) wrote :

As per comments in bug 823494, it would be worth looking at the changes in https://launchpad.net/~bderzhavets/+archive/lib-usbredir73 to see if they are cherry-pickable.

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