kvm windows 7 attempts: amd 2, intel 0 - virt

28 Dec 2009


      Hello,
To explore kvm installs via Virt-Manager, I tried win7 installs in 3 different hosts. All 3 have 2G of RAM or more.
Windows 7 Ultimate in 2.5 GB DVD ISO
1) Centos 5.4, AMD am2, Athlon 64 x2 4600+
     works 2nd attempt after setup of Br0 (bridged network)
      virt-manager-0.6.1-8.el5
      kvm-83-105.el5_4.13
2) OpenSuSE 11.2, AMD am2, Athlon 64 x2 5200+
     works with defaults (Br0 is setup on OS install)
      virt-manager 0.8.0-5
      kvm-0.11.0-4.5
3) Centos 5.4, Intel LGA 775 C2D, E7600 3.0 Ghz
     fails in shelled kvm and Virt-Manager with Br0
the Intel C2D box works so well - cooler and faster then the other two - but somehow the kvm intel support seems flawed. The win7 install gets past 2 boots and issues a VM exception in vcpu0 right after the third boot.
Maybe someone else succeeded with a similar Intel setup.
-- 
Mark

/etc/libvirt/qemu/
------------- win7kvm.xml -------------
<domain type='kvm'>
  <name>win7kvm</name>
  <uuid>d9113860-4731-4622-bc2e-54b656e1567a</uuid>
  <memory>1048576</memory>
  <currentMemory>1048576</currentMemory>
  <vcpu>2</vcpu>
  <os>
    <type arch='i686' machine='pc'>hvm</type>
    <boot dev='hd'/>
  </os>
  <features>
    <acpi/>
    <apic/>
  </features>
  <clock offset='localtime'/>
  <on_poweroff>destroy</on_poweroff>
  <on_reboot>restart</on_reboot>
  <on_crash>destroy</on_crash>
  <devices>
    <emulator>/usr/libexec/qemu-kvm</emulator>
    <disk type='file' device='disk'>
      <driver name='qemu'/>
      <source file='/data2/kvm/win7.img'/>
      <target dev='hda' bus='ide'/>
    </disk>
    <disk type='file' device='cdrom'>
      <driver name='qemu'/>
      <source file='/data2/kvm/WIN7_Ultimate_EN_DVD.iso'/>
      <target dev='hdc' bus='ide'/>
      <readonly/>
    </disk>
    <interface type='bridge'>
      <mac address='54:52:00:36:a2:59'/>
      <source bridge='br0'/>
      <model type='rtl8139'/>
    </interface>
    <input type='mouse' bus='ps2'/>
    <graphics type='vnc' port='-1' autoport='yes' keymap='en-us'/>
  </devices>
</domain>
----------- unsnip -----------------