Is your qcow2 image backed by another image?
Have you tried qemu-image check with -r for repair?
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Is your qcow2 image backed by another image?
Have you tried qemu-image check with -r for repair?
Could you try addkng "-serial stdio" and see if any info comes out on the console?
You could also try debugging with gdb. https://qemu-project.gitlab.io/qemu/system/gdb.html
This may me way more technical than you wish to dive into, but it also might shed some light on where things are stuck.
I have also had VMs that hang on boot-up while running a core at 100%. I use Proxmox as my host, and was always able to enter the console for the VM and observe it going through the boot sequence. When it hung as you have described, it was because of some error that I could correct in the console. So, maybe check if your host allows you to interact with the VM while it's booting.
I already tried that using virtual machine manager, I can see the "bios screen" and the blinking cursor after "booting from disk", but that's it.
So there is nothing happening, at least vm manager doesn't even register any RAM usage, just one core at 100%.
That's frustrating. I'm no expert, but since there are no other responses and I've had my fair share of problems to solve, maybe check: