Arch Linux

zynex

Member

Registered: 2019-03-20

Posts: 29

KVM problem with qcow2 storage pools

I have used VirtualBox on my laptop for some time, and just tested using KVM instead, witch works very well in general.

Although, I have some very odd problem and can't find any solution to it. I have searched for the problem with both Google and DuckDuckGo but can't find anything about the error I'm getting. When creating a directory pool, it works good. The images inside the directory pops up, and I can start the VM.

But after I restarted the computer the pool won't start, and I get a error message when trying virsh pool-start default (or any pool name for that sake with the qcow2 images). It doesn't seem to have to do anything with pool itself, but rather the images I have. The error I get is (the error is in Swedish so I translated it):

sudo virsh pool-start default
error: Failed to start pool default
error: cannot open volume '/home/.lkvm/GNS3-VM-disk001.qcow2': Mandatory key not available 

I have three images, get the same error with all three of them. They are not encrypted or anything, just converted from a vbox image. The files are:

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4,0G 10 feb 21.27 GNS3-VM-disk001.qcow2
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2,7G 10 feb 15.39 GNS3-VM-disk002.qcow2
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  16G 10 feb 14.30 KaliLinux.qcow2

I'm a bit baffled about this, mostly because I can't find anything in and documentation about this error. Any ideas?

-- Mike

Last edited by zynex (2021-02-11 13:12:20)

Lone_Wolf

Administrator

From: Netherlands, Europe

Registered: 2005-10-04

Posts: 15,091

Re: KVM problem with qcow2 storage pools

/home/.lkvm/GNS3-VM-disk001.qcow2

That path looks strange, is there really a user .lkvm on your system and did you store the images under it ?

---

Disliking systemd intensely, but not satisfied with alternatives so focusing on taming systemd.

clean chroot building not flexible enough ?
Try clean chroot manager by graysky

zynex

Member

Registered: 2019-03-20

Posts: 29

Re: KVM problem with qcow2 storage pools

It's just a folder I created in /home for the images after failing to use my own home folder (in case of permissions problem). Didn't do much thought.

My solution atm is to have the images inside my home folder, moving the qcow2 files outside the folder (fx /home/user/KVM-Images) and start virt-manager and move the files back into that folder.

The odd thing is that it doesn't work if the images are present inside the pool folder when starting it first time, but the pool starts when the folder is empty. Then when I move the images back into that folder, it picks them up and everything works.

I do use CryFS for /home, but I don't think it should matter? Haven't tested my hypotheses yet though (my root folder can't contain the size of the images).

Last edited by zynex (2021-02-15 15:47:13)