There's no need to add any more specific information. The bug's in the code in qemu.
net/vde.c: static int net_vde_init(VLANState *vlan, const char *model, const char *name, const char *sock, int port, const char *group, int mode) { ... vde = vde_open(init_sock, (char *)"QEMU", &args); if (!vde){ return -1; } ... } There's no message generated there. Callers merely pass the failure up the road, where it's finally handled as exit(1). If _anything_ is wrong in vde_open() (which can fail due to variety of reasons, including wrong path to the listening socket and what not), nothing will indicate that, just a trivial, silent exit. ** Changed in: qemu Status: New => Confirmed -- Silently fail with wrong vde socket dir https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/676029 You received this bug notification because you are a member of qemu- devel-ml, which is subscribed to QEMU. Status in QEMU: Confirmed Bug description: Hi, Using qemu 0.12.5, kvm silently fail with exit code 1 when using -net vde and a wrong path for sock. Actually, the sock option is mean to be the socket dir of the vde_switch, not the socket itself. With -net vde,sock=/var/run/vde/vde0/ctl , strace ends with the following messages : connect(7, {sa_family=AF_FILE, path="/var/run/vde/vde0/ctl/ctl"}, 110) = -1 ENOTDIR (Not a directory) close(7) = 0 close(8) = 0 exit_group(1) = ? root ~# Please add a meaningful message. Regards, Étienne