KVM Guest installed from console. But how to get to the guest's console?

I'm trying to install a fully virtualized guest (Fedora 14 x86_64) on KVM (RHEL 6), using command-line only (both hypervisor and guest). It goes without errors, and without a tangible result . I'd like to know how to do a text-only installation.

So, here's what I've done:

# virt-install \
--name=FE --ram=756 --vcpus=1 \
--file=/var/lib/libvirt/images/FE.img  --network bridge:br0 \
--nographics --os-type=linux  \
--extra-args='console=tty0' -v \
--cdrom=/media/usb/Fedora-14-x86_64-Live-Desktop.iso 


Starting install...
Creating domain...                                                                                                                                                        |    0 B     00:00     
Connected to domain FE
Escape character is ^]
ÿ

Now what? As I understand after googling for a couple of days, I should see the guest's output from the text installation, but nothing happens. virt-viewer cannot connect to it, kindly suggesting that I explore all the options by adding --help (which I did). If I reconnect with virsh, I see this:

Domain installation still in progress. You can reconnect to 
the console to complete the installation process.
[root@v ~]
# virsh console FEConnected to domain FE
Escape character is ^]

This shows that VM is running

# virsh list
 Id Name                 State
----------------------------------
  8 FE                   running

Qemu log:

LC_ALL=C PATH=/sbin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/usr/bin /usr/libexec/qemu-kvm -S -M rhel6.0.0 -enable-kvm -m 756 -smp 1,sockets=1,cores=1,threads=1 -name FE -uuid 6989d008-7c89-424c-d2d3-f41235c57a18 -nographic -nodefconfig -nodefaults -chardev socket,id=monitor,path=/var/lib/libvirt/qemu/FE.monitor,server,nowait -mon chardev=monitor,mode=control -rtc base=utc -no-reboot -boot d -drive file=/var/lib/libvirt/images/FE.img,if=none,id=drive-ide0-0-0,format=raw,cache=none -device ide-drive,bus=ide.0,unit=0,drive=drive-ide0-0-0,id=ide0-0-0 -drive file=/media/usb/Fedora-14-x86_64-Live-Desktop.iso,if=none,media=cdrom,id=drive-ide0-1-0,readonly=on,format=raw -device ide-drive,bus=ide.1,unit=0,drive=drive-ide0-1-0,id=ide0-1-0 -netdev tap,fd=20,id=hostnet0 -device rtl8139,netdev=hostnet0,id=net0,mac=52:54:00:0a:65:8d,bus=pci.0,addr=0x2 -chardev pty,id=serial0 -device isa-serial,chardev=serial0 -usb -device virtio-balloon-pci,id=balloon0,bus=pci.0,addr=0x3 
char device redirected to /dev/pts/1

Output of /etc/libvirt/qemu/FE.xml

# cat /etc/libvirt/qemu/FE.xml 
<domain type='kvm'>
  <name>FE</name>
  <uuid>6989d008-7c89-424c-d2d3-f41235c57a18</uuid>
  <memory>774144</memory>
  <currentMemory>774144</currentMemory>
  <vcpu>1</vcpu>
  <os>
    <type arch='x86_64' machine='rhel6.0.0'>hvm</type>
    <boot dev='hd'/>
  </os>
  <features>
    <acpi/>
    <apic/>
    <pae/>
  </features>
  <clock offset='utc'/>
  <on_poweroff>destroy</on_poweroff>
  <on_reboot>restart</on_reboot>
  <on_crash>restart</on_crash>
  <devices>
    <emulator>/usr/libexec/qemu-kvm</emulator>
    <disk type='file' device='disk'>
      <driver name='qemu' type='raw' cache='none'/>
      <source file='/var/lib/libvirt/images/FE.img'/>
      <target dev='hda' bus='ide'/>
      <address type='drive' controller='0' bus='0' unit='0'/>
    </disk>
    <disk type='block' device='cdrom'>
      <driver name='qemu' type='raw'/>
      <target dev='hdc' bus='ide'/>
      <readonly/>
      <address type='drive' controller='0' bus='1' unit='0'/>
    </disk>
    <controller type='ide' index='0'>
      <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x01' function='0x1'/>
    </controller>
    <interface type='bridge'>
      <mac address='52:54:00:0a:65:8d'/>
      <source bridge='br0'/>
      <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x02' function='0x0'/>
    </interface>
    <serial type='pty'>
      <target port='0'/>
    </serial>
    <console type='pty'>
      <target port='0'/>
    </console>
    <memballoon model='virtio'>
      <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x03' function='0x0'/>
    </memballoon>
  </devices>
</domain>

I'm obviously missing something that many others don't, but what is it? Thanx in advance!


I copied --extra-args='console=ttyS0' somewhere from Internet last time, it works!

  • No need for two "console" commands, that just opens two consoles instead of one
  • No need to manually specify the baud rate.
  • "--serial" option has been deprecated
  • The RedHat console device is "/dev/ttyS0", not "/dev/tty0"

See: http://anaconda-installer.readthedocs.io/en/latest/boot-options.html


--nographics is used, and you have no console set up in the guest, besides the tty0 console. If you want a graphical console, especially available remotely you'd need to enable vga and vnc, or qxl and spice. this is an example: http://www.linux-kvm.com/content/tip-how-run-headless-guest-machine-using-vnc-kvm

http://www.linux-kvm.com/content/running-kvm-nographics-no-console-output or http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=9610421&postcount=7 is also a solution.