Running Windows on a VM: getting files from the original Windows host

[Tom Browder]

In a previous thread you fellow Debianites gave me excellent advice on running Windows on a VM running on a Debian host. Now I have my shiny new Debian Silent PC host quietly waiting.

I intend to try to copy data from the old Win box via the network but, if that doesn't work, can I do this:

Take the SSD from the old Win box, mount it in a hot-swap slot on the Debian host, and use it with the freshly-installed Windows VM? The Win SSD has two drives defined: C: and D: with my important data on the D: drive.

Thanks.

-Tom

[Tom Browder]

On Tue, Jan 17, 2023 at 10:06 Tom Browder <tom.b...@gmail.com> wrote:

In a previous thread you fellow Debianites gave me excellent advice on running Windows on a VM running on a Debian host. Now I have my shiny new Debian Silent PC host quietly waiting.

I've followed the instructions from the Debian wiki, fired up virt-manager, and got this warning: 

    KVM is not available. This may mean the KVM package is not installed

    or the KVM kernel modules are not loaded.

I searched the system (with aptitude) and couldn't find any evident package missing. I am proceeding just for the experience, but I would appreciate any suggestions.

Thanks.

-Tom

[Tom Browder]

On Tue, Jan 17, 2023 at 17:38 Tom Browder <tom.b...@gmail.com> wrote:

.,,

I've followed the instructions from the Debian wiki, fired up virt-manager, and got this warning: 

    KVM is not available. This may mean the KVM package is not installed

    or the KVM kernel modules are not loaded.

And it seems that's true since it appears to be sluggish on my system.

-Tom

[David]

On Wed, 18 Jan 2023 at 10:39, Tom Browder <tom.b...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Tue, Jan 17, 2023 at 10:06 Tom Browder <tom.b...@gmail.com> wrote:

>> In a previous thread you fellow Debianites gave me excellent advice on running Windows on a VM running on a Debian host. Now I have my shiny new Debian Silent PC host quietly waiting.
>
> I've followed the instructions from the Debian wiki,

Hi, please provide more information, such as a link.
So that we don't have to guess what you mean by "the instructions".

> fired up virt-manager, and got this warning:
>
> KVM is not available. This may mean the KVM package is not installed
> or the KVM kernel modules are not loaded.

I rarely use KVM so am probably not the best person to reply, but
I have a couple of initial suggestions.

I do not recognise that error message, which might indicate a specific
(possibly kernel package related) issue and fix, if someone recognises it.

In the meantime, a couple of general things you can check and
report on:

Confirm that you have hardware virtualization enabled.
Search the web for instructions how to do that on your hardware.
It might be disabled in your BIOS.

When you have done that, paste your confirmation here.

Check that the output of 'id' command confirms that the
username is in group 'libvirt'. That check must be done in
the GUI, if you intend to use virt-manager.

Note that this preparatory step
# adduser <youruser> libvirt
does not affect any login sessions that <youruser> has
created before running that command. If your GUI was running
before you ran that command, you will need to logout of it
and login again.

When you have done that, paste your confirmation here.

In general, if you use the commandline instead of the GUI then you are
more likely to see any error messages, that you could then paste here to
receive further help.

[Tom Browder]

On Tue, Jan 17, 2023 at 21:27 David <bounci...@gmail.com> wrote:
...

> On Wed, 18 Jan 2023 at 10:39, Tom Browder <tom.b...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> On Tue, Jan 17, 2023 at 10:06 Tom Browder <tom.b...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> In a previous thread you fellow Debianites gave me excellent advice on running Windows on a VM
>>> running on a Debian host. Now I have my shiny new Debian Silent PC host quietly waiting.

> > I've followed the instructions from the Debian wiki,
> Hi, please provide more information, such as a link.
> So that we don't have to guess what you mean by "the instructions".

link provided by this list: https://wiki.debian.org/KVM

> Confirm that you have hardware virtualization enabled.
> Search the web for instructions how to do that on your hardware.
> It might be disabled in your BIOS.

Excellent! Thanks! I forgot about that since I haven't used
VirtualBox for many years.

> When you have done that, paste your confirmation here.

Results: It was NOT enabled, but it is now

> Check that the output of 'id' command confirms that the
> username is in group 'libvirt'. That check must be done in
> the GUI, if you intend to use virt-manager.

> When you have done that, paste your confirmation here.

id shows I'm a member of the libvirt group

> In general, if you use the command line instead of the GUI then you are

> more likely to see any error messages, that you could then paste here to
> receive further help.

Okay, I'll try that later if need be.

Thanks so much, David. I'll keep working and report results later.

-Tom