Testing Raring in KVM displays visual artifacts (affects installer world map, login screen, wallpaper)

[komputes]

Steps to reproduce:
-Set up a VM in Ubuntu 12.10 (select that the VM is for Linux, Ubuntu 12.10)
-Install from ISO:
http://iso.qa.ubuntu.com/qatracker/milestones/243/builds/30910/downloads
http://iso.qa.ubuntu.com/qatracker/milestones/243/builds/30907/downloads
-Follow Testcase "Install (entire disk)"
http://iso.qa.ubuntu.com/qatracker/milestones/243/builds/30910/testcases/1300/results

What was expected?
At step 10 a map of the world (timezone setup) should be shown

What happened?
KVM shows artifacts on the installer world map and after the installation is over, lightdm unity-greeter, and desktop wallpaper all have this issue (see attachments).

Why does it happen?
When creating the machine in the Virtual Machine Manager selects cirrus as default. I've noticed this conflicts with the installation.

What is the workaround?
Change the video emulation setting to vga or vmvga (more resolutions).

Additional comments:
The following emulation modes have issues:
cirrus - artifacts
qxl - black screen. 100% CPU Usage.
xen - black screen

What should be done to fix this bug?
-Change the default video emulation settings for Ubuntu
-Fix cirrus emulation (and possibly qxl and xen)

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.10
Package: kvm 1:84+dfsg-0ubuntu16+1.2.0+noroms+0ubuntu2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.5.0-17.28-generic 3.5.5
Uname: Linux 3.5.0-17-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.6.1-0ubuntu9
Architecture: amd64
Date: Mon Dec 17 17:52:22 2012
InstallationDate: Installed on 2012-12-06 (11 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.10 "Quantal Quetzal" - Release amd64 (20121017.5)
MachineType: Dell Inc. Inspiron 7720
MarkForUpload: True
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-3.5.0-17-generic root=/dev/mapper/ubuntu-root ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
SourcePackage: qemu-kvm
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 09/14/2012
dmi.bios.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.bios.version: A10
dmi.board.name: 04M3YM
dmi.board.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.board.version: A00
dmi.chassis.type: 8
dmi.chassis.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.chassis.version: 0.1
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnDellInc.:bvrA10:bd09/14/2012:svnDellInc.:pnInspiron7720:pvr:rvnDellInc.:rn04M3YM:rvrA00:cvnDellInc.:ct8:cvr0.1:
dmi.product.name: Inspiron 7720
dmi.sys.vendor: Dell Inc.

[Ubuntu QA Website (ubuntuqa)]

This bug has been reported on the Ubuntu ISO testing tracker.

A list of all reports related to this bug can be found here:
http://iso.qa.ubuntu.com/qatracker/reports/bugs/1091523

[Phill Whiteside (phillw)]

Thanks, the workaound works fine for me in KVM.

[Serge Hallyn (serge-hallyn)]

I suspect this is a duplicate of bug 1054129.

The question is whether the livecd kernel should be doing something to avoid using the cirrus driver?

virt-manager should be using something other than cirrus by default.

It's also worth checking whether qemu 1.3 fixes the cirrus bug.

[Serge Hallyn (serge-hallyn)]

(Marking low priority as there is a workaround - even though the bug of which I believe this is a duplicate was marked medium and never lowered)

[Marc Deslauriers (mdeslaur)]

cirrus is getting a KMS driver, so cirrus should remain the default, and the driver issue should be looked at in raring.