Using Windows 7 vm from R3.2

[Chris Laprise]

A Windows 7 vm I restored from R3.2 can boot. However I wanted to update
it with the new Qubes Windows Tools and it won't recognize the
--qubes-windows-tools volume. I also tried 'qvm-block attach' on the qwt
iso directly and Windows still won't see it.

Is there a way to get the Windows 7 vm fully updated Qubes drivers? Or
is it better to reinstall Windows instead (IIRC getting all the Windows
updates was difficult so I'd rather not repeat installation.)

--

Chris Laprise, tas...@posteo.net
https://github.com/tasket
https://twitter.com/ttaskett
PGP: BEE2 20C5 356E 764A 73EB 4AB3 1DC4 D106 F07F 1886

[Chris Laprise]

On 01/07/2019 02:04 PM, Chris Laprise wrote:
> A Windows 7 vm I restored from R3.2 can boot. However I wanted to update
> it with the new Qubes Windows Tools and it won't recognize the
> --qubes-windows-tools volume. I also tried 'qvm-block attach' on the qwt
> iso directly and Windows still won't see it.

...I meant to type '--install-windows-tools' here.

[Ivan Mitev]

Hi Chris,

On 1/7/19 9:04 PM, Chris Laprise wrote:
> A Windows 7 vm I restored from R3.2 can boot. However I wanted to update
> it with the new Qubes Windows Tools and it won't recognize the
> --qubes-windows-tools volume. I also tried 'qvm-block attach' on the qwt
> iso directly and Windows still won't see it.

I just tried to start some of my windows vms with
--install-windows-tools but it triggers a bsod at boot time, while the
vms work fine otherwise.
Setting a loop device in dom0 with the windows tools iso and attaching
it to a running win vm doesn't trigger a bsod but the disk that shows up
in the disk manager is empty (17MB unallocated disk).

You could try to copy the iso to the VM and mount it with an emulator.

> Is there a way to get the Windows 7 vm fully updated Qubes drivers? Or
> is it better to reinstall Windows instead (IIRC getting all the Windows
> updates was difficult so I'd rather not repeat installation.)

After spending way too much time with win VMs I'd advise you not to
loose time with re-installation and newer Qubes Windows Tools; windows
update'ing a new install takes at least half a day with multiple reboots
(+ qvm-clone before each boot because it's not even sure that the VM
will still boot after the last batch of windows updates).

I never managed to update any of my win7 VMs - imported from R3.2 or
created on R4.0 - that were running QWT 3.x with QWT 4.x. Comments in
the huge QWT issue [1] show I'm not alone.

FWIW I've been using Win7 VMs imported from R3.2 as well as Win7 VMs
installed under R4.0 without any problem except the issues listed in [1]
but I can live with them (note: the VMs created under R4.0 have QWT 3.x
because I created them before Marek uploaded the newer version).

You could also try the newer QWT with win10 instead of win7 but
according to Marek they're a hit-or-miss too [2].

[1] https://github.com/QubesOS/qubes-issues/issues/3585
[2]
https://github.com/QubesOS/qubes-doc/pull/752#pullrequestreview-185336141

[Lorenzo Lamas]

Starting with the QWT iso or attaching it didn't work for me either, it didn't show up at all. I copied it to the windows VM and extracted the installer from it.

Btw, I just installed Windows 7 SP1 from an iso and installed all updates in just a few hours.(old Sandy Bridge dual core with sata SSD) After installing 7 SP1, or after installing SP1 if using an older iso, don't let it search for updates but instead install manually the April 2015 servicing stack update and then the Convenience Rollup.(https://www.howtogeek.com/255435/how-to-update-windows-7-all-at-once-with-microsofts-convenience-rollup/)
After that, the number of updates still needed in order to be fully up to date is a LOT less.