Cockpit: Machines: Does not show system libvirt VM

[martinpitt]

With the update to 178 on Fedora 28, libvirt-dbus is now a dependency and being used. Now cockpit machines shows "No VM is running or defined on this host".

I do have a system machine:

❱❱❱ sudo virsh list --all
 Id    Name                           State
----------------------------------------------------
 -     sid                            shut off

In the JS log, I see

ListStoragePools failed: {"problem":null,"name":"org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.UnknownMethod","message":"Introspection data for method org.libvirt.Connect ListStoragePools not available"} machines.js:47226:28
GET_STORAGE_POOLS/</<
http://localhost:9090/cockpit/$30a4cc6cad94caf555d925f35af303248e150960275337285facbf57fb25993b/machines/machines.js:47226:28
T
http://localhost:9090/cockpit/$30a4cc6cad94caf555d925f35af303248e150960275337285facbf57fb25993b/base1/cockpit.js:879:31
D/<
http://localhost:9090/cockpit/$30a4cc6cad94caf555d925f35af303248e150960275337285facbf57fb25993b/base1/cockpit.js:891:17
j
http://localhost:9090/cockpit/$30a4cc6cad94caf555d925f35af303248e150960275337285facbf57fb25993b/base1/cockpit.js:808:17
GetDomainCapabilities failed: Introspection data for method org.libvirt.Connect GetDomainCapabilities not available machines.js:47203:28
GET_HYPERVISOR_MAX_VCPU/</<
http://localhost:9090/cockpit/$30a4cc6cad94caf555d925f35af303248e150960275337285facbf57fb25993b/machines/machines.js:47203:28
T
http://localhost:9090/cockpit/$30a4cc6cad94caf555d925f35af303248e150960275337285facbf57fb25993b/base1/cockpit.js:879:31
D/<
http://localhost:9090/cockpit/$30a4cc6cad94caf555d925f35af303248e150960275337285facbf57fb25993b/base1/cockpit.js:891:17

libvirt-dbus-1.2.0-1.fc28.x86_64

[martinpitt]

The processes do get activated:

❱❱❱ pgrep -af libvirt-dbus
8210 /usr/bin/libvirt-dbus --system
8212 /usr/bin/libvirt-dbus --session

@KKoukiou 's theory is that this is due to my user not being in the libvirt group, so that I can't use system virsh without further authentication:

❱❱❱ virsh -c qemu:///system list --all
==== AUTHENTICATING FOR org.libvirt.unix.manage ====
System policy prevents management of local virtualized systems
Authenticating as: Martin Pitt (martin)
Password: 

❱❱❱ id
uid=1000(martin) gid=1000(martin) groups=1000(martin),10(wheel),18(dialout),135(mock),989(ecryptfs)

With the virsh backend I didn't need to be in the libvirt group, as that uses superuser: try. I'd suggest to do the same for the D-Bus interface for the system one?

[martinpitt]

Sorry, the virsh backend doesn't actually use superuser: try. virsh uses polkit (as seen in my screen dump above), and Cockpit provides a polkit agent (for admin users). So apparently libvirt-dbus doesn't use polkit? Or the polkit authentication is broken somewhere between libvirt-dbus and cockpit?

[martinpitt]

I verified that this helps:

--- a/pkg/machines/libvirt-dbus.es6
+++ b/pkg/machines/libvirt-dbus.es6
@@ -852,7 +852,7 @@ function startEventMonitor(dispatch, connectionName, libvirtServiceName) {
  */
 function dbus_client(connectionName) {
     if (!(connectionName in clientLibvirt) || clientLibvirt[connectionName] === null)
-        clientLibvirt[connectionName] = cockpit.dbus("org.libvirt", { bus: connectionName });
+        clientLibvirt[connectionName] = cockpit.dbus("org.libvirt", { bus: connectionName, superuser: (connectionName === 'system') ? 'try' : 'no' });

     return clientLibvirt[connectionName];
 }

[martinpitt]

In retrospect, this test hack should have alerted me about this problem on PR review, but I didn't catch that. :crying_cat_face: This should be dropped again, the above patch should take care of it.

[KKoukiou]

@martinpitt ah now I see what you meant. I am assigning this issue to me, thanks for catching it!

[monreal]

Is there any workaround for this atm or do I have to wait for the next release to become available?

[martinpitt]

@monreal: 179 was released today with this fix. If you can help testing it in Fedora (https://bodhi.fedoraproject.org/updates/?packages=cockpit) or from Debian unstable, that would be best.

If that's not possible for some reason, you can temporarily uninstall libvirt-dbus.

[monreal]

@monreal: 179 was released today with this fix. If you can help testing it in Fedora

Running F28 Server, the testing packages work fine, thanks!

[ejbolt]

Hopefully this is the right place to report, but having this issue on Ubuntu 19.04, cockpit 189.
Same issue, when connected as superuser and I first set up a VM, it will say it is 'In Transition", and then disappear if I refresh the browser. However, as soon as I uninstall libvirt-dbus, the problem is gone.
Happy to resubmit somewhere else if this is the wrong place, and to provide any logs.

[digitalformula]

@martinpitt I'm running Ubuntu 20.04 and removing libvirt-dbus has resolved this exact issue. Package removed (it had no dependencies or dependents) and Cockpit UI now shows the VMs as expected.

I note you said you can remove the package temporarily, though. What are the implications of leaving it removed permanently?

Edit: The Storage Pools and Networks tabs aren't visible without libvirt-dbus installed.

[mxbi]

For those searching for a solution to the issue reported by @ejbolt and @digitalformula, see https://github.com/cockpit-project/cockpit/issues/13343#issuecomment-570611574

[digitalformula]

For those searching for a solution to the issue reported by @ejbolt and @digitalformula, see #13343 (comment)

Confirmed, this does fix that particular issue. Thanks @mxbi !

Now just need to figure out permissions so I can actually use KVM on Ubuntu (it's easy on CentOS).