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2mac

Member

Registered: 2013-11-09

Posts: 95

[CLOSED] Can't run win7 in qemu

I created an ISO image from a win7 installation disk and attempted to run it using

qemu-system-x86_64 -cdrom installer.iso -boot order=d win7 -m 4096

where "win7" is the hard disk image.

The size of the image is 80GB, and I have 16GB of RAM.

Everything seems to run fine. Windows "loads files" for a bit, then I get the "Windows is starting up" message for a moment, and then I get this: http://i.imgur.com/7HqPV2A.png

Any idea what's going on?

Last edited by 2mac (2014-01-08 23:24:55)

2mac

Member

Registered: 2013-11-09

Posts: 95

Re: [CLOSED] Can't run win7 in qemu

Update:

I also tried appending "-vga std" like I did for Android, but it had no effect.

Lone_Wolf

Administrator

From: Netherlands, Europe

Registered: 2005-10-04

Posts: 15,567

Re: [CLOSED] Can't run win7 in qemu

That's going to be hard to troubleshoot, but windows stop errors tend to be hardware or driver related .

Are you using a generic windows install disc , like you can/could get from MSDN, or a disk supplied by a manufacturer ?
manufacturer supplied disks tend to be tailored to specific hardware and often fail on different hardware.

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Disliking systemd intensely, but not satisfied with alternatives so focusing on taming systemd.

clean chroot building not flexible enough ?
Try clean chroot manager by graysky

2mac

Member

Registered: 2013-11-09

Posts: 95

Re: [CLOSED] Can't run win7 in qemu

I was using a disk provided by the manufacturer, but it was made for this same computer, so I'm not sure if hardware conflicts are a problem.

Lone_Wolf

Administrator

From: Netherlands, Europe

Registered: 2005-10-04

Posts: 15,567

Re: [CLOSED] Can't run win7 in qemu

The hardware qemu gives to the virtual machine is NOT your physical hardware, but fake/virtual hardware designed specifically for virtual environments.

Basically what happens is that your install disk expects to find specific hardware which qemu doesn't provide.
You've found one of the big weak points of windows hw support, it has BIG trouble with hardware changes.

Another possible cause is that your windows 7 version does not support running in a virtual environment and just refuses .
It's been a long time, but I do remember something that only windows 7 ultimate / business / professional supported running in a virtual environment.

short answer : without a generic install disk, you're screwed.

long answer :
you might be able to change the hardware qemu shows the VM so windows 7 install works.
A common cause for these windows install problems is a hardcoded HDD controller, you could try changing the hw qemu provides to the VM.

Another alternative would be to install windows 7 physically on it's own partition, then let qemu start that in a VM.
You'll need to make some changes to the installed windows 7 to make that work, and it's possible your version of win7 doesn't allow running virtualized.

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Disliking systemd intensely, but not satisfied with alternatives so focusing on taming systemd.

clean chroot building not flexible enough ?
Try clean chroot manager by graysky

2mac

Member

Registered: 2013-11-09

Posts: 95

Re: [CLOSED] Can't run win7 in qemu

I think I'll look for another solution than my ISO. Thanks for your help.

Trilby

Inspector Parrot

Registered: 2011-11-29

Posts: 30,546

Website

Re: [CLOSED] Can't run win7 in qemu

2mac - please don't mark your threads as [CLOSED].  That is a indicator used by moderaters when they actually close a thread.

It sounds solved, but if you don't feel satisfied you might put something like 'Answered' indicating the answer to the question is here even if it doesn't lead to the results you'd like.

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"UNIX is simple and coherent" - Dennis Ritchie; "GNU's Not Unix" - Richard Stallman