No QXL / Spice available?

[u297b]

So I'm at a loss here....

Setup a brand new C9-Stream install. Trying to use as libvirt host, installing Windows guest.

I cannot seem to get basic things like QXL / Spice working? Using the same libvirt XML file from Centos 8 gives:

domain configuration does not support video model 'qxl'

If I change the graphics type to 'vga' or 'virtio', then I get the error:

spice graphics are not supported with this QEMU

Googling for these changes produces no real results specific to C9. Trying to understand what has changed and why? Clearly using RHEL9 as a virt host supporting spice is considered supported???

[jlehtone]

What do you get with:

Code: Select all

virsh domcapabilities

AlmaLinux 8 shows:

Code: Select all

...
    <graphics supported='yes'>
      <enum name='type'>
        <value>sdl</value>
        <value>vnc</value>
        <value>spice</value>
      </enum>
    </graphics>
    <video supported='yes'>
      <enum name='modelType'>
        <value>vga</value>
        <value>cirrus</value>
        <value>qxl</value>
        <value>virtio</value>
        <value>none</value>
        <value>bochs</value>
        <value>ramfb</value>
      </enum>
    </video>
...

https://access.redhat.com/documentation ... ualization does not mention QXL or spice.

[u297b]

Centos 9 Stream reports:

Code: Select all

    <graphics supported='yes'>
      <enum name='type'>
        <value>vnc</value>
        <value>egl-headless</value>
      </enum>
    </graphics>
    <video supported='yes'>
      <enum name='modelType'>
        <value>vga</value>
        <value>cirrus</value>
        <value>virtio</value>
        <value>none</value>
        <value>bochs</value>
        <value>ramfb</value>
      </enum>
    </video>

This confirms QXL/Spice is missing. But why would they remove it?

[jlehtone]

Don't know, but websearch found this: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1946939
That bug is about 'virt-manager'. One comment states:

There is basically no way how to make the spice removal seamless for users if we take into account remote connection and different OSes. For example virt-viewer would not be able to connect to existing VMs on RHEL8 as they will most likely have spice only. If we would pick VNC as default in this situation it would be inconsistent on the RHEL8 host. Now if we take into account that that RHEL8 host may be managed by other users with RHEL8 or even Fedora or other distributions where they would be able to use SPICE it would be a regression feature wise for these users.

Ok, SPICE is predominant in RHEL8. Then why RHEL 9? The bug opens with:

SPICE has been deprecated in RHEL-8.3 and is to be removed from RHEL-9.

We are no wiser, but one can refocus search.

https://access.redhat.com/documentation ... ctionality writes:

SPICE has been deprecated

The SPICE remote display protocol has become deprecated. Note that SPICE will remain supported in RHEL 8, but Red Hat recommends using alternate solutions for remote display streaming:

• For remote console access, use the VNC protocol.
• For advanced remote display functions, use third party tools such as RDP, HP RGS, or Mechdyne TGX.

That points to bug entry that is not public.

Do they (RH) have some better alternative? Was SPICE too expensive to maintain? (Like the btrfs that they did not have enough experts for.) Your guess is as good as any.

[u297b]

Wow. Thank you for pointing this out.

This is a real head-scratcher! Almost too much for me to ponder right now. This will have far reaching implications, how would you do the following using VNC:

• Share Clipboard

• Re-directUSB Device Remotely

• Access Sound Remotely

This pretty much ends using RHEL-products as a virt-host for many many usecases.

[xStatiCa]

Same boat. Now trying to decide if I should go with Fedora instead of Rocky Linux 9 for my desktop. Spice is very useful for all the reasons you mention. I like that you can watch the entire boot process from the bios startup onward. Upstream doesn't seem to have removed it. Does anyone know why? There must be a reason.

I don't want to use Fedora as I really want to stick with using the same OS as my work servers and have the same support lifetime without major changes. I haven't used Fedora in a very long time but I recally upgrade issues going to major version upgrades in the past and they are required a lo more often. I need a working system.

[TrevorH]

I like that you can watch the entire boot process from the bios startup onward.

You can do that with vnc too. And for non-GUI o/s'es you can do it with virsh console.

[tkuraku]

This seems like a huge regression in functionality. Are there any redhat folks that can shed some light on why this was done? It seems that redhat is not interested, and nearly hostile towards, the workstation use case. I really like RHEL and will happily pay for it at $DAYJOB, but stuff like this will push me back to Debian or ubuntu.

[TrevorH]

In the 13 years that I've been posting here, 9 of them as moderator, I don't think I've ever seen an official Red Hat response to anything on here. Bugzilla is your best bet, or, since you seem to have a RH account, via that as it's by far the most likely to produce any sort of answer.

[jlehtone]

In the 13 years that I've been posting here, 9 of them as moderator, I don't think I've ever seen an official Red Hat response to anything on here. Bugzilla is your best bet, or, since you seem to have a RH account, via that as it's by far the most likely to produce any sort of answer.

This.

The closest that we get to RH here is that someone working for CentOS Project posts in the Announcements subforum. Probably very different persons than the ones making decisions about RHEL.


The 18.4 in https://access.redhat.com/documentation ... ing-rhel-9 does not tell the backstory either and leaves future bleak.