Many issues using vm-install or virtual machine manager in opensuse 11.4 for Xen PV domU

Hello,

I have had nothing but nightmarish frustrations when attempting to create PV domUs in opensuse 11.4 when using vm-install or the virtual machine manager.

I can create HVM guests all I want without issue. PV, however, and absolutely nothing works. I have created PV guests on other platforms that use virt-install.

I have tried using a local http server attached to a mounted iso with the installation source. I have tried using a volume with an already-installed OS. I have tried many other methods.

I would like to know if anyone here has ever successfully installed a Xen PV guest using the virtual machine manager or vm-install. I have tried using the opensuse templates with all default settings and many others. Pretty much nothing works.

Examples:

When attempting to install a Debian Wheezy PV guest, I select OS type ‘other’ and provide the installation path as the network URL: Index of /debian/dists/wheezy/main/installer-amd64/current
This returns "Error: the installation source is using an unsupported protocol: dev:/

I get the same above error when trying to install any OS from a network source if using ‘other’

When attempting to install an opensuse PV guest, I select OS type ‘opensuse’ and provide the installation path as the network URL (provided by the template): Index of /debug/distribution/11.4/repo/oss
This returns “Error: An error occurred while reading from the installation source. http://download.opensuse.org/debug/distribution/11.4/repo/oss//INDEX.gz HTTP Error 404: Not found”

When attempting to install any PV guest via PXE boot, the ‘Installation Source’ always remains blank

When attempting to install any PV guest by mounting a block device (like an ISO) to install from, I get an error saying installing PV guests from cdrom is not supported

When attempting to use an already-installed HVM guest that does have a valid Xen kernel, I get an error saying that no kernel was found

The list goes on and on. I am really starting to hate virtual machine manager and vm-install, especially coming from an environment where virt-install works just fine to create PV guests.

My current version of vm-install is 0.4.31-0.4.1
My current version of virt-manager is 0.8.5-8.1

All I want, all I really want, is to be able to install Ubuntu PV guests. Any takers?

As I’ve got the same problems I’ll file a bug report. Not even installing a openSUSE 11.4 PV domU is possible with error. Installation from an ISO Source with graphics support runs fine until the boot manager is written: → grub error >:)

Using the Virtualization repository my versions are:

xen: 4.1.2_05-151.1
virt-manager: 0.9.0-74.1
vm-install: 0.5.7-102.1