B.6. Guest virtual machine booting stalls with error: No boot device

Symptom
After building a guest virtual machine from an existing disk image, the guest booting stalls with the error message No boot device. However, the guest virtual machine can start successfully using the QEMU command directly.
Investigation
The disk's bus type is not specified in the command for importing the existing disk image: 
# virt-install \
--connect qemu:///system \
--ram 2048 -n rhel_64 \
--os-type=linux --os-variant=rhel5 \
--disk  path=/root/RHEL-Server-5.8-64-virtio.qcow2,device=disk,format=qcow2 \
--vcpus=2 --graphics spice --noautoconsole --import
However, the command line used to boot up the guest virtual machine using QEMU directly shows that it uses virtio for its bus type: 
# ps -ef | grep qemu
/usr/libexec/qemu-kvm -monitor stdio -drive file=/root/RHEL-Server-5.8-32-virtio.qcow2,index=0,if=virtio,media=disk,cache=none,format=qcow2 -net nic,vlan=0,model=rtl8139,macaddr=00:30:91:aa:04:74 -net tap,vlan=0,script=/etc/qemu-ifup,downscript=no -m 2048 -smp 2,cores=1,threads=1,sockets=2 -cpu qemu64,+sse2 -soundhw ac97 -rtc-td-hack -M rhel5.6.0 -usbdevice tablet -vnc :10 -boot c -no-kvm-pit-reinjection
Note the bus= in the guest's XML generated by libvirt for the imported guest: 
<domain type='qemu'>
 <name>rhel_64</name>
 <uuid>6cd34d52-59e3-5a42-29e4-1d173759f3e7</uuid>
 <memory>2097152</memory>
 <currentMemory>2097152</currentMemory>
 <vcpu>2</vcpu>
 <os>
   <type arch='x86_64' machine='rhel5.4.0'>hvm</type>
   <boot dev='hd'/>
 </os>
 <features>
   <acpi/>
   <apic/>
   <pae/>
 </features>
 <clock offset='utc'>
   <timer name='pit' tickpolicy='delay'/>
 </clock>
 <on_poweroff>destroy</on_poweroff>
 <on_reboot>restart</on_reboot>
 <on_crash>restart</on_crash>
 <devices>
   <emulator>/usr/libexec/qemu-kvm</emulator>
   <disk type='file' device='disk'>
     <driver name='qemu' type='qcow2' cache='none'/>
     <source file='/root/RHEL-Server-5.8-64-virtio.qcow2'/>
     <emphasis role="bold"><target dev='hda' bus='ide'/></emphasis>
     <address type='drive' controller='0' bus='0' unit='0'/>
   </disk>
   <controller type='ide' index='0'/>
   <interface type='bridge'>
     <mac address='54:52:00:08:3e:8c'/>
     <source bridge='br0'/>
   </interface>
   <serial type='pty'>
     <target port='0'/>
   </serial>
   <console type='pty'>
     <target port='0'/>
   </console>
   <input type='mouse' bus='ps2'/>
   <graphics type='vnc' port='-1' autoport='yes' keymap='en-us'/>
   <video>
     <model type='cirrus' vram='9216' heads='1'/>
   </video>
 </devices>
 </domain>
The bus type for the disk is set as ide, which is the default value set by libvirt. This is the incorrect bus type, and has caused the unsuccessful boot for the imported guest.
Solution

Procedure B.2. Correcting the disk bus type

  1. Undefine the imported guest, then re-import it with bus=virtio and the following: 
    # virsh destroy rhel_64
# virsh undefine rhel_64
# virt-install \
--connect qemu:///system \
--ram 1024 -n rhel_64 -r 2048 \
--os-type=linux --os-variant=rhel5  \
--disk path=/root/RHEL-Server-5.8-64-virtio.qcow2,device=disk,bus=virtio,format=qcow2 \
--vcpus=2 --graphics spice --noautoconsole --import
  2. Edit the imported guest's XML using virsh edit and correct the disk bus type.