Windows Dev VM in libvirt

winvm.md

One time

• Build rhsrvany using a windows toolchain like i686-w64-mingw32, and put the resulting rhsrvany.exe and pnp_wait.exe in /usr/share/virt-tools (or see https://salsa.debian.org/rpavlik/rhsrvany for a debian package of it)
  • git clone https://github.com/rwmjones/rhsrvany.git
  • cd rhsrvany
  • autoreconf -i -f
  • ./configure --host=i686-w64-mingw32
  • make
  • sudo mkdir -p /usr/share/virt-tools
  • sudo cp RHSrvAny/rhsrvany.exe pnp_wait/pnp_wait.exe /usr/share/virt-tools
• Download https://fedorapeople.org/groups/virt/virtio-win/direct-downloads/latest-virtio/virtio-win.iso and place in /usr/share/virtio-win/virtio-win.iso
  • sudo mkdir -p /usr/share/virtio-win
  • sudo wget -O /usr/share/virtio-win/virtio-win.iso https://fedorapeople.org/groups/virt/virtio-win/direct-downloads/latest-virtio/virtio-win.iso

Each time

• Download the dev VM for VMware - do not unzip it. (Makes the next step take a lot longer but work better.) https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/downloads/virtual-machines/
• virt-v2v -i ova WinDev2204Eval.VMware.zip -of qcow2 -oa sparse -os gnome-boxes -on DesiredVMName
  • This looks in the two directories mentioned above by default to find stuff to install on the VM.
  • -i ova says we import a vmware OVA archive
  • -of qcow2 says output disk format is qcow2
  • -oa sparse says sparse
  • -oo compressed says make it compressed.
  • -os gnome-boxes says use the gnome-boxes storage pool
  • -on DesiredVMName explicitly sets the output VM name - leave this off if you are fine having a name auto-assigned based on the VM content.
• In virt-manager, ideally before starting the first time:
  • change network to usermode networking
  • Add a Spice guest channel.
  • Add a QEMU guest agent channel (target org.qemu.guest_agent.0 )
  • If, like me, you stored your actual data on a separate disk image: Add a virtio disk mount for the data disk image.
    • Otherwise, add a placeholder image, with nothing on it but set to use virtio, to pull in those drivers.
  • Add a new SATA (not scsi!) CD-ROM, removing the SCSI one, and point it at /usr/share/virtio-win/virtio-win.iso
• In VM, once logged in:
  • install "E:\virtio-win-guest-tools.exe" from CD
    • you will have to accept installing a driver signed by Red Hat.
    • If you get an error about starting a service, you missed the "add a spice channel" step.
    • Think this might include the "install the qemu guest agent msi (guest_agent/x86_64/...)" step for you
• Shut down the vm
• In virt-manager:
  • Adjust CPU topology as desired - keep as one socket!
  • Increate amount of memory
  • Maybe? This appeared to make it less responsive the first time I did this.
    • remove existing tablet
    • add virtio keyboard
    • add virtio tablet
  • Optional: Change USB controller to USB 2
  • Change display to Spice server
  • Recommend connecting to an additional disk image, if you haven't already, that can be shared between VMs or used after this VM expires.
• Start up VM, and check that it's all working as desired.
  • Should have no devices with errors/warnings in device manager
  • then go to https://gist.github.com/rpavlik/1fe2977cb84494f124167f2cc413886b
  • start, VS installer
    • update
    • Modify to add C++ desktop workload, then on individual components review and add extras desired
  • launch vs code, update with the gear icon
  • windows updates
  • uninstall ubuntu WSL (optional)
  • microsoft store updates
  • Optional steps that I take:
    • Open disk management and change the extra disk's drive letter to "W"
    • winget install git
    • winget install python
    • winget install cmake
    • winget install KhronosGroup.VulkanSDK
    • Install (or pin - it came with the 2007 vm) windows terminal: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/windows-terminal/9n0dx20hk701?activetab=pivot:overviewtab and configure it by adding this profile (this will open in visual studio - log in to visual studio to activate the license.)
    • Run this script in git bash to add aliases
• refs:
  • http://www.zeta.systems/blog/2018/07/03/Installing-Virtio-Drivers-In-Windows-On-KVM/
  • https://superuser.com/questions/1057959/windows-10-in-kvm-change-boot-disk-to-virtio

Hi! Shouldn't the command to configure rhsrvany be:

./configure --host=i686-w64-mingw32

I'm pretty sure this is the command I used, but according to my package of this you're right: https://salsa.debian.org/rpavlik/rhsrvany/-/blob/debian/devel/debian/rules Autoconf cross compiling is so weird.

Ah good to know there's an RFP for this tool, I'm indeed building on Debian/unstable :)

FYI I followed most of your instructions to get a WinDev2022 image running. No joy getting KVM support though, so I've had to stick with plain QEMU. The virtio-win ISO doesn't work either, the installer bombs without any useful details. The two issues might be linked.

The command I used to convert the image and create a VM was:

sudo apt install libnbd-bin nbdkit virt-v2v
sudo virt-v2v -v -i ova WinDev2202Eval.VMware.zip -os default -of qcow2 -on WinDev2022

hmm, what a drag! I just did this again the other day, though I did update which virtio-win iso I used. Think I'm using virt-v2v from backports, since i'm on Bullseye.