Improve error reporting when virtqueue ring mapping fails by including a
device identifier in the error message.

Introduce a helper qdev_get_printable_name() in qdev-core, which returns
either:

 - the device ID, if explicitly provided (e.g. -device ...,id=foo)
 - the QOM path from qdev_get_dev_path(dev) otherwise
 - "<unknown device>" as a fallback when no identifier is present

This makes it easier to identify which device triggered the error in
multi-device setups or when debugging complex guest configurations.

Resolves: https://gitlab.com/qemu-project/qemu/-/issues/230
Buglink: https://bugs.launchpad.net/qemu/+bug/1919021

Suggested-by: Markus Armbruster <armbru@redhat.com>
Signed-off-by: Alessandro Ratti <alessandro@0x65c.net>
---
 hw/core/qdev.c         | 29 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 hw/virtio/virtio.c     | 15 ++++++++++++---
 include/hw/qdev-core.h |  1 +
 3 files changed, 42 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/hw/core/qdev.c b/hw/core/qdev.c
index f600226176..fab42a7270 100644
--- a/hw/core/qdev.c
+++ b/hw/core/qdev.c
@@ -411,6 +411,35 @@ char *qdev_get_dev_path(DeviceState *dev)
     return NULL;
 }
 
+const char *qdev_get_printable_name(DeviceState *vdev)
+{
+    /*
+     * Return device ID if explicity set
+     * (e.g. -device virtio-blk-pci,id=foo)
+     * This allows users to correlate errors with their custom device
+     * names.
+     */
+    if (vdev->id) {
+        return vdev->id;
+    }
+    /*
+     * Fall back to the canonical QOM device path (eg. ID for PCI
+     * devices).
+     * This ensures the device is still uniquely and meaningfully
+     * identified.
+     */
+    const char *path = qdev_get_dev_path(vdev);
+    if (path) {
+        return path;
+    }
+
+    /*
+     * Final fallback: if all else fails, return a placeholder string.
+     * This ensures the error message always contains a valid string.
+     */
+    return "<unknown device>";
+}
+
 void qdev_add_unplug_blocker(DeviceState *dev, Error *reason)
 {
     dev->unplug_blockers = g_slist_prepend(dev->unplug_blockers, reason);
diff --git a/hw/virtio/virtio.c b/hw/virtio/virtio.c
index 9a81ad912e..0caea5b8ce 100644
--- a/hw/virtio/virtio.c
+++ b/hw/virtio/virtio.c
@@ -256,7 +256,10 @@ void virtio_init_region_cache(VirtIODevice *vdev, int n)
     len = address_space_cache_init(&new->desc, vdev->dma_as,
                                    addr, size, packed);
     if (len < size) {
-        virtio_error(vdev, "Cannot map desc");
+        virtio_error(vdev,
+                "Failed to map descriptor ring for device %s: "
+                "invalid guest physical address or corrupted queue setup",
+                qdev_get_printable_name(DEVICE(vdev)));
         goto err_desc;
     }
 
@@ -264,7 +267,10 @@ void virtio_init_region_cache(VirtIODevice *vdev, int n)
     len = address_space_cache_init(&new->used, vdev->dma_as,
                                    vq->vring.used, size, true);
     if (len < size) {
-        virtio_error(vdev, "Cannot map used");
+        virtio_error(vdev,
+                "Failed to map used ring for device %s: "
+                "possible guest misconfiguration or insufficient memory",
+                qdev_get_printable_name(DEVICE(vdev)));
         goto err_used;
     }
 
@@ -272,7 +278,10 @@ void virtio_init_region_cache(VirtIODevice *vdev, int n)
     len = address_space_cache_init(&new->avail, vdev->dma_as,
                                    vq->vring.avail, size, false);
     if (len < size) {
-        virtio_error(vdev, "Cannot map avail");
+        virtio_error(vdev,
+                "Failed to map avalaible ring for device %s: "
+                "possible queue misconfiguration or overlapping memory region",
+                qdev_get_printable_name(DEVICE(vdev)));
         goto err_avail;
     }
 
diff --git a/include/hw/qdev-core.h b/include/hw/qdev-core.h
index 530f3da702..a7bfb10dc7 100644
--- a/include/hw/qdev-core.h
+++ b/include/hw/qdev-core.h
@@ -1064,6 +1064,7 @@ bool qdev_set_parent_bus(DeviceState *dev, BusState *bus, Error **errp);
 extern bool qdev_hot_removed;
 
 char *qdev_get_dev_path(DeviceState *dev);
+const char *qdev_get_printable_name(DeviceState *dev);
 
 void qbus_set_hotplug_handler(BusState *bus, Object *handler);
 void qbus_set_bus_hotplug_handler(BusState *bus);
-- 
2.39.5

On Wed, Sep 24, 2025 at 11:14:04AM +0200, Alessandro Ratti wrote:
> Improve error reporting when virtqueue ring mapping fails by including a
> device identifier in the error message.
> 
> Introduce a helper qdev_get_printable_name() in qdev-core, which returns
> either:
> 
>  - the device ID, if explicitly provided (e.g. -device ...,id=foo)
>  - the QOM path from qdev_get_dev_path(dev) otherwise
>  - "<unknown device>" as a fallback when no identifier is present
> 
> This makes it easier to identify which device triggered the error in
> multi-device setups or when debugging complex guest configurations.
> 
> Resolves: https://gitlab.com/qemu-project/qemu/-/issues/230
> Buglink: https://bugs.launchpad.net/qemu/+bug/1919021
> 
> Suggested-by: Markus Armbruster <armbru@redhat.com>
> Signed-off-by: Alessandro Ratti <alessandro@0x65c.net>
> ---
>  hw/core/qdev.c         | 29 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>  hw/virtio/virtio.c     | 15 ++++++++++++---
>  include/hw/qdev-core.h |  1 +
>  3 files changed, 42 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

Reviewed-by: Daniel P. Berrangé <berrange@redhat.com>


With regards,
Daniel
-- 
|: https://berrange.com      -o-    https://www.flickr.com/photos/dberrange :|
|: https://libvirt.org         -o-            https://fstop138.berrange.com :|
|: https://entangle-photo.org    -o-    https://www.instagram.com/dberrange :|