Creating QEMU virtual W10 machine W/O a .ISO file

[nevj (Neville Jackson)]

@ex-Gooserider

How do I get the machine to be able to access at least some of the real machine file system, and / or how do I get files into and out of the VM?

I use NFS for that… but I think that requires a Linux guest? … does Win support NFS?
In virt-manager there are other options … see here

Communication between host and guest VM when using virt-manager

This is a joint post by @nevj and @Rosika and It reports on our collaborative investigations into the virt-manager package which uses qemu/KVM to run virtual machines inside a host Linux system. In particular we have looked at various ways of communicating between a guest Linux system running in a VM and its host Linux system. Our post consists of several ‘chapters’ each written in markdown and copied into itsFOSS as a series of separate replies. Contents virt-manager networking setup T…

I dont know about Vbox, but there should be options to mount a host filesystem… not sharing a filesystem… that is a pain.

[daniel.m.tripp (Dan Tripp)]

@nevj

Can someone explain what Cortana is please?

Sorry - couldn’t resist :

@nevj

does Win support NFS?

Yes it does - but not by default - and probably only on Pro and Enterprise editions… You can install it as an additional add-on - but don’t ask me how… Also - Windows 10 has a native SSH client too - which I kinda prefer to PuTTY - it does key management closer to Linux / UNIX systems than PuTTY - but - they’re a bit of a kludge getting the permissions right… (e.g. your keys will be in PEM format - not that ridiculous PPK format that Putty insists on).

@ex-Gooserider

I definitely need the VM to use the USB ports, do I need to add anything beyond the “Controller USB” device, or set that to anything special? (The real machine has both USB-2 and USB-3 ports)

After you’ve created the VM - but before you boot it - at the bottom of the left hand pane of Virt-Manager - you click “Add Hardware” and select “USB Host Device” (in virtualization “host” means the server running the hypervisor - i.e. KVM in this case) and select the USB device you want “Passed Through” to the VM… I haven’t tried this myself - so I don’t know if it works. I’ve only tested this with WiFi USB adaptors for Kali VMs in VirtualBox… It’s on my “To Do” of things to try on KVM / Virt-Manager (Kali with a passthrough USB Wifi Adaptor that supports “monitor mode”).

[nevj (Neville Jackson)]

@daniel.m.tripp

Sorry - couldn’t resist :

My wife had one, when we were first married. Earlier than that… about 1967 model.

[kovacslt (László Kovács)]

@ex-Gooserider

1. There is an entry for a graphics tablet - I don’t have one, can I remove it?
2. I don’t want to the VM to connect to the Internet, EVER… I’m assuming that if I uncheck the “Link State: active” box, it won’t connect, but would it be easier / better if I just removed the entire device?
3. I definitely need the VM to use the USB ports, do I need to add anything beyond the “Controller USB” device, or set that to anything special? (The real machine has both USB-2 and USB-3 ports)
4. How do I get the machine to be able to access at least some of the real machine file system, and / or how do I get files into and out of the VM? There is an option for “File System” in the Add Hardware menu, is this what I need? If so what do I set the “target directory” to?
5. In my latest effort, the VM window grabbed my mouse cursor and wouldn’t let me get back to the rest of the machine - how do I get it to give me my mouse (and presumably keyboard) back?

1. You can of course.
2. You could remove the network card as a whole, but I’d do it as the last step after everything necessary is installed, activated, etc.
3. I did not try USB pass to libivrt VM, but I think it should work. As for Virtualbox, you need the extensionpack on the host (of which licencing terms is questionable at the moment), and the kind of USB port needs to match the hardware. So if you have USB2 ports physically on the motherboard, you can’t pass via USB1 or USB3; and of course if you have USB3 ports, you need to pass the device via USB3 connection. The guest OS must have drivers for USB hw accordingly: Windows 7 guest will have problems with USB3 attached devices.
4. For Windows guests you need virtiofs drivers. A good reference on how-to: Share Folder Between Windows Guest and Linux Host in KVM using virtiofs For Virtualbox you need to install gues-additions on the guest; this is necessary for copy-paste between host-guest and some sane screen resolutions as well.
5. For Virtualbox it’s a single press on the right-Ctrl. For virt-manager it’s single press of left Ctrl-Alt, but it’s mentioned in the titlebar of the VM windows as well.

[callpaul.eu (Paul)]

I am going to ask a silly question

If you are running linux with windows inside it using whatever system allows this. Can you install windows 11 so it gets around the issue of the hardware spec and needing the tpm 2 components?

I have no need or desire to go to 10 or 11 I am waiting for 7 (lmde 7 that is) that is more my type of upgrade

[kovacslt (László Kovács)]

@callpaul.eu

Can you install windows 11 so it gets around the issue of the hardware spec and needing the tpm 2

I actually did it.
Thisi is a screenshot of my wife’s Win11 VM done in Virtualbox on Debian 12 host.

Look at the TPM version.
The host system has only TPM 1.2 set in BIOS.

[ex-Gooserider (Arthur Torrey)]

Thanks for the references to other sources, haven’t had a chance to try the info in them yet, but definitely looks like it will be extremely useful…

ex-Gooserider