VM boot consistently times out (150s) on non-KVM device — falls back to safe profile, blocking capture-share & losing WiFi firmware install

[zerocool1921]

Device info

• Device: Xiaomi 24117RN76O (HyperOS/MIUI)
• Android: 15 (arm64-v8a)
• Chipset: MediaTek MT6789 (Helio G99)
• Root: Not rooted (su unavailable — app correctly falls back to rootless QEMU engine)
• App version: Stryker 6.0.1

Confirmed diagnosis

• /dev/kvm does not exist on this device (ls -la /dev/kvm → "No such file or directory"). The VM therefore runs under full software emulation (TCG), not hardware-accelerated virtualization.
• Guest networking is actually functional — ping 8.8.8.8 from inside the guest succeeds (39–179ms RTT), DNS resolves correctly via 10.0.2.3/8.8.8.8. This suggests the "VM is booting WITHOUT the /sdcard capture share" / no-network warnings logged during failed boots are a timing/race condition (network not yet up when the app checks), not a persistent networking failure.
• Firmware htc_9271-1.4.0.fw / htc_7010-1.4.0.fw install failed automatically during a timed-out boot (no network yet at that point), but installs successfully via apt install firmware-ath9k-htc once the guest is manually reached through the in-app terminal.

Steps to reproduce

1. Launch Stryker on a non-rooted, non-KVM device (MediaTek MT6789 in this case).
2. Start the VM from the dashboard.
3. Boot repeatedly exceeds the hardcoded 150-second timeout under TCG software emulation.

Actual behavior

[ERR] [guest] VM boot failed (Boot timed out after 150s), falling back to the safe profile (aio=threads, cache=writeback, no 9p share, no virtio-rng, no USB HC)
[ERR] [guest] VM is booting WITHOUT the /sdcard capture share — handshakes and reports written inside the guest will not be visible to the app

This repeats across every session (log excerpt spans ~2 hours, 12+ timeout events). Occasionally followed by:
[ERR] [guest] VM is not running — start it from the dashboard, then retry

And once, on first boot after a disk resize (8GB → 24GB):
[ERR] [guest] guest is missing /lib/firmware/ath9k_htc/htc_9271-1.4.0.fw — installing firmware-ath9k-htc
[ERR] [guest] could not install firmware-ath9k-htc (no network in the VM?)

Expected behavior

• Boot timeout should be configurable (or auto-scaled) for devices without /dev/kvm, since software-emulated boot on mid-range SoCs can legitimately take longer than 150s.
• Ideally, the app should detect KVM availability upfront (a "VM Benchmark" step already exists per the 6.0 changelog) and either warn the user or automatically extend the timeout for non-accelerated devices.
• The firmware auto-install step should retry after boot completes (or wait for confirmed guest network readiness) rather than failing permanently on a single early attempt during a timed-out boot.

What I've already tried

• Confirmed no config file exists in /storage/emulated/0/Stryker/ (only hs/, captured/, reports/ — output folders, no settings).
• run-as com.zalexdev.stryker is blocked by the OS (permission denied) — cannot inspect internal app data/shared_prefs without root.
• No visible in-app setting for boot timeout (checked VM Settings / Engine Settings).
• Manually installed the missing WiFi firmware once inside the guest via apt install firmware-ath9k-htc — works fine when network is confirmed up.

Request

Please expose the VM boot timeout as a user-configurable value (e.g. in VM Settings), or auto-detect non-KVM devices and scale the timeout accordingly (suggest allowing up to 5–10 minutes on TCG). Happy to test a build with this change on this device.

[Boda63]

same as you but with a different type of phone

Redme 13
hyperOS 3
Android 16

stryker.log