Windows 10 qemu/kvm guest win/fails...

[okky-htf]

I've just upgraded last night to Windows 10 Threshold 2 (November Update) and ran a BSOD and some issues. I've detailed it here at vfio-users mailing list. Basically I need to *again* change my CPU model back to core2duo and revert it back to host after the upgrade. But I need to completely remove the display driver using Guru3D Display Driver Uninstaller to get my VM up and running again. Hope it helps.

[dramaekrs]

Can't seem to use the QXL driver because it's incompatible to Windows 10. I have tried qxl-0.1-21. Does anybody now the correct driver?

[KillerKelvUK]

Can't seem to use the QXL driver because it's incompatible to Windows 10. I have tried qxl-0.1-21. Does anybody now the correct driver?

Think you're using a way old driver, source all virtio and qxl drivers from here... https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Windo...irect_download. Note there are separate drivers if using Win7 vs Win8 and above so you need the qxldod variant. Also download the 'latest' drivers, not the stable...'stable' was too old for me prev and caused issues that the 'latest' resolved.

Been running Win10 with qxl since Win10 went GA so this def works so just a driver combo problem for you.

p.s. the changelog on the link says the prior virtio release #0.1.110-2 included qxl-win-unsigned-0.1-24...the unsigned means Windows will bitch about the install as such but they should operate properly. That said I haven't upgraded in a while as I'm perfectly stable using the virtio-win-0.1.110 release.

Best of luck and happy holidays.

[heiko_s]

Thanks for this great thread, and okky - thanks for the qemu script! I used to run Win 7 on Xen for about 3 1/2 years without issues. But when I replaced my guest GPU and put the former guest GPU to work as host GPU, it was time to give kvm a try.

I decided for a clean install of Windows 7, but failed when Windows stopped at the Windows logo screen. Finally I got the Windows 10 ISO and from there on everything went smooth.

Too bad I didn't see this thread earlier, perhaps it would have helped with installing Windows 7.

With regard to the virtio drivers, I'm still a little puzzled. So far I installed only vioscsi, viostor, and NetVM. Do I need the rest of them? If yes, how do I install them (I assume via device manager in Windows, but which driver goes where?)? Here is the complete list of available drivers:

NetKVM/: Virtio Network driver
viostor/: Virtio Block driver
vioscsi/: Virtio SCSI driver
viorng/: Virtio RNG driver
vioser/: Virtio serial driver
Balloon/: Virtio Memory Balloon driver
qxl/: QXL graphics driver for Windows 7 and earlier. (build virtio-win-0.1.103-1 and later)
qxldod/: QXL graphics driver for Windows 8 and later. (build virtio-win-0.1.103-2 and later)
pvpanic/: QEMU pvpanic device driver (build virtio-win-0.1.103-2 and later)
guest-agent/: QEMU Guest Agent 32bit and 64bit MSI installers
qemupciserial/: QEMU PCI serial device driver


Sorry to post this here, but you seem to be the ones who could answer this.

[KillerKelvUK]

@heiko_s, well done with the successful switch to KVM and passthru. The virtio drivers are only needed if your guest is configured to use the virtual hardware the driver is intended for. To explain, if you weren't passing through a physical GPU the recommended virtual GFX hardware would be QXL for a Windows guest...as such you'd need the associated driver from the .iso which for a Win7 guest would be the qxl/: variant or for a Win8/10 guest it would be the qxldod/: variant. Other configurations e.g. memory ballooning would need to the Balloon/: driver and if you wanted to use Qemu Guest Tools then you need to install the Guest Agent which is guest-agent/:.

If you are uncertain whether you've installed all the required drivers I'd simply open the Windows Device Manager and look for any item which displays either as an unknown piece of hardware or shows the yellow warning triangle. Just 'Update Driver' and point to the virtio .iso to search.

[heiko_s]

@KillerKelvUK: Thanks for your quick reply - you answered my question. I thought I might be running inefficient Microsoft-supplied drivers, but it looks like I have the latest virtio drivers. Did some Passmark benchmarks and found an issue with the sequential READ speed of my Samsung EVO 850: ~95 MB/s - that sucks (write speed is a 450 MB/s). Will open a new thread.

[sven-hanslik]

That took really long time: about 30 hours from 99% to the round progress cake meter and then about 3 more hours until the whole thing was done. Maybe because I ran it on a x131e (intel i3) laptop with rather low specs. I used the following command (leave out the -vga and -soundhw part):
qemu-system-i386 -cpu core2duo,+nx -enable-kvm -m 3048 -vga std -daemonize -soundhw ac97 /media/sdc1/win10.qcow2
I tried with kvm=off but that gave an error, and without -enable-kvm it was all just very slow. After the Upgrade I replaced the core2duo,+nx part with "host" and added also some cores=, sockets=, threads= and began disabling eyecandy on the guest win10. Of course, I still have a copy of the win7 before the upgrade.
Das hat richtig lang gedauert: ca 30 Stunden von den 99% installing bis zu dem "kuchendiagramm", und dann nochmal 3 Stunden. Vergesst nicht, eine Kopie von dem Windows7 vor dem Upgrade zu behalten, auch, falls der Upgrade irgendwie schiefgeht.
Thanks

[aeltester]

sadly, nothing seems to have changed, still. running newest windows 10 edu N with <cpu match='exact'><model fallback='allow'>core2duo</model><topology sockets='x' cores='y' threads='1'/></cpu> where x matches either 2,2 or 1,4 works.

neither <cpu mode='host-model'><model fallback='forbid'/><topology sockets='x' cores='y' threads='1'/></cpu>
nor <cpu mode='host-passthrough'><feature policy='disable' name='lahf_lm'/></cpu>

seem to work on my xeon server. a vm this slow is next to useless.

EDIT: This seems to work after all:

<cpu mode='host-passthrough'>
<feature policy='require' name='vmx'/>
</cpu>