KVM not booting into Windows installer , stuck on loading screen

English Virtualization
#1 
<domain type="kvm">
  <name>win11</name>
  <uuid>18fc9f7d-231a-4dba-b252-f8f72d3ef039</uuid>
  <metadata>
    <libosinfo:libosinfo xmlns:libosinfo="http://libosinfo.org/xmlns/libvirt/domain/1.0">
      <libosinfo:os id="http://microsoft.com/win/11"/>
    </libosinfo:libosinfo>
  </metadata>
  <memory unit="KiB">8388608</memory>
  <currentMemory unit="KiB">8388608</currentMemory>
  <vcpu placement="static">4</vcpu>
  <os firmware="efi">
    <type arch="x86_64" machine="pc-q35-7.1">hvm</type>
    <firmware>
      <feature enabled="yes" name="enrolled-keys"/>
      <feature enabled="yes" name="secure-boot"/>
    </firmware>
    <loader readonly="yes" secure="yes" type="pflash">/usr/share/qemu/ovmf-x86_64-smm-ms-code.bin</loader>
    <nvram template="/usr/share/qemu/ovmf-x86_64-smm-ms-vars.bin">/var/lib/libvirt/qemu/nvram/win11_VARS.fd</nvram>
    <boot dev="hd"/>
  </os>
  <features>
    <acpi/>
    <apic/>
    <hyperv mode="custom">
      <relaxed state="on"/>
      <vapic state="on"/>
      <spinlocks state="on" retries="8191"/>
    </hyperv>
    <vmport state="off"/>
    <smm state="on"/>
  </features>
  <cpu mode="host-passthrough" check="none" migratable="on"/>
  <clock offset="localtime">
    <timer name="rtc" tickpolicy="catchup"/>
    <timer name="pit" tickpolicy="delay"/>
    <timer name="hpet" present="no"/>
    <timer name="hypervclock" present="yes"/>
  </clock>
  <on_poweroff>destroy</on_poweroff>
  <on_reboot>restart</on_reboot>
  <on_crash>destroy</on_crash>
  <pm>
    <suspend-to-mem enabled="no"/>
    <suspend-to-disk enabled="no"/>
  </pm>
  <devices>
    <emulator>/usr/bin/qemu-system-x86_64</emulator>
    <disk type="file" device="disk">
      <driver name="qemu" type="qcow2" discard="unmap"/>
      <source file="/var/lib/libvirt/images/win11.qcow2"/>
      <target dev="sda" bus="sata"/>
      <address type="drive" controller="0" bus="0" target="0" unit="0"/>
    </disk>
    <disk type="file" device="cdrom">
      <driver name="qemu" type="raw"/>
      <source file="/home/long/&#x4E0B;&#x8F7D;/Win10_22H2_Chinese_Simplified_x64.iso"/>
      <target dev="sdb" bus="sata"/>
      <readonly/>
      <address type="drive" controller="0" bus="0" target="0" unit="1"/>
    </disk>
    <controller type="usb" index="0" model="qemu-xhci" ports="15">
      <address type="pci" domain="0x0000" bus="0x02" slot="0x00" function="0x0"/>
    </controller>
    <controller type="pci" index="0" model="pcie-root"/>
    <controller type="pci" index="1" model="pcie-root-port">
      <model name="pcie-root-port"/>
      <target chassis="1" port="0x10"/>
      <address type="pci" domain="0x0000" bus="0x00" slot="0x02" function="0x0" multifunction="on"/>
    </controller>
    <controller type="pci" index="2" model="pcie-root-port">
      <model name="pcie-root-port"/>
      <target chassis="2" port="0x11"/>
      <address type="pci" domain="0x0000" bus="0x00" slot="0x02" function="0x1"/>
    </controller>
    <controller type="pci" index="3" model="pcie-root-port">
      <model name="pcie-root-port"/>
      <target chassis="3" port="0x12"/>
      <address type="pci" domain="0x0000" bus="0x00" slot="0x02" function="0x2"/>
    </controller>
    <controller type="pci" index="4" model="pcie-root-port">
      <model name="pcie-root-port"/>
      <target chassis="4" port="0x13"/>
      <address type="pci" domain="0x0000" bus="0x00" slot="0x02" function="0x3"/>
    </controller>
    <controller type="pci" index="5" model="pcie-root-port">
      <model name="pcie-root-port"/>
      <target chassis="5" port="0x14"/>
      <address type="pci" domain="0x0000" bus="0x00" slot="0x02" function="0x4"/>
    </controller>
    <controller type="pci" index="6" model="pcie-root-port">
      <model name="pcie-root-port"/>
      <target chassis="6" port="0x15"/>
      <address type="pci" domain="0x0000" bus="0x00" slot="0x02" function="0x5"/>
    </controller>
    <controller type="pci" index="7" model="pcie-root-port">
      <model name="pcie-root-port"/>
      <target chassis="7" port="0x16"/>
      <address type="pci" domain="0x0000" bus="0x00" slot="0x02" function="0x6"/>
    </controller>
    <controller type="pci" index="8" model="pcie-root-port">
      <model name="pcie-root-port"/>
      <target chassis="8" port="0x17"/>
      <address type="pci" domain="0x0000" bus="0x00" slot="0x02" function="0x7"/>
    </controller>
    <controller type="pci" index="9" model="pcie-root-port">
      <model name="pcie-root-port"/>
      <target chassis="9" port="0x18"/>
      <address type="pci" domain="0x0000" bus="0x00" slot="0x03" function="0x0" multifunction="on"/>
    </controller>
    <controller type="pci" index="10" model="pcie-root-port">
      <model name="pcie-root-port"/>
      <target chassis="10" port="0x19"/>
      <address type="pci" domain="0x0000" bus="0x00" slot="0x03" function="0x1"/>
    </controller>
    <controller type="pci" index="11" model="pcie-root-port">
      <model name="pcie-root-port"/>
      <target chassis="11" port="0x1a"/>
      <address type="pci" domain="0x0000" bus="0x00" slot="0x03" function="0x2"/>
    </controller>
    <controller type="pci" index="12" model="pcie-root-port">
      <model name="pcie-root-port"/>
      <target chassis="12" port="0x1b"/>
      <address type="pci" domain="0x0000" bus="0x00" slot="0x03" function="0x3"/>
    </controller>
    <controller type="pci" index="13" model="pcie-root-port">
      <model name="pcie-root-port"/>
      <target chassis="13" port="0x1c"/>
      <address type="pci" domain="0x0000" bus="0x00" slot="0x03" function="0x4"/>
    </controller>
    <controller type="pci" index="14" model="pcie-root-port">
      <model name="pcie-root-port"/>
      <target chassis="14" port="0x1d"/>
      <address type="pci" domain="0x0000" bus="0x00" slot="0x03" function="0x5"/>
    </controller>
    <controller type="sata" index="0">
      <address type="pci" domain="0x0000" bus="0x00" slot="0x1f" function="0x2"/>
    </controller>
    <controller type="virtio-serial" index="0">
      <address type="pci" domain="0x0000" bus="0x03" slot="0x00" function="0x0"/>
    </controller>
    <interface type="network">
      <mac address="52:54:00:a3:aa:78"/>
      <source network="default"/>
      <model type="e1000e"/>
      <address type="pci" domain="0x0000" bus="0x01" slot="0x00" function="0x0"/>
    </interface>
    <serial type="pty">
      <target type="isa-serial" port="0">
        <model name="isa-serial"/>
      </target>
    </serial>
    <console type="pty">
      <target type="serial" port="0"/>
    </console>
    <channel type="spicevmc">
      <target type="virtio" name="com.redhat.spice.0"/>
      <address type="virtio-serial" controller="0" bus="0" port="1"/>
    </channel>
    <input type="tablet" bus="usb">
      <address type="usb" bus="0" port="1"/>
    </input>
    <input type="mouse" bus="ps2"/>
    <input type="keyboard" bus="ps2"/>
    <tpm model="tpm-crb">
      <backend type="emulator" version="2.0"/>
    </tpm>
    <graphics type="spice" autoport="yes">
      <listen type="address"/>
      <image compression="off"/>
    </graphics>
    <sound model="ich9">
      <address type="pci" domain="0x0000" bus="0x00" slot="0x1b" function="0x0"/>
    </sound>
    <audio id="1" type="spice"/>
    <video>
      <model type="qxl" ram="65536" vram="65536" vgamem="16384" heads="1" primary="yes"/>
      <address type="pci" domain="0x0000" bus="0x00" slot="0x01" function="0x0"/>
    </video>
    <redirdev bus="usb" type="spicevmc">
      <address type="usb" bus="0" port="2"/>
    </redirdev>
    <redirdev bus="usb" type="spicevmc">
      <address type="usb" bus="0" port="3"/>
    </redirdev>
    <watchdog model="itco" action="reset"/>
    <memballoon model="virtio">
      <address type="pci" domain="0x0000" bus="0x04" slot="0x00" function="0x0"/>
    </memballoon>
  </devices>
</domain>

This is the content of my libvirt file

Windows 11 22H2 does not even start installer in QEMU
#2

@r00tk1t Hi and welcome to the Forum :smile:
AFAIK 22H2 has changed with respect to hardware requirements that is not compatible with libvirt (yet?)… download an earlier release and try that.

#3

Thanks. I will try it. And i noticed that windows could boot with UEFI, but it could boot with BIOS. And windows could boot in virtualbox, but it could not boot in qemu.

#4

It succeeds. I try to install Windows 11 21H2, and i succeed installing it. Thank you very much.

#5

Hello everyone,

I also have this issue (Tumbleweed); and before finding this thread I stumbled unto this: Reddit - Dive into anything

Firstly, apologies as I don’t understand the issue completely, so can’t say if the problem is openSUSE specific, but this issue seems to be new and not necessarily related to the Windows ISO.
Just wanted to mention it in case it can be useful to improve the distro (if it’s openSUSE specific, as I also couldn’t find users of other distros complaining).

Now if anyone could advise how I could boot a Windows 10 ISO (22H2) , with or without SMM, I would greatly appreciate it, otherwise I will try malcolmlewis’s solution but don’t currently have time to go to MS’s hoops to get the older ISO. Maybe worth mentioning I need to use the UEFI firmware for GPU passthru, so BIOS is not on the table for me.

I can provide more details of my errors or open an official issue(?) if useful.

Thanks!

#6

@plop Hi the issue is the windows iso image and the changes to their hardware requirements AFAIK, libvirt/kvm/qemu versions have not caught up to add these new Microsoft imposed requirements… It may work for Windows 10 if you disable secure boot in the Tianocore BIOS.

Also have a read here: https://www.repairwin.com/update-windows-11-to-22h2-on-unsupported-hardware/ and another one here https://jensd.be/1860/windows/upgrade-to-windows-11-22h2-on-unsupported-hardware#more-1860
You can also goot “libvirt+22H2+March Update” there are plenty of web hits on issues folks are having on what MS determines is unsupported hardware…

#7

Such as? You do realize that making such statements without providing any details is FUD?

#8

If you need an older windows ISO, I can send you the ISO that my school provided to me.

#9

Really appreciate your help @r00tk1t, but I try to follow the best practice of downloading software only from trusted/verifiable sources, no offense.
Also thanks @malcolmlewis for the suggestion, but I managed to install Win10 22H2 eventually using a workaround.

Maybe not the best way to solve this, but leaving the steps followed here in case it helps anyone else:

  1. Install Windows normally using the BIOS firmware setting
  2. After installation, one can convert the install to UEFI using the MS tool mbr2gpt.exe
  3. After conversion, just shutdown the VM
  4. Delete the VM, but do not delete the qcow2 HDD image
  5. Create a new VM and dont create a new HDD; but configure it to use the previous qcow2 image as the HDD
  6. Before starting the VM for the first time, make sure to select UEFI as Firmware, and it should boot fine.