messy,

You can probably try using the -cpu flag to specify a different type of processor. Below shows some of your options. See if any works and let us know.

$ /usr/bin/qemu-kvm -cpu ?
x86           qemu64
x86           phenom
x86         core2duo
x86           qemu32
x86          coreduo
x86              486
x86          pentium
x86         pentium2
x86         pentium3
x86           athlon
x86             n270

ah ha - i have not seen that listing before. i'm very new to KVM.

currently i'm using virt-manager to start vm's.
when i try to start this vm at the command line, i get :

TUNGETIFF ioctl() failed: Bad file descriptor
TUNSETOFFLOAD ioctl() failed: Bad file descriptor

a blank screen comes up, processor usage spikes (but not memory) and i get no vm.

i hope i'm not veering off-topic too much to ask if anyone knows what to set in the xml files that virt-manager reads?

messy,

Post your command line, let's see.

this is a slightly modified version of what virt-manager uses (as expose by ps)

/usr/bin/qemu-kvm -S -M pc -cpu qemu32 -m 2048 -smp 2 -name w2k3_we_workstation -uuid 70ca25bb-33b7-988e-17c6-8167fdef3a69 -pidfile /var/run/libvirt/qemu/w2k3_we_workstation.pid -localtime -boot c -drive file=/mnt/secondDrive/virt/w2k3_we_workstation.img,if=ide,index=0,boot=on -drive file=,if=ide,media=cdrom,index=2 -net nic,macaddr=54:52:00:35:9f:9c,vlan=0 -net tap,fd=24,vlan=0 -parallel none -vnc 127.0.0.1:3

as you can see there it sets the cpu to qemu32

i'd love to just change that at the command-line and let it run, but i get stopped even with this test from the "Bad File Descriptors"

I think the issue is with the tap file descriptor since virt-manager is using it's own bridge setup. For testing purposes, start with a simple command line option for your vm just to get it working with the right -cpu option. Start with something like

/usr/bin/qemu-kvm -m 1024 -cpu core2duo -drive file=/mnt/secondDrive/virt/w2k3_we_workstation.img,if=ide

Very simple but you want proof that it works. Even if it does work though, currently virt-manager doesn't allow you to specify it so you may have to use command line to manage this VM if you really need it. I checked libvirt's website and didn't seen any way to specify this in xml config.

ah ha!

thank you very much for your help. this does appear to do the trick.

i added -smp 2 to that command line, and i do in fact see two core2dup processors reported from within server 2003.

i will continue exploring my options with this and i will see about libvirt's mailing list for how to specify.

again, thank you very much