Windows XP installation problem - no disk

[Jan 'bazil' Otte]

Hi,

I am trying to install Windows XP (with no networking) as a HVM (Qubes
4.0, updated from some RC). I have tried a few ISO images now, all the
same. Ends up with Windows not able to find any disk to install to.

I have searched the forum but haven't found anything that helps. The VM
log does not show any problem so I suppose it is a configuration issue.
I tried to locate xen cfg file for the VM just to check if there are any
parameters I can play with, but I seem to be unable to locate it. Does
Qubes generate the xen cfg files? If so, where can I locate them?
(pointing to a documentation is perfectly okay with me, I will RTFM
happily).

Thanks for any pointers,

Jan

[Unman]

Qubes does generate the config files, but I doubt it's a configuration
issue.
The relevant doc is at https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/hvm
What command are you using to start the HVM in preparation for the
install?

[Jan 'bazil' Otte]

Originally I was using GUI (choosing "install from device" which should
select the HVM mode) but I have also retried with the following commands
(problem still persists):

qvm-create xp2 --class StandaloneVM --property virt_mode=hvm --property
kernel='' --label=red

qvm-start xp2 --cdrom=wildapps:/home/user/winxp.iso

Is there any way to get higher verbosity (debug) in the logs?

Jan

[Unman]

You need to provide drivers as part of the install process. You can
slipstream them on to a new install image, or attach a virtual floppy.
I would do the former.

There are various drivers around - you could try those on the floppy
images linked here:
https://docs.fedoraproject.org/quick-docs/en-US/creating-windows-virtual-machines-using-virtio-drivers.html

[Jan 'bazil' Otte]

Thanks for the links. It should allow me to look at the right direction.

It seems to me that with xen the fastest way how to provide floppy image
would be by specifying it in the config (using "fda=..." line). However,
I seem to be unable to locate the xen cfg file for the host (if it
exists persistent on qubes filesystem at all).

Passing the floppy image via qvm-start does not seem as an option (at
least I haven't found any working combination of --cdrom and --hddisk
and also the --drive:fd does not seem to be supported).

I also had an idea to reproduce the xen xl commands (and adding some
arguments at some places) but after looking at the logs
(/var/log/xen/console/...) I realized it may not be that easy as
imagined as there are pipes etc.

Do you know of any working setup or a howto I can follow?

This thing (running Win XP) is not a dealbreaker for me - I am using
Qubes for quite some time now - so if following this path proves too
complicated, I will probably abandon it but maybe there are other guys
that can benefit from a working how-to instructions.

Anyway thanks for pointing out the source of the problems.

Jan