error: unsupported configuration: Domain requires KVM, but it is not available. Check that virtualization is enabled in the host BIOS, and host configuration is setup to load the kvm modules.

[Helio Loureiro]

After some update (I really didn't check which one brought this problem), virsh commands started to fail:

helio@machine:KVM$ virsh start node-1
error: Failed to start domain node-1
error: unsupported configuration: Domain requires KVM, but it is not available. Check that virtualization is enabled in the host BIOS, and host configuration is setup to load the kvm modules.

node-1 was a previously defined VM which was working perfectly.

I removed and loaded again the kernel modules kvm and kvm-intel. Then a new error arouse:

helio@machine:KVM$ virsh start node-1
error: Failed to start domain node-1
error: unsupported configuration: guest and host CPU are not compatible: Host CPU does not provide required features: svm

I could track this problem is related to the following bug: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1160318

I could fix patching kvm-spice.

root@machine:~# cat /usr/bin/kvm-spice
#!/bin/sh
#exec qemu-system-x86_64 -enable-kvm "$@"
exec qemu-system-x86_64 -machine accel=kvm:tcg -enable-kvm "$@"

[Christian Ehrhardt  (paelzer)]

Hi,
the "fix"to kvm-spice is not something that is generally applicable.

The bug you linked also states some success with clearing /var/cache/libvirt/qemu/capabilities/.

The fix itself to avoid parsing -help as a fallback is in libvirt >=v1.2.11 which means >=Vivid releases. It is not in trusty thou.

What version were you on when hitting this issue?

[Helio Loureiro (helioloureiro)]

Ubuntu 14.04.

$ lsb_release -a
LSB Version: core-2.0-amd64:core-2.0-noarch:core-3.0-amd64:core-3.0-noarch:core-3.1-amd64:core-3.1-noarch:core-3.2-amd64:core-3.2-noarch:core-4.0-amd64:core-4.0-noarch:core-4.1-amd64:core-4.1-noarch:security-4.0-amd64:security-4.0-noarch:security-4.1-amd64:security-4.1-noarch
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 14.04.5 LTS
Release: 14.04
Codename: trusty

Related packages:

$ dpkg -l | egrep "qemu|kvm|spice|libvirt"
ii gir1.2-libvirt-glib-1.0 0.1.6-1ubuntu2 amd64 libvirt glib mainloop integration
ii gir1.2-spice-client-glib-2.0 0.22-0nocelt2 amd64 GObject for communicating with Spice servers (GObject-Introspection)
ii gir1.2-spice-client-gtk-3.0 0.22-0nocelt2 amd64 GTK3 widget for SPICE clients (GObject-Introspection)
ii ipxe-qemu 1.0.0+git-20131111.c3d1e78-2ubuntu1.1 all PXE boot firmware - ROM images for qemu
ii libspice-client-glib-2.0-8:amd64 0.22-0nocelt2 amd64 GObject for communicating with Spice servers (runtime library)
ii libspice-client-gtk-2.0-4:amd64 0.22-0nocelt2 amd64 GTK2 widget for SPICE clients (runtime library)
ii libspice-client-gtk-3.0-4:amd64 0.22-0nocelt2 amd64 GTK3 widget for SPICE clients (runtime library)
ii libspice-server1:amd64 0.12.4-0nocelt2ubuntu1.3 amd64 Implements the server side of the SPICE protocol
ii libvirt-bin 1.2.2-0ubuntu13.1.19 amd64 programs for the libvirt library
ii libvirt-glib-1.0-0 0.1.6-1ubuntu2 amd64 libvirt glib mainloop integration
ii libvirt0 1.2.2-0ubuntu13.1.19 amd64 library for interfacing with different virtualization systems
ii libvirtodbc0 6.1.6+repack-0ubuntu3 amd64 high-performance database - ODBC libraries
ii python-libvirt 1.2.2-0ubuntu2 amd64 libvirt Python bindings
ii python-spice-client-gtk 0.22-0nocelt2 amd64 GTK2 widget for SPICE clients (Python binding)
ii qemu 2.0.0+dfsg-2ubuntu1.30 amd64 fast processor emulator
ii qemu-keymaps ...