Question

xen virt-install is not working

Asked by: allwebnow

I'm trying to install openqrm using xen, and I've gotten xm create xmexample1 to work and to create a VM. But Now virt-install is not working. i'm getting this error:

ERROR A name is required for the virtual machine.

I've tried these commands (actually too many to list here):
virt-install
/usr/sbin/virt-install -p --nonsparse -b xenbr0
/usr/sbin/virt-install -p --nonsparse -b virbr0
/usr/sbin/virt-install -p --nonsparse --name --ram -b virbr0
/usr/sbin/virt-install -p --nonsparse --name dom01--ram -b virbr0
/usr/sbin/virt-install -p --nonsparse --name dom01--ram -b xenbr0

All return the similar errors. How do i add a name?
what do I add as the name and ram?

I'm running centos 5.3 xen 3.3.0.

Below is my xmexample1 file

#  -*- mode: python; -*-
#============================================================================
# Python configuration setup for 'xm create'.
# This script sets the parameters used when a domain is created using 'xm create'.
# You use a separate script for each domain you want to create, or 
# you can set the parameters for the domain on the xm command line.
#============================================================================
 
#----------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Kernel image file.
kernel = "/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18-128.7.1.el5xen"
 
# Optional ramdisk.
#ramdisk = "/boot/initrd.gz"
 
# The domain build function. Default is 'linux'.
builder='linux'
 
# Initial memory allocation (in megabytes) for the new domain.
#
# WARNING: Creating a domain with insufficient memory may cause out of
#          memory errors. The domain needs enough memory to boot kernel
#          and modules. Allocating less than 32MBs is not recommended.
memory = 256
 
# A name for your domain. All domains must have different names.
name = "getonestore.com"
 
# 128-bit UUID for the domain.  The default behavior is to generate a new UUID
# on each call to 'xm create'.
#uuid = "06ed00fe-1162-4fc4-b5d8-11993ee4a8b9"
 
# List of which CPUS this domain is allowed to use, default Xen picks
#cpus = ""         # leave to Xen to pick
#cpus = "0"        # all vcpus run on CPU0
#cpus = "0-3,5,^1" # all vcpus run on cpus 0,2,3,5
#cpus = ["2", "3"] # VCPU0 runs on CPU2, VCPU1 runs on CPU3
 
# Number of Virtual CPUS to use, default is 1
vcpus = 1
 
#----------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Define network interfaces.
 
# By default, no network interfaces are configured.  You may have one created
# with sensible defaults using an empty vif clause:
#
# vif = [ '' ]
#
# or optionally override backend, bridge, ip, mac, script, type, or vifname:
#
#vif = [ 'mac=00:16:3e:00:00:11, bridge=xenbr0' ]
#
# or more than one interface may be configured:
#
# vif = [ '', 'bridge=xenbr1' ]
 
vif = [ '', 'bridge=virbr0' ]
 
#----------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Define the disk devices you want the domain to have access to, and
# what you want them accessible as.
# Each disk entry is of the form phy:UNAME,DEV,MODE
# where UNAME is the device, DEV is the device name the domain will see,
# and MODE is r for read-only, w for read-write.
 
#disk = [ 'phy:/dev/sda3,sda3,w' ]a
disk = ['tap:aio:/etc/xen/disks/XenGuest1.img,xvda1,w', 'tap:aio:/etc/xen/disks/XenGuest1.swap,xvda2,w']
root = "/dev/xvda1 ro"
 
 
#----------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Define frame buffer device.
#
# By default, no frame buffer device is configured.
#
# To create one using the SDL backend and sensible defaults:
#
# vfb = [ 'type=sdl' ]
#
# This uses environment variables XAUTHORITY and DISPLAY.  You
# can override that:
#
# vfb = [ 'type=sdl,xauthority=/home/bozo/.Xauthority,display=:1' ]
#
# To create one using the VNC backend and sensible defaults:
#
# vfb = [ 'type=vnc' ]
#
# The backend listens on 127.0.0.1 port 5900+N by default, where N is
# the domain ID.  You can override both address and N:
#
# vfb = [ 'type=vnc' ]
#
# Or you can bind the first unused port above 5900:
#
# vfb = [ 'type=vnc,vnclisten=0.0.0.0,vncunused=1' ]
#
# You can override the password:
#
# vfb = [ 'type=vnc,vncpasswd=MYPASSWD' ]
#
# Empty password disables authentication.  Defaults to the vncpasswd
# configured in xend-config.sxp.
 
#----------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Define to which TPM instance the user domain should communicate.
# The vtpm entry is of the form 'instance=INSTANCE,backend=DOM'
# where INSTANCE indicates the instance number of the TPM the VM
# should be talking to and DOM provides the domain where the backend
# is located.
# Note that no two virtual machines should try to connect to the same
# TPM instance. The handling of all TPM instances does require
# some management effort in so far that VM configration files (and thus
# a VM) should be associated with a TPM instance throughout the lifetime
# of the VM / VM configuration file. The instance number must be
# greater or equal to 1.
#vtpm = [ 'instance=1,backend=0' ]
 
#----------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Set the kernel command line for the new domain.
# You only need to define the IP parameters and hostname if the domain's
# IP config doesn't, e.g. in ifcfg-eth0 or via DHCP.
# You can use 'extra' to set the runlevel and custom environment
# variables used by custom rc scripts (e.g. VMID=, usr= ).
 
# Set if you want dhcp to allocate the IP address.
#dhcp="dhcp"
# Set netmask.
#netmask=
# Set default gateway.
#gateway=
# Set the hostname.
#hostname= "vm%d" % vmid
hostname="server"
# Set root device.
#root = "/dev/sda3 ro"
 
# Root device for nfs.
#root = "/dev/nfs"
# The nfs server.
#nfs_server = '216.83.xx.xx'  
# Root directory on the nfs server.
#nfs_root   = '/full/path/to/root/directory'
 
# Sets runlevel 4.
extra = "4"
 
#----------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Configure the behaviour when a domain exits.  There are three 'reasons'
# for a domain to stop: poweroff, reboot, and crash.  For each of these you
# may specify:
#
#   "destroy",        meaning that the domain is cleaned up as normal;
#   "restart",        meaning that a new domain is started in place of the old
#                     one;
#   "preserve",       meaning that no clean-up is done until the domain is
#                     manually destroyed (using xm destroy, for example); or
#   "rename-restart", meaning that the old domain is not cleaned up, but is
#                     renamed and a new domain started in its place.
#
# In the event a domain stops due to a crash, you have the additional options:
#
#   "coredump-destroy", meaning dump the crashed domain's core and then destroy;
#   "coredump-restart', meaning dump the crashed domain's core and the restart.
#
# The default is
#
#   on_poweroff = 'destroy'
#   on_reboot   = 'restart'
#   on_crash    = 'restart'
#
# For backwards compatibility we also support the deprecated option restart
#
# restart = 'onreboot' means on_poweroff = 'destroy'
#                            on_reboot   = 'restart'
#                            on_crash    = 'destroy'
#
# restart = 'always'   means on_poweroff = 'restart'
#                            on_reboot   = 'restart'
#                            on_crash    = 'restart'
#
# restart = 'never'    means on_poweroff = 'destroy'
#                            on_reboot   = 'destroy'
#                            on_crash    = 'destroy'
 
#on_poweroff = 'destroy'
#on_reboot   = 'restart'
#on_crash    = 'restart'
 
#-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
#   Configure PVSCSI devices:
#
#vscsi=[ 'PDEV, VDEV' ]
#
#   PDEV   gives physical SCSI device to be attached to specified guest
#          domain by one of the following identifier format.
#          - XX:XX:XX:XX (4-tuples with decimal notation which shows
#                          "host:channel:target:lun")
#          - /dev/sdxx or sdx
#          - /dev/stxx or stx
#          - /dev/sgxx or sgx
#          - result of 'scsi_id -gu -s'.
#            ex. # scsi_id -gu -s /block/sdb
#                  36000b5d0006a0000006a0257004c0000
#
#   VDEV   gives virtual SCSI device by 4-tuples (XX:XX:XX:XX) as 
#          which the specified guest domain recognize.
#
 
#vscsi = [ '/dev/sdx, 0:0:0:0' ]
 
#============================================================================

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Asked On: 2009-09-09 at 16:55:26ID24719993
Topics: XenServer
,; Linux
,; CentOS
Participating Experts: 1
Points: 500
Comments: 41

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Answers

by: mwecomputersPosted on 2009-09-10 at 07:54:00ID: 25300813

Is there any reason you're not using the virt-manager instead to provision the environment?

by: allwebnowPosted on 2009-09-10 at 07:59:48ID: 25300882

I think maybe because we'll be using openqrm for managing later maybe? I'm new to this. Also, I tried running virt-manager command and got command not found. Pretty standard, seeing how so far not one command has worked on its first try. lol

by: mwecomputersPosted on 2009-09-10 at 08:04:32ID: 25300949

On the xen host server, did you do 'yum install xen kernel-xen virt-manager' already?

by: allwebnowPosted on 2009-09-10 at 08:04:42ID: 25300952

oh btw, I'm just running centos 5.3 straigh ssht. no gui interface.

by: allwebnowPosted on 2009-09-10 at 08:08:08ID: 25300987

mw,
is that the command to install just virt-manager? I don't want to install xen again to a lower version number. will it bypass xen if I run this and just install virt-manager?

by: mwecomputersPosted on 2009-09-10 at 08:12:15ID: 25301039

You could try something like this:

virt-install -v -n xenvm_name -r 4096 --nographics --vcpus=2 -f /var/lib/xen/images/your_xenvm_image.img -c /var/lib/xen/images/Your_ISO_File.iso -s 16 --nonsparse

Reference:
http://opensolaris.org/os/community/xen/docs/virt-install.1m.pdf

by: mwecomputersPosted on 2009-09-10 at 08:13:52ID: 25301056

Are you still using the same Xen repo as you had originally stated in your previous question?:
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Software/Virtualization/Q_24709055.html

If so, then you should just be using the virt-manager program that is found in this repository.

by: allwebnowPosted on 2009-09-10 at 08:15:44ID: 25301076

yes

by: allwebnowPosted on 2009-09-10 at 08:21:50ID: 25301123

ok, it installed successfully. But now i run the command and get this:

[root@cloud34 install-xen]# virt-manager
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/share/virt-manager/virt-manager.py", line 349, in ?
_show_startup_error(str(e), "".join(traceback.format_exc()))
File "/usr/share/virt-manager/virt-manager.py", line 51, in _show_startup_error
import gtk
File "/usr/lib64/python2.4/site-packages/gtk-2.0/gtk/__init__.py", line 76, in ?
_init()
File "/usr/lib64/python2.4/site-packages/gtk-2.0/gtk/__init__.py", line 64, in _init
_gtk.init_check()
RuntimeError: could not open display

by: mwecomputersPosted on 2009-09-10 at 09:42:38ID: 25301962

Ok, virt-manager requires an X-Window to be displayed. The easiest way to actually use Xen & it's virt-manager is to have a spare workstation running CentOS and then just do 'ssh -X youlogin@xen_server.com' from the workstation into the Xen host server. Note that the '-X' is required for allowing for X-Window tunneling across ssh.

Once you are logged into the Xen host server, do 'virt-manager'. You will be prompted to enter the _root_ password of the server you have logged into. If successful, a X-Window will appear w/ the Xen manager interface. Then you can start allocating your environment, etc.

by: allwebnowPosted on 2009-09-10 at 09:47:19ID: 25302008

ok, what if it's on a different ssh port?

by: mwecomputersPosted on 2009-09-10 at 09:55:36ID: 25302087

Is the Xen host not using the standard ssh port (i.e. 22)?

ssh -p port_number -X username@xen_host.com

by: allwebnowPosted on 2009-09-10 at 10:02:28ID: 25302159

ok, i got in and now it's still doing the same thing.

[root@office ~]# ssh -X 216.83.111.xx
The authenticity of host '216.83.111.xx (216.83.111.xx)' can't be established.
RSA key fingerprint is c2:01:d0:d5:d9:b2:84:51:62:a6:bb:01:f9:ed:6b:41.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? yes
Warning: Permanently added '216.83.111.xx' (RSA) to the list of known hosts.
root@216.83.111.xx's password:
Last login: Thu Sep 10 06:44:06 2009 from ro1-dsl-208-102-209-236.doamin.net
[root@cloud34 ~]# virt-manager
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/share/virt-manager/virt-manager.py", line 349, in ?
_show_startup_error(str(e), "".join(traceback.format_exc()))
File "/usr/share/virt-manager/virt-manager.py", line 51, in _show_startup_error
import gtk
File "/usr/lib64/python2.4/site-packages/gtk-2.0/gtk/__init__.py", line 76, in ?
_init()
File "/usr/lib64/python2.4/site-packages/gtk-2.0/gtk/__init__.py", line 64, in _init
_gtk.init_check()
RuntimeError: could not open display
[root@cloud34 ~]#

by: mwecomputersPosted on 2009-09-10 at 10:20:39ID: 25302328

Is the workstation you are logging in from have X-Windows installed (i.e. Gnome, KDE) and are you connecting to the Xen Host via an X-Term session?

by: mwecomputersPosted on 2009-09-10 at 10:23:28ID: 25302351

Virtual Machine Manager -- Screenshots
http://virt-manager.org/screenshots.html

by: allwebnowPosted on 2009-09-10 at 10:40:29ID: 25302505

no, both machines are both just ssh.

Is there a way to install KDE on my local worksation here?

by: allwebnowPosted on 2009-09-10 at 10:53:47ID: 25302648

I think i figured it out. yum groupinstall "KDE (K Desktop Environment)"

It still installing. what will I need to do after this?

Do both machines have to have kde? also, the local machine i'm using to login into xen machine is not 64bit. Does that matter?

by: mwecomputersPosted on 2009-09-10 at 12:41:01ID: 25303519

No, only the workstation that would be setting up and using the virt-manager GUI interface needs to have the graphical front-end. No, the 32-bit nor 64-bit doesn't matter on the workstation. Virt-manager (on the Xen host) will determine if you can use 32-bit or 64-bit VMs.

The Xen guest vm's don't need the graphical environment installed (unless you want them to).

by: allwebnowPosted on 2009-09-10 at 14:03:25ID: 25304337

So this is what I have so far:

server 1. local workstation machine with centos + KDE installed - 32bit

server 2. MAIN Remote Centos 64bit machine with xen (this is my main server that will have the VM's and the openqrm's)

Which one is guest?

anyway, I'm using server 1 to login to server 2 via ssh -X IP. then if I run any command thereafter, nothing works

I get this:
[root@cloud34 ~]# virt-manager
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/share/virt-manager/virt-manager.py", line 349, in ?
_show_startup_error(str(e), "".join(traceback.format_exc()))
File "/usr/share/virt-manager/virt-manager.py", line 51, in _show_startup_error
import gtk
File "/usr/lib64/python2.4/site-packages/gtk-2.0/gtk/__init__.py", line 76, in ?
_init()
File "/usr/lib64/python2.4/site-packages/gtk-2.0/gtk/__init__.py", line 64, in _init
_gtk.init_check()
RuntimeError: could not open display

OR:

[root@cloud34 ~]# startx
xauth: creating new authority file /root/.serverauth.13227
xauth: creating new authority file /root/.Xauthority
xauth: creating new authority file /root/.Xauthority
xinit: No such file or directory (errno 2): no server "X" in PATH

Use the -- option, or make sure that /usr/bin is in your path and
that "X" is a program or a link to the right type of server
for your display. Possible server names include:

Xorg X.Org displays

xinit: Server error.

OR,

[root@cloud34 ~]# startkde
xsetroot: unable to open display ''
xset: unable to open display ""
xset: unable to open display ""
xsetroot: unable to open display ''
startkde: Starting up...
ksplash: cannot connect to X server
kdeinit: Aborting. $DISPLAY is not set.
Warning: connect() failed: : No such file or directory
ksmserver: cannot connect to X server
ERROR: Couldn't attach to DCOP server!
startkde: Shutting down...
Warning: connect() failed: : No such file or directory
Error: Can't contact kdeinit!
startkde: Running shutdown scripts...
startkde: Done.
[root@cloud34 ~]#

by: mwecomputersPosted on 2009-09-10 at 14:49:09ID: 25304870

To give you a better understanding of how to use the virt-manager, I will break down how I provision out virtual instances (i.e. 'guest vm's) to give you a more defined example:

1) At my desk, I have a Dell PC workstation running CentOS 5.3. Upon it is the basic Gnome environment.

2) The Xen servers I support are running either RHEL 5.3 or CentOS 5.3 with xen, kernel-xen and virt-manager installed on them.

Under Gnome that is running upon CentOS on my workstation, I open an X-Terminal session and connect via 'ssh -X myid@xen_host_server' to any of the Xen Host servers. From the workstation session, I then run 'virt-manager' and get prompted with a window to enter in the Xen Host server's root password. Once authenticated, I get a Xen GUI interface for actually building the Xen guest environments that will be stored on the Xen Host server.

On the Xen Host Server, all guest VM's are (usually) provisioned and found under the /var/lib/xen/images directory.

by: allwebnowPosted on 2009-09-10 at 14:52:48ID: 25304903

ok, i get that now. But I can't start KDE no matter what I do. How do I get my local centos machine here to load up kde gui so i can then ssh -X to my xen machine and run virt-manager?

by: mwecomputersPosted on 2009-09-10 at 19:25:03ID: 25306272

Try this on your 'desktop' environment:

yum groupinstall "X Window System" "GNOME Desktop Environment"

by: allwebnowPosted on 2009-09-12 at 04:54:54ID: 25316097

ok, that's installed. I opened a terminal and did ssh -X ip logged into xen machine and ran virt-manager. The screen flickered in the bottom right corner and nothing happened. Is it running in the background?

by: allwebnowPosted on 2009-09-12 at 04:55:17ID: 25316100

btw, i did this in gnome gui.

by: mwecomputersPosted on 2009-09-13 at 11:23:19ID: 25321227

When you ssh to to the xen host server and run 'virt-manager', a GUI window should appear.

On the xen host server, check /var/log/xen/xend.log to see if there are any error messages.

by: allwebnowPosted on 2009-09-13 at 17:11:48ID: 25322376

last entry in the xend log was 9-09-09.

Now, if i have remote kvm, can i just do this on the same 64bit remote machine with gnome? Before I try installing gnome and trying that, let me know if that's possible or not.

by: mwecomputersPosted on 2009-09-13 at 17:33:33ID: 25322415

Make sure that the X Windows part is also installed -- yum groupinstall "X Window System"

by: allwebnowPosted on 2009-09-14 at 07:13:46ID: 25325618

Ok, i got the virt-manger installed. all I had to do was use remote kvm into the actual xen machine instead of using ssh -X from my local machine here.

I have a screen shot here to show you what I see, if you could, please help me figure out what I need to do next to install ubuntu iso vm.

by: allwebnowPosted on 2009-09-14 at 07:14:34ID: 25325631

Oh sorry, here's the screen shot.

by: allwebnowPosted on 2009-09-14 at 07:16:48ID: 25325659

hmm, it didn't attach. I hope this works.

Photo-091409-001.jpg
- 32 KB
xen manager screenshot

by: allwebnowPosted on 2009-09-14 at 07:26:00ID: 25325767

Ok, i'm getting it now. Should i select para or fully virtualization? Also, it's saying that the 1 vm there now is using 85% memory. hmm. seems like a lot, i wonder why it's using so much. is it because virtmanager uses a lot?

by: allwebnowPosted on 2009-09-14 at 08:48:06ID: 25326633

Here are some more screenshots. I'm kinda lost on setting up ubuntu os. It just has a way to point to the ISO and that's it. It doesn't do anything after that. Also, there's no way to remove/delete the new vm i created and start over.

pic2.jpg
- 368 KB
setup before adding the new vm
pic3.jpg
- 121 KB
path to img
pic4.jpg
- 124 KB
path to iso

by: mwecomputersPosted on 2009-09-14 at 09:23:16ID: 25327001

Domain-0 is not a vm. Under Xen, this is your 'host' environment.

When provisioning new virtual guests, I recommend using para-virtualiztion rather than full virtualization. Reason?

Full virtualization may incur a performance penalty. The VM monitor must provide the VM with an image of an entire
system, including virtual BIOS, virtual memory space, and virtual devices. The VM monitor also must create and maintain data structures for the virtual components, such as a shadow memory page table. These data structures must be updated for every corresponding access by the VMs.

In contrast, para-virtualization presents each VM with an abstraction of the hardware that is similar but not identical to the underlying physical hardware. Para-virtualization techniques require modifications to the guest operating systems that are running on the VMs. As a result, the guest operating systems are aware that they are executing on a VMallowing for near-native performance.

Another bonus is that paravirtualization allows you to move the virtual image (guest) from one Xen environment to another, not having to worry about the hardware specs between the two xen host servers. Paravirts also run much faster and utilize memory allocation better than full virtualization.

by: mwecomputersPosted on 2009-09-14 at 09:29:26ID: 25327044

Once you click on 'Finish', the virt-manager will take over and create the disk environment for setting up the virtual guest. Then it will start using the parameters for actually using the ISO to install the environment.

If successful, you will see your guest vm listed below the 'Domain-0' entry. Right click on it and select 'Open'. This will show a console terminal of the actual server (aka sort of like a kvm to the guest vm environment). If you click in this console screen, the guest vm will take control of the mouse. To release it, just press 'Ctrl+Alt' keys at the same time.

by: allwebnowPosted on 2009-09-14 at 10:14:06ID: 25327408

ok, now it's really messed up. we rebooted the whole machine and now we can't connect at all. I then deleted localhost because it was the only option in vmanager. Now I just want to start over. Do you know how to uninstall xen?

by: mwecomputersPosted on 2009-09-14 at 10:46:00ID: 25327643

To uninstall Xen: 'yum remove xen kernel-xen virt-manager'

Even though you do the 'kernel-xen', you will still have to reboot the server to utilize another previously installed kernel.

by: mwecomputersPosted on 2009-09-14 at 10:47:26ID: 25327665

Actually, you should do this instead:

'yum remove xen kernel-xen xen-libs virt-manager'

Sometimes the xen-libs can hose things up if it hasn't been removed when xen was fully uninstalled.

by: allwebnowPosted on 2009-09-14 at 11:14:30ID: 25327890

ok, i ran that last command and uninstalled it and and rebooted the server. Then I ran this below and got "nothing to do". I have the rpm's and the yum.repos/XEN.repos setup correctly. so how would I re-install?

[root@cloud34 ~]# yum install xen-3.3.0-3.x86_64.rpm xen-devel-3.3.0-3.x86_64.rpm xen-libs-3.3.0-3.x86_64.rpm libvirt-0.4.4-3.x86_64.rpm libvirt-devel-0.4.4-3.x86_64.rpm libvirt-python-0.4.4-3.x86_64.rpm

Loaded plugins: fastestmirror
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
* extras: ftp.lug.udel.edu
* updates: centos.aol.com
* base: mirrors.rit.edu
* addons: centos.mirror.nac.net
Setting up Install Process
Parsing package install arguments
No package xen-3.3.0-3.x86_64.rpm available.
No package xen-devel-3.3.0-3.x86_64.rpm available.
No package xen-libs-3.3.0-3.x86_64.rpm available.
No package libvirt-0.4.4-3.x86_64.rpm available.
No package libvirt-devel-0.4.4-3.x86_64.rpm available.
No package libvirt-python-0.4.4-3.x86_64.rpm available.
Nothing to do

by: mwecomputersPosted on 2009-09-14 at 13:05:15ID: 25328794

For one, you don't do 'yum install xen-3.3.0-3.x86_64.rpm ...' to install RPMs.

If the XEN.repo file is enabled, you should just be able to do 'yum install xen kernel-xen virt-manager' to have 'yum' check that repository and download/install the files from it. If the files in that repository are 'newer' than the CentOS repository (which I think it is), then it should only select that repository for downloading and installing the RPMs.

by: allwebnowPosted on 2009-09-14 at 13:06:18ID: 25328802

nevermind I wasn't in the correct install dir with the rpm's. instlling now, i'll let you know what happens.

by: allwebnowPosted on 2009-09-18 at 15:54:08ID: 31626894

mwecomputers was very very helpful and helped me understand xen much better.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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xen virt-install is not working

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