Re: [qubes-devel] Re: No windows showing up from seamless win7 appVM

[Joanna Rutkowska]

[Moving to qubes-users]

On 01/31/14 02:55, Dario Faggioli wrote:
> On Friday, 31 January 2014 01:46:27 UTC, Dario Faggioli wrote:
>
>> If, I try to execute explorer.exe via qvm-run, this is what I see:
>> [xen@dom0 ~]$ qvm-run -a win7 explorer.exe
>> Running command on VM: 'win7'...
>> Starting the VM 'win7'...
>> --> Loading the VM (type = HVM)...
>> xc: error: panic: xc_dom_bzimageloader.c:634: xc_dom_probe_bzimage_kernel:
>> kernel is not a bzImage: Invalid kernel
>> Daemon running with PID 19575
>> --> Setting Xen Store info for the VM...
>> --> Updating firewall rules...
>> --> Starting the VM...
>> --> Starting the qrexec daemon...
>> Waiting for VM's qrexec agent.................................connected
>> --> Waiting for user 'Xen' login...
>> --> Starting Qubes GUId...
>> Connecting to VM's GUI agent: .....connected
>> --> Sending monitor layout...
>> --> Waiting for qubes-session...
>>
>> Also, when doing something like the above, even with the VM already
> running, I can see and hear the disk spinning, and if checking with xentop,
> I see the win7 VM using some CPU... Just I don't see any outcome for all
> these efforts... :-/
>
> Dario
>


Did you make sure that your Windows installation auto-logins? Currently
our GUI agent is started only after the user logs in, so it cannot
display the winlogon screen in seamless mode.

j.

[Dario Faggioli]

I think it does. Before installing the qubes tools, it did. Even right
now, if I start the VM with --debug and then press 'F8' for single
user mode, it does. Also, I think the snippet below means it does (or
at least, when, in a previous attempt, it did not, I got the thing
stuck at 'Waiting for use XXX to login', now it goes ahead).

****

Daemon running with PID 19575
--> Setting Xen Store info for the VM...
--> Updating firewall rules...
--> Starting the VM...
--> Starting the qrexec daemon...
Waiting for VM's qrexec agent.........................
........connected
--> Waiting for user 'Xen' login...
--> Starting Qubes GUId...
Connecting to VM's GUI agent: .....connected
--> Sending monitor layout...
--> Waiting for qubes-session...

****

That is actually why I am a bit at loss wrt figuring out what's going on... :-/

Thanks a lot and Regards,
Dario

--
<<This happens because I choose it to happen!>> (Raistlin Majere)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dario Faggioli, Ph.D, http://about.me/dario.faggioli
Senior Software Engineer, Citrix Systems R&D Ltd., Cambridge (UK)

[Marek Marczykowski-Górecki]

On 31.01.2014 16:08, Dario Faggioli wrote:
> I think it does. Before installing the qubes tools, it did. Even right
> now, if I start the VM with --debug and then press 'F8' for single
> user mode, it does. Also, I think the snippet below means it does (or
> at least, when, in a previous attempt, it did not, I got the thing
> stuck at 'Waiting for use XXX to login', now it goes ahead).
>
> ****
> Daemon running with PID 19575
> --> Setting Xen Store info for the VM...
> --> Updating firewall rules...
> --> Starting the VM...
> --> Starting the qrexec daemon...
> Waiting for VM's qrexec agent.........................
> ........connected
> --> Waiting for user 'Xen' login...
> --> Starting Qubes GUId...
> Connecting to VM's GUI agent: .....connected
> --> Sending monitor layout...
> --> Waiting for qubes-session...
> ****
>
> That is actually why I am a bit at loss wrt figuring out what's going on... :-/

You can access VM cmdline with "qvm-run -p win7 cmd.exe". Then check if
wga.exe is running.

--
Best Regards,
Marek Marczykowski-Górecki
Invisible Things Lab
A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?

[Dario Faggioli]

On Sat, 2014-02-01 at 00:32 +0100, Marek Marczykowski-Górecki wrote:
> On 31.01.2014 16:08, Dario Faggioli wrote:
> > ****
> > Daemon running with PID 19575
> > --> Setting Xen Store info for the VM...
> > --> Updating firewall rules...
> > --> Starting the VM...
> > --> Starting the qrexec daemon...
> > Waiting for VM's qrexec agent.........................
> > ........connected
> > --> Waiting for user 'Xen' login...
> > --> Starting Qubes GUId...
> > Connecting to VM's GUI agent: .....connected
> > --> Sending monitor layout...
> > --> Waiting for qubes-session...
> > ****
> >
> > That is actually why I am a bit at loss wrt figuring out what's going on... :-/
>
> You can access VM cmdline with "qvm-run -p win7 cmd.exe".
>

Yes, this works.

> Then check if
> wga.exe is running.
>

I actually had to ask google how to check the list of running processes
from Window's cmd, as I haven't done anything like that before.

Anyway, Google suggested using tasklist, which I did, and yes, I confirm
that I can find a wga.exe there. 'Session Name' is "Console" and
'Session#' is "1"... Is that ok? Now what?

Thanks and Regards,
Dario

--
<<This happens because I choose it to happen!>> (Raistlin Majere)
-----------------------------------------------------------------

[Dario Faggioli]

On Sat, 2014-02-01 at 00:32 +0100, Marek Marczykowski-Górecki wrote:

> You can access VM cmdline with "qvm-run -p win7 cmd.exe". Then check if
> wga.exe is running.
>

After verifying this, I also tried to run Internet Explorer, from the
HVM appVM KDE menu and, rechecking with tasklist while in there, I can
see two new iexplore.exe entries in the list... Still no IE window. :-(

Dario

--
<<This happens because I choose it to happen!>> (Raistlin Majere)
-----------------------------------------------------------------

[Marek Marczykowski-Górecki]

On 01.02.2014 00:55, Dario Faggioli wrote:
> On Sat, 2014-02-01 at 00:32 +0100, Marek Marczykowski-Górecki wrote:
>> You can access VM cmdline with "qvm-run -p win7 cmd.exe".
>>
> Yes, this works.
>
>> Then check if
>> wga.exe is running.
>>
> I actually had to ask google how to check the list of running processes
> from Window's cmd, as I haven't done anything like that before.
>
> Anyway, Google suggested using tasklist, which I did, and yes, I confirm
> that I can find a wga.exe there. 'Session Name' is "Console" and
> 'Session#' is "1"... Is that ok? Now what?

Same here.

Perhaps try to restart wga.exe - kill it (taskkill), ensure that guid in dom0
also exited (pidfile in /var/run/qubes/guid-running.<XID>), then start
'C:\Program Files\Invisible Things Lab\Qubes OS Windows Tools\bin\wga.exe'
again. Then retry with qvm-run - it should also restart gui daemon.

[Dario Faggioli]

On Sat, 2014-02-01 at 01:26 +0100, Marek Marczykowski-Górecki wrote:
> Perhaps try to restart wga.exe - kill it (taskkill), ensure that guid in dom0
> also exited (pidfile in /var/run/qubes/guid-running.<XID>), then start
> 'C:\Program Files\Invisible Things Lab\Qubes OS Windows Tools\bin\wga.exe'
> again. Then retry with qvm-run - it should also restart gui daemon.
>

Did all the steps above, and everything happened as described.
- taskkill-ing wga.exe caused the guid in Dom0 associated with the
domain to terminate
- after restarting wga and trying qvm-run, guid is up again

Still no window showing up. :-(

I checked guid.log in qubes manager, but there's nothing there, just
'Icon size: 48x48'.

[Marek Marczykowski-Górecki]

On 01.02.2014 02:30, Dario Faggioli wrote:
> On Sat, 2014-02-01 at 01:26 +0100, Marek Marczykowski-Górecki wrote:
>> Perhaps try to restart wga.exe - kill it (taskkill), ensure that guid in dom0
>> also exited (pidfile in /var/run/qubes/guid-running.<XID>), then start
>> 'C:\Program Files\Invisible Things Lab\Qubes OS Windows Tools\bin\wga.exe'
>> again. Then retry with qvm-run - it should also restart gui daemon.
>>
> Did all the steps above, and everything happened as described.
> - taskkill-ing wga.exe caused the guid in Dom0 associated with the
> domain to terminate
> - after restarting wga and trying qvm-run, guid is up again
>
> Still no window showing up. :-(
>
> I checked guid.log in qubes manager, but there's nothing there, just
> 'Icon size: 48x48'.

Anything special about your windows? Something isolating windows from each
other (precisely: windows messages)?

Check if screen resolution in VM matches this in dom0:
c:\> wmic desktopmonitor get screenheight, screenwidth

What resolution do you have? Bigger than 4000x4000?

[Dario Faggioli]

On Sat, 2014-02-01 at 03:06 +0100, Marek Marczykowski-Górecki wrote:
> On 01.02.2014 02:30, Dario Faggioli wrote:
> > I checked guid.log in qubes manager, but there's nothing there, just
> > 'Icon size: 48x48'.
>
> Anything special about your windows? Something isolating windows from each
> other (precisely: windows messages)?
>

Sorry, I'm not getting.

> Check if screen resolution in VM matches this in dom0:
> c:\> wmic desktopmonitor get screenheight, screenwidth
>
> What resolution do you have? Bigger than 4000x4000?
>

I'm afraid I'm not getting again.

So, screen resolution in Dom0 is 1600x900.

Running the above in the win7 VM (vian `qvm-run -p cmd.exe') does not
say much, just something like this:

C:\vmic desktopmonitor get screenheight, screenwidth
ScreenHeight ScreenWidth




For knowing the screen resolution within the VM, I started it with
--debug and then single user mode, and it was 640x480.

Now I've set it to 1280x800 (inside the VM, I mean), but no changes.

[Marek Marczykowski-Górecki]

On 01.02.2014 04:50, Dario Faggioli wrote:
> On Sat, 2014-02-01 at 03:06 +0100, Marek Marczykowski-Górecki wrote:
>> On 01.02.2014 02:30, Dario Faggioli wrote:
>>> I checked guid.log in qubes manager, but there's nothing there, just
>>> 'Icon size: 48x48'.
>>
>> Anything special about your windows? Something isolating windows from each
>> other (precisely: windows messages)?
>>
> Sorry, I'm not getting.
>
>> Check if screen resolution in VM matches this in dom0:
>> c:\> wmic desktopmonitor get screenheight, screenwidth
>>
>> What resolution do you have? Bigger than 4000x4000?
>>
> I'm afraid I'm not getting again.
>
> So, screen resolution in Dom0 is 1600x900.
>
> Running the above in the win7 VM (vian `qvm-run -p cmd.exe') does not
> say much, just something like this:
>
> C:\vmic desktopmonitor get screenheight, screenwidth
> ScreenHeight ScreenWidth

Any chance for installing VNC server using only cmdline? It would be much
easier to debug then...

> For knowing the screen resolution within the VM, I started it with
> --debug and then single user mode, and it was 640x480.
>
> Now I've set it to 1280x800 (inside the VM, I mean), but no changes.

Screen resolution in debug mode is totally different - different graphics card
- SVGA vs Qubes Video.

[Marek Marczykowski-Górecki]

On 01.02.2014 10:47, Marek Marczykowski-Górecki wrote:
> On 01.02.2014 04:50, Dario Faggioli wrote:
>> On Sat, 2014-02-01 at 03:06 +0100, Marek Marczykowski-Górecki wrote:
>>> On 01.02.2014 02:30, Dario Faggioli wrote:
>>>> I checked guid.log in qubes manager, but there's nothing there, just
>>>> 'Icon size: 48x48'.
>>>
>>> Anything special about your windows? Something isolating windows from each
>>> other (precisely: windows messages)?
>>>
>> Sorry, I'm not getting.
>>
>>> Check if screen resolution in VM matches this in dom0:
>>> c:\> wmic desktopmonitor get screenheight, screenwidth
>>>
>>> What resolution do you have? Bigger than 4000x4000?
>>>
>> I'm afraid I'm not getting again.
>>
>> So, screen resolution in Dom0 is 1600x900.
>>
>> Running the above in the win7 VM (vian `qvm-run -p cmd.exe') does not
>> say much, just something like this:
>>
>> C:\vmic desktopmonitor get screenheight, screenwidth
>> ScreenHeight ScreenWidth
>
> Any chance for installing VNC server using only cmdline? It would be much
> easier to debug then...

Or... install it in debug mode.

[Joanna Rutkowska]

On 02/01/14 00:58, Dario Faggioli wrote:
> On Sat, 2014-02-01 at 00:32 +0100, Marek Marczykowski-Górecki wrote:
>> You can access VM cmdline with "qvm-run -p win7 cmd.exe". Then check if
>> wga.exe is running.
>>
> After verifying this, I also tried to run Internet Explorer, from the
> HVM appVM KDE menu and, rechecking with tasklist while in there, I can
> see two new iexplore.exe entries in the list... Still no IE window. :-(
>
> Dario
>

You installed all the updated in Dom0, right? And you also installed the
windows-tools in the Windows VM *after* you installed the updated in
Dom0? (because we released new windows tools as part of early updates
after R2B3 release)?

j.

[Axon]

Joanna Rutkowska:

Yes.

I have the same problem (I think). Everything was normal prior to
installing the Windows support tools. After installing them:

* No visible windows in debug mode.
* No visible windows in non-debug mode.

Info:

* Dom0 was up to date prior to installation of Windows HVM template and
Windows support tools.
* Windows is set to auto-login.
* Vanilla Windows 7 x64 installation (nothing special).
* Same result as Dario on this:

C:\>wmic desktopmonitor get screenheight, screenwidth

wmic desktopmonitor get screenheight, screenwidth

ScreenHeight ScreenWidth

[Petri Oksanen]

I had the same "no windows in seamless mode" problem with the Windows 7 home premium, but when I switched to Windows 7 Pro I now get the Windows' windows. Maybe this behaviour happens, because Microsnot doesn't allow virtualisation of home products (if I remember correctly)?

-Pete- 

[Axon]

Petri Oksanen:

I installed from a Windows 7 Ultimate x64 disc. Anyway, I'm not sure if
Windows can even "know" whether it's being installed as a Xen HVM.

[ma...@enjolras.fr]

Same problem with home premium. My only workaround was to rename wga (as said in a previous post), because even in debug mode, the windows desktop wouldn't appear.

Marc

[Dario Faggioli]

Sorry I'm late. FTR, yes, I knew about the need for updating Dom0, and I
did it, but still had the same issue. I'm now seeing that I'm not the
only one, and that it seems to be something relate to the Window's
version/variant... weird (well, it looks weird to me, but I really know
next to nothing about windows).

Anyway, main reason why I wanted seamless mode to work, was to show off
how awesome Qubes is at the Xen Projet booth, during FOSDEM. As a matter
of fact, I did show off Qubes there anyway, and it went pretty well,
even without seamless win7. Some word about the whole Xen's
participation to FOSDEM, including a few about the QubesOS demo, here:

http://blog.xen.org/index.php/2014/02/07/xen-fosdem14-an-even-report/

I may not be able to give this another try very soon... but I will at
some point (for the next demo? :-P), and I'll let you know how it will
go.

Thanks everyone, especially Joanna and Marek, for bearing with me and
being so much helpful!

Regards,

[Axon]

ma...@enjolras.fr:

> Same problem with home premium. My only workaround was to rename wga (as said in a previous post), because even in debug mode, the windows desktop wouldn't appear.
>
> Marc
>

So, if I just need to use my Windows VM right now (non-seamlessly), is
there an "official" way to uninstall or disable the Qubes Windows Tools?
Or is renaming wga (as Marc says above) the appropriate way to do this?
(I assume this renaming will have to be done from the command line,
since there's no GUI.)

Of course, I could also just install a new Windows HVM from the disc,
but I'm wondering if there's a faster way to use what's already installed.

[Marek Marczykowski-Górecki]

On 15.02.2014 17:14, Axon wrote:
> ma...@enjolras.fr:
>> Same problem with home premium. My only workaround was to rename wga (as said in a previous post), because even in debug mode, the windows desktop wouldn't appear.
>>
>> Marc
>>
>
> So, if I just need to use my Windows VM right now (non-seamlessly), is
> there an "official" way to uninstall or disable the Qubes Windows Tools?
> Or is renaming wga (as Marc says above) the appropriate way to do this?
> (I assume this renaming will have to be done from the command line,
> since there's no GUI.)

You can install VNC server...

> Of course, I could also just install a new Windows HVM from the disc,
> but I'm wondering if there's a faster way to use what's already installed.