[CentOS] QEMU configuration not persistent

[Paul Heinlein]

On Mon, 13 Feb 2012, Emmett Culley wrote:

> Still doesn't persist.  Each time I reboot I have to use 
> virt-manager to change video to cirrus from vmvga, then remove the 
> IDE driver that points to the wrong storage location and add a new 
> virtio storage device pointing to the correct image (an LVM 
> partiiton).
>
> After I make the changes I close virt-manager and restart it, then 
> look at the configuration for the non-persistent VM, and my changes 
> are still there and I can run the VM.
>
> I did a "grep vmvga" on the entire /etc/libvirt directory tree and 
> found no references to "vmvga".  Where can libvirt be getting info 
> to change the xml to vmvga, or the IDE to the wrong location?

I've not seen these symptoms, so I can only outline the sorts of steps 
I'd take in troubleshooting. First, I'd check for SELinux issues:

1. Run "fixfiles check /etc" to see if a configuration file is
    mislabled.

2. Do the same thing on /var to see if any runtime files have
    issues.

3. Run "ausearch -m avc" and grep for qemu or libvirt issues.

After that, I'd get more drastic:

1. virsh shutdown $DOM.
2. virsh dumpxml $DOM > /tmp/dom.xml
3. virsh undefine $DOM
4. virsh create /tmp/dom.xml
5. virsh edit $DOM
6. virsh start $DOM --console

And then see if things get better.

-- 
Paul Heinlein <> heinlein at madboa.com <> http://www.madboa.com/