Re: [Libguestfs] "guestmount --rw" fails but "guestmount --ro" succeeds on Ubuntu 14.04

Thanks for your response Rich. Please see the output of --trace --verbose below. Regarding your suggestion to convert the vmdk to some other format, I do not want to do it. A security consultant said by modifying certain files in our VM and restarting the VM, one can gain access to encrypted data in our VM. I want to reproduce it. I am able to mount the VM but not able to modify files since it can be mounted with --ro option only. :~$ guestmount --trace --verbose --rw -a agent-disk1.vmdk -i /mnt/vmdk libguestfs: trace: set_verbose true libguestfs: trace: set_verbose = 0 libguestfs: trace: set_recovery_proc true libguestfs: trace: set_recovery_proc = 0 libguestfs: trace: add_drive "agent-disk1.vmdk" libguestfs: trace: add_drive = 0 libguestfs: trace: launch libguestfs: trace: get_tmpdir libguestfs: trace: get_tmpdir = "/tmp" libguestfs: trace: version libguestfs: trace: version = <struct guestfs_version *> libguestfs: trace: get_backend libguestfs: trace: get_backend = "direct" libguestfs: launch: program=guestmount libguestfs: launch: version=1.24.5 libguestfs: launch: backend registered: unix libguestfs: launch: backend registered: uml libguestfs: launch: backend registered: libvirt libguestfs: launch: backend registered: direct libguestfs: launch: backend=direct libguestfs: launch: tmpdir=/tmp/libguestfsanpm0b libguestfs: launch: umask=0002 libguestfs: launch: euid=1000 libguestfs: command: run: /usr/bin/supermin-helper libguestfs: command: run: \ --verbose libguestfs: command: run: \ -f checksum libguestfs: command: run: \ --host-cpu x86_64 libguestfs: command: run: \ /usr/lib/guestfs/supermin.d supermin helper [00000ms] whitelist = (not specified) supermin helper [00000ms] host_cpu = x86_64 supermin helper [00000ms] dtb_wildcard = (not specified) supermin helper [00000ms] inputs: supermin helper [00000ms] inputs[0] = /usr/lib/guestfs/supermin.d supermin helper [00000ms] outputs: supermin helper [00000ms] kernel = (none) supermin helper [00000ms] dtb = (none) supermin helper [00000ms] initrd = (none) supermin helper [00000ms] appliance = (none) checking modpath /lib/modules/3.13.0-74-generic is a directory picked kernel vmlinuz-3.13.0-74-generic supermin helper [00000ms] finished creating kernel supermin helper [00000ms] visiting /usr/lib/guestfs/supermin.d supermin helper [00001ms] visiting /usr/lib/guestfs/supermin.d/base.img supermin helper [00003ms] visiting /usr/lib/guestfs/supermin.d/daemon.img.gz supermin helper [00003ms] visiting /usr/lib/guestfs/supermin.d/hostfiles supermin helper [00199ms] visiting /usr/lib/guestfs/supermin.d/init.img supermin helper [00200ms] visiting /usr/lib/guestfs/supermin.d/udev-rules.img supermin helper [00201ms] adding kernel modules supermin helper [00667ms] finished creating appliance libguestfs: checksum of existing appliance: c15e020bda105b5ca562616e2edac3c65917bbbd9fb9954efe3d92e697a583a1 libguestfs: trace: get_cachedir libguestfs: trace: get_cachedir = "/var/tmp" libguestfs: trace: get_cachedir libguestfs: trace: get_cachedir = "/var/tmp" libguestfs: [00675ms] begin building supermin appliance libguestfs: [00675ms] run supermin-helper libguestfs: command: run: /usr/bin/supermin-helper libguestfs: command: run: \ --verbose libguestfs: command: run: \ --copy-kernel libguestfs: command: run: \ -f ext2 libguestfs: command: run: \ --host-cpu x86_64 libguestfs: command: run: \ /usr/lib/guestfs/supermin.d libguestfs: command: run: \ --output-kernel /var/tmp/guestfs.l3Pqvn/kernel libguestfs: command: run: \ --output-initrd /var/tmp/guestfs.l3Pqvn/initrd libguestfs: command: run: \ --output-appliance /var/tmp/guestfs.l3Pqvn/root supermin helper [00000ms] whitelist = (not specified) supermin helper [00000ms] host_cpu = x86_64 supermin helper [00000ms] dtb_wildcard = (not specified) supermin helper [00000ms] inputs: supermin helper [00000ms] inputs[0] = /usr/lib/guestfs/supermin.d supermin helper [00000ms] outputs: supermin helper [00000ms] kernel = /var/tmp/guestfs.l3Pqvn/kernel supermin helper [00000ms] dtb = (none) supermin helper [00000ms] initrd = /var/tmp/guestfs.l3Pqvn/initrd supermin helper [00000ms] appliance = /var/tmp/guestfs.l3Pqvn/root checking modpath /lib/modules/3.13.0-74-generic is a directory picked kernel vmlinuz-3.13.0-74-generic supermin helper [00048ms] finished creating kernel supermin helper [00842ms] finished mke2fs supermin helper [00842ms] visiting /usr/lib/guestfs/supermin.d supermin helper [00842ms] visiting /usr/lib/guestfs/supermin.d/base.img supermin helper [00878ms] visiting /usr/lib/guestfs/supermin.d/daemon.img.gz supermin helper [00915ms] visiting /usr/lib/guestfs/supermin.d/hostfiles supermin helper [03725ms] visiting /usr/lib/guestfs/supermin.d/init.img supermin helper [03725ms] visiting /usr/lib/guestfs/supermin.d/udev-rules.img supermin helper [03725ms] adding kernel modules supermin helper [07480ms] closing ext2 filesystem supermin helper [07481ms] finished creating appliance libguestfs: [08157ms] finished building supermin appliance libguestfs: command: run: rm libguestfs: command: run: \ -rf /var/tmp/guestfs.l3Pqvn libguestfs: [08158ms] begin testing qemu features libguestfs: command: run: /usr/bin/qemu-system-x86_64 libguestfs: command: run: \ -nographic libguestfs: command: run: \ -help libguestfs: command: run: /usr/bin/qemu-system-x86_64 libguestfs: command: run: \ -nographic libguestfs: command: run: \ -version libguestfs: qemu version 2.0 libguestfs: command: run: /usr/bin/qemu-system-x86_64 libguestfs: command: run: \ -nographic libguestfs: command: run: \ -machine accel=kvm:tcg libguestfs: command: run: \ -device ? libguestfs: [08244ms] finished testing qemu features libguestfs: is_openable: /dev/kvm: No such file or directory libguestfs: command: run: dmesg | grep -Eoh 'lpj=[[:digit:]]+' libguestfs: read_lpj_from_dmesg: calculated lpj=9976136 [08257ms] /usr/bin/qemu-system-x86_64 \ -global virtio-blk-pci.scsi=off \ -nodefconfig \ -enable-fips \ -nodefaults \ -nographic \ -machine accel=kvm:tcg \ -m 500 \ -no-reboot \ -rtc driftfix=slew \ -no-hpet \ -no-kvm-pit-reinjection \ -kernel /var/tmp/.guestfs-1000/kernel.1723 \ -initrd /var/tmp/.guestfs-1000/initrd.1723 \ -device virtio-scsi-pci,id=scsi \ -drive file=agent-disk1.vmdk,cache=writeback,id=hd0,if=none \ -device scsi-hd,drive=hd0 \ -drive file=/var/tmp/.guestfs-1000/root.1723,snapshot=on,id=appliance,cache=unsafe,if=none \ -device scsi-hd,drive=appliance \ -device virtio-serial-pci \ -serial stdio \ -device sga \ -chardev socket,path=/tmp/libguestfsanpm0b/guestfsd.sock,id=channel0 \ -device virtserialport,chardev=channel0,name=org.libguestfs.channel.0 \ -append 'panic=1 console=ttyS0 udevtimeout=600 no_timer_check lpj=9976136 acpi=off printk.time=1 cgroup_disable=memory root=/dev/sdb selinux=0 guestfs_verbose=1 TERM=xterm-256color' Warning: option deprecated, use lost_tick_policy property of kvm-pit instead. Could not access KVM kernel module: No such file or directory failed to initialize KVM: No such file or directory Back to tcg accelerator. qemu-system-x86_64: -drive file=agent-disk1.vmdk,cache=writeback,id=hd0,if=none: could not open disk image agent-disk1.vmdk: VMDK version 3 must be read only libguestfs: error: appliance closed the connection unexpectedly, see earlier error messages libguestfs: child_cleanup: 0x1e051e0: child process died libguestfs: sending SIGTERM to process 1749 libguestfs: error: /usr/bin/qemu-system-x86_64 exited with error status 1, see debug messages above libguestfs: error: guestfs_launch failed, see earlier error messages libguestfs: trace: launch = -1 (error) libguestfs: trace: close libguestfs: closing guestfs handle 0x1e051e0 (state 0) libguestfs: command: run: rm libguestfs: command: run: \ -rf /tmp/libguestfsanpm0b On Sat, Feb 27, 2016 at 6:36 AM, Richard W.M. Jones <rjones(a)redhat.com&gt; wrote: