[Qemu-devel] [Bug 1288620] [NEW] memory leak with default NIC model

[Aidan Gauland]

Public bug reported:

I have a Windows 7 SP1 Professional 64-bit installation on a QCOW2 image
with compat=1.1, which I launch via

qemu-system-x86_64 -drive file=windows_base_HDD.img,index=0,media=disk
-enable-kvm -m 512M -vga std -net nic,vlan=0 -net user,vlan=0

As soon as I start using the network in any application — for example,
visiting www.google.com in Internet Explorer — QEMU starts gobbling
memory until the (host) kernel kills it because of an OOM condition.  If
I run the QEMU with the same options, but with model=e1000 option set
for the NIC (i.e. -net -nic,vlan=0,model=e1000), I can use the network
from the guest OS without any noticeable effect on QEMU's memory
consumption.

I do not have this problem when running QEMU with the exact same options (as 
above, without model=e1000) but with a Debian wheezy installation (on a QCOW 
image of the same format).  My host system in Ubuntu 13.10 x86_64, kernel image 
3.11.0-17-generic, but with the QEMU packages from trusty (the codename for the 
next release):
Output of `dpkg -l \*qemu\* | grep '^ii'`:
ii  ipxe-qemu                             1.0.0+git-20130710.936134e-0ubuntu1   
     all          Virtual package to support use of kvm-ipxe with qemu
ii  qemu-keymaps                          1.7.0+dfsg-3ubuntu2                   
     all          QEMU keyboard maps
ii  qemu-system-common                    1.7.0+dfsg-3ubuntu2                   
     amd64        QEMU full system emulation binaries (common files)
ii  qemu-system-x86                       1.7.0+dfsg-3ubuntu2                   
     amd64        QEMU full system emulation binaries (x86)
ii  qemu-utils                            1.7.0+dfsg-3ubuntu2                   
     amd64        QEMU utilities

(If necessary, I can try to reproduce this with QEMU built from the
upstream source or the latest source from version control.)

** Affects: qemu
     Importance: Undecided
         Status: New


** Tags: leak memory network nic oom windows

-- 
You received this bug notification because you are a member of qemu-
devel-ml, which is subscribed to QEMU.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1288620

Title:
  memory leak with default NIC model

Status in QEMU:
  New

Bug description:
  I have a Windows 7 SP1 Professional 64-bit installation on a QCOW2
  image with compat=1.1, which I launch via

  qemu-system-x86_64 -drive file=windows_base_HDD.img,index=0,media=disk
  -enable-kvm -m 512M -vga std -net nic,vlan=0 -net user,vlan=0

  As soon as I start using the network in any application — for example,
  visiting www.google.com in Internet Explorer — QEMU starts gobbling
  memory until the (host) kernel kills it because of an OOM condition.
  If I run the QEMU with the same options, but with model=e1000 option
  set for the NIC (i.e. -net -nic,vlan=0,model=e1000), I can use the
  network from the guest OS without any noticeable effect on QEMU's
  memory consumption.

  I do not have this problem when running QEMU with the exact same options (as 
above, without model=e1000) but with a Debian wheezy installation (on a QCOW 
image of the same format).  My host system in Ubuntu 13.10 x86_64, kernel image 
3.11.0-17-generic, but with the QEMU packages from trusty (the codename for the 
next release):
  Output of `dpkg -l \*qemu\* | grep '^ii'`:
  ii  ipxe-qemu                             1.0.0+git-20130710.936134e-0ubuntu1 
       all          Virtual package to support use of kvm-ipxe with qemu
  ii  qemu-keymaps                          1.7.0+dfsg-3ubuntu2                 
       all          QEMU keyboard maps
  ii  qemu-system-common                    1.7.0+dfsg-3ubuntu2                 
       amd64        QEMU full system emulation binaries (common files)
  ii  qemu-system-x86                       1.7.0+dfsg-3ubuntu2                 
       amd64        QEMU full system emulation binaries (x86)
  ii  qemu-utils                            1.7.0+dfsg-3ubuntu2                 
       amd64        QEMU utilities

  (If necessary, I can try to reproduce this with QEMU built from the
  upstream source or the latest source from version control.)

To manage notifications about this bug go to:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/qemu/+bug/1288620/+subscriptions