libvirt users - Aug 2010 - Installing a VM to a virtio disk

When provisioning new VMs, is it possible to enable virtio for the guest's
storage at the time of the installation? When I try to do so, the Ubuntu
installer says, "No root file system is defined" when it gets to the
partitioning step.

Here's the disk option I'm giving to virt-install:

  --disk pool=libvirt-pool,size=4,bus=virtio

(I'm also using "--os-variant=ubuntulucid".)

I've been able to install a new VM using the IDE storage driver first and
then switch to virtio after the installation is complete, but it would
simplify the process if it could start with virtio right off the bat.

I'm using Ubuntu 10.04 LTS ("Lucid") host and guest, which
provides libvirt
0.7.5 and kernel 2.6.32.

I'm about ready to concede defeat and set up a way to automate making the
change after the installation, but I thought I'd ask here first. Thanks!

-- 
Brian
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On Fri, Aug 20, 2010 at 1:00 PM, Brian Roberg <robergb at dm.org> wrote:
> When provisioning new VMs, is it possible to enable virtio for the
guest's
> storage at the time of the installation? When I try to do so, the Ubuntu
> installer says, "No root file system is defined" when it gets to
the
> partitioning step.

This turned out to be a silly mistake on my part. (Note: The problem and
solution I'll describe here are not libvirt-specific, but since I asked the
question here I thought it best to provide the answer too.)

In the preseed file I was using for the installer, I had placed a line I'd
copied from Ubuntu's example configuration:

  d-i partman-auto/disk string /dev/sda

The virtio_blk driver was ready to be used, but I was still telling the
installer to use the non-virtio device. Installation to the virtio block
device succeeded after I replaced that line with this one:

  d-i partman/early_command string debconf-set partman-auto/disk
"$(list-devices disk | head -n1)"

-- 
Brian
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