Windows virtio disk driver in 2.6.32

gillesMo

New Member
Mar 29, 2010
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Hello,

A collegue has made a Windows installtion ISO including the KVM virtio drivers.
We can install Windows 2003 server directly on virtio disks without messing with a floppy or switching from IDE to Virtio.

All was fine until I upgrade one server to PVE 1.8 and to test, I use a 2.6.32 kernel.

The Windows installer can't see the drives.

The config that works : 2.6.18 kernel.

So for the moment, we start the install on a server with a 2.6.18 kernel, then we migrate (offline) the VM to the server with 2.6.32. Then it works...

Does someone have this problem, and if so an explanation or even a solution ?
 
I recently built a new 1.8 host, using .32 kernel. The guest is a Windows XP with VirtIO for storage and networking. However, the guest is working on an older .35 kernel. The legacy host is 1.8, upgraded over the years from a 1.2. Unfortunately, the guest will not boot on the new server. I would assume it is a faulty driver on the guest?

Would detaching and reattaching the guest's HDD as an IDE might solve this problem?

Old 1.8 server :
Code:
pve-manager: 1.8-15 (pve-manager/1.8/5754)
running kernel: 2.6.32-4-pve
pve-kernel-2.6.32-4-pve: 2.6.32-32
pve-kernel-2.6.35-1-pve: 2.6.35-10
pve-kernel-2.6.18-4-pve: 2.6.18-10
qemu-server: 1.1-30
pve-firmware: 1.0-11
libpve-storage-perl: 1.0-17
vncterm: 0.9-2
vzctl: 3.0.24-1pve4
vzdump: 1.2-11
vzprocps: 2.0.11-2
vzquota: 3.0.11-1
New 1.8 server:
Code:
pve-manager: 1.8-15 (pve-manager/1.8/5754)
running kernel: 2.6.32-4-pve
proxmox-ve-2.6.32: 1.8-32
pve-kernel-2.6.32-4-pve: 2.6.32-32
qemu-server: 1.1-30
pve-firmware: 1.0-11
libpve-storage-perl: 1.0-17
vncterm: 0.9-2
vzctl: 3.0.24-1pve4
vzdump: 1.2-11
vzprocps: 2.0.11-2
vzquota: 3.0.11-1
pve-qemu-kvm: 0.14.0-3
ksm-control-daemon: 1.0-5
 
Last edited by a moderator:
With Win2k server guests I have had to revert to pve 2.6.18 because the older virtio drivers (which are the only available for Windows 2000) don't seem to see the drives with pve 2.6.32.

Code:
pve-manager: 1.8-17 (pve-manager/1.8/5948)
running kernel: 2.6.32-4-pve
proxmox-ve-2.6.18: 1.8-14
pve-kernel-2.6.32-4-pve: 2.6.32-32
pve-kernel-2.6.18-5-pve: 2.6.18-14
qemu-server: 1.1-30
pve-firmware: 1.0-11
libpve-storage-perl: 1.0-17
vncterm: 0.9-2
vzctl: 3.0.26-1pve4
vzdump: 1.2-11
vzprocps: 2.0.11-2
vzquota: 3.0.11-1
pve-qemu-kvm-2.6.18: 0.9.1-14

I could not get newer virtio drivers to work at all. Perhaps it's different now, but using the IDE in Win2k is way too slow for any sort of production server.
 
your pveversion -v shows a non-working combination of running kernel and kvm package. looks like you want to run 2.6.18 but you still booted 2.6.32.

btw, running w2k as a production servers in not recommended, EOL.
 
Hmm, as I recall I initially followed the steps here http://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Downloads#Update_a_running_Proxmox_Virtual_Environment_to_1.8

including the
Code:
aptitude install proxmox-ve-2.6.32

After trying unsuccessfully to get anything working I
Code:
aptitude install proxmox-ve-2.6.18

Any recommendations on how to get it back to a correct state?

Yeah, unfortunately I still need to run some Win2k servers, some of the software doesn't work under Win2k3+, believe me I am transitioning as fast as I can off.

Thanks, Tom
 
if 2.6.18 works for you just do it.

run 'aptitude install proxmox-ve-2.6.18' and make sure you you got this kernel as first boot device in /boot/grub/menu.lst

finally, 'pveversion -v' for 2.6.18 should look like this:
Code:
pve-manager: 1.8-17 (pve-manager/1.8/5948)
running kernel: 2.6.18-5-pve
proxmox-ve-2.6.18: 1.8-14
pve-kernel-2.6.18-5-pve: 2.6.18-14
qemu-server: 1.1-30
pve-firmware: 1.0-11
libpve-storage-perl: 1.0-17
vncterm: 0.9-2
vzctl: 3.0.26-1pve4
vzdump: 1.2-11
vzprocps: 2.0.11-2
vzquota: 3.0.11-1
pve-qemu-kvm-2.6.18: 0.9.1-14
 
btw, win2000 performs well here with IDE for disk and rtl8139 as NIC (on 2.6.32).