Bug in qemu-img when converting to streamOptimized vmdk images

[Ed Wittmann]

I have been recently attempting to convert images from raw and qcow2 formats to 
vmdk. It appears that the option "subformat=streamOptimized" produces a broken 
or corrupted disk image.

Current versions, running on Devuan testing: 

ii  ipxe-qemu                                 1.0.0+git-20190125.36a4c85-1      
          all          PXE boot firmware - ROM images for qemu
ii  qemu                                      1:3.1+dfsg-8+deb10u4              
          amd64        fast processor emulator, dummy package
ii  qemu-efi-aarch64                          0~20181115.85588389-3             
          all          UEFI firmware for 64-bit ARM virtual machines
ii  qemu-efi-arm                              0~20181115.85588389-3             
          all          UEFI firmware for 32-bit ARM virtual machines
ii  qemu-kvm                                  1:3.1+dfsg-8+deb10u4              
          amd64        QEMU Full virtualization on x86 hardware
ii  qemu-slof                                 20180702+dfsg-1                   
          all          Slimline Open Firmware -- QEMU PowerPC version
ii  qemu-system                               1:3.1+dfsg-8+deb10u4              
          amd64        QEMU full system emulation binaries
ii  qemu-system-arm                           1:3.1+dfsg-8+deb10u4              
          amd64        QEMU full system emulation binaries (arm)
ii  qemu-system-common                        1:3.1+dfsg-8+deb10u4              
          amd64        QEMU full system emulation binaries (common files)
ii  qemu-system-data                          1:3.1+dfsg-8+deb10u4              
          all          QEMU full system emulation (data files)
ii  qemu-system-gui                           1:3.1+dfsg-8+deb10u4              
          amd64        QEMU full system emulation binaries (user interface and 
audio support)
ii  qemu-system-mips                          1:3.1+dfsg-8+deb10u4              
          amd64        QEMU full system emulation binaries (mips)
ii  qemu-system-misc                          1:3.1+dfsg-8+deb10u4              
          amd64        QEMU full system emulation binaries (miscellaneous)
ii  qemu-system-ppc                           1:3.1+dfsg-8+deb10u4              
          amd64        QEMU full system emulation binaries (ppc)
ii  qemu-system-sparc                         1:3.1+dfsg-8+deb10u4              
          amd64        QEMU full system emulation binaries (sparc)
ii  qemu-system-x86                           1:3.1+dfsg-8+deb10u4              
          amd64        QEMU full system emulation binaries (x86)
ii  qemu-utils                                1:3.1+dfsg-8+deb10u4              
          amd64        QEMU utilities

Current uname -a:
Linux laptop-dev 5.4.0-0.bpo.3-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 5.4.13-1~bpo10+1 
(2020-02-07) x86_64 GNU/Linux

Current CPU info:
$ cat /proc/cpuinfo 
processor       : 0
vendor_id       : GenuineIntel
cpu family      : 6
model           : 158
model name      : Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-8750H CPU @ 2.20GHz
stepping        : 10
microcode       : 0xca
cpu MHz         : 800.109
cache size      : 9216 KB
physical id     : 0
siblings        : 12
core id         : 0
cpu cores       : 6
apicid          : 0
initial apicid  : 0
fpu             : yes
fpu_exception   : yes
cpuid level     : 22
wp              : yes
flags           : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov 
pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx pdpe1gb 
rdtscp lm constant_tsc art arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good nopl xtopology 
nonstop_tsc cpuid aperfmperf pni pclmulqdq dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx est tm2 
ssse3 sdbg fma cx16 xtpr pdcm pcid sse4_1 sse4_2 x2apic movbe popcnt 
tsc_deadline_timer aes xsave avx f16c rdrand lahf_lm abm 3dnowprefetch 
cpuid_fault epb invpcid_single pti ssbd ibrs ibpb stibp tpr_shadow vnmi 
flexpriority ept vpid ept_ad fsgsbase tsc_adjust bmi1 avx2 smep bmi2 erms 
invpcid mpx rdseed adx smap clflushopt intel_pt xsaveopt xsavec xgetbv1 xsaves 
dtherm ida arat pln pts hwp hwp_notify hwp_act_window hwp_epp md_clear flush_l1d
bugs            : cpu_meltdown spectre_v1 spectre_v2 spec_store_bypass l1tf mds 
swapgs itlb_multihit
bogomips        : 4399.99
clflush size    : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes   : 39 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management:

$ cat /proc/meminfo
MemTotal:       16098356 kB
MemFree:         2292720 kB
MemAvailable:   12323616 kB


Steps to reproduce:
1) Create a base o/s image in .qcow2 or raw format. I am using a Debian 10 
(buster) image, and my images are created using packer 1.5.5.
2) Verify that the base image in .qcow2 format boots correctly in virt-manager 
when attached to a new VM.
3) Convert the image to vmdk using the following command:
qemu-img convert -f qcow2 -O vmdk -o 
adapter_type=lsilogic,subformat=streamOptimized,hwversion=6 <image name>.qcow2 
<image name>.vmdk
4) Create a new VM using the newly-created .vmdk, being sure to make the 
storage adapter SCSI
Result: The image, on boot, will display many disk read errors. It will boot, 
but will start in read-only mode.

This same image will also not boot correctly in ESXi or VirtualBox. In any of 
the three hypervisor environments, the bootloader menu (grub2) shows up 
correctly, but the machine will fail to boot correctly. 

Removing the "subformat=streamOptimized" argument from the qemu-img conversion 
command results in a working, albeit much larger image, with no disk read 
errors.