I've got a problem where I can't access my console (well, I can', but I can't type in a password), which I don't think is a libvirt issue but any help or commentary is certainly welcome http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.emulators.kvm.devel/79561 , and I'm trying to debug it by trying out different console/serial options in my .xml file, and I can't change them. What I have now: <serial type='pty'> <target port='0'/> </serial> <console type='pty'> <target type='serial' port='0'/> </console> No matter what I change, whether I use "virsh edit" or edit the files directly, even with libvirt off, as soon as libvirt notices (i.e. when I turn it back on) my changes get blown away and it ends up looking just like the above. Even as simple a thing as changing the port number, or removing the console, or adding a second serial... all gone. Oh, wait, that's not quite true; adding a second serial *does* work. But nothing else I've tried does. What I'm actually trying to do is copy the docs http://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsConsole more closely and specify my own source paths; I'm worried that the serial and the console are somehow ending up in the same place and maybe that's causing my problem? What I've been trying to do is something like: <serial type='pty'> <source path='/dev/pts/3'/> <target port='0'/> </serial> <console type='pty'> <source path='/dev/pts/4'/> <target port='0'/> </console> And it just won't stick. Maybe that's not even my problem, but it's not showing any errors, and it's annoying me and I'd like to understand why. -Robin