John Siu Blog

Working KVM drives and guest tools.

This walkthrough also apply to Windows 10.

Download Drivers

Get virtio drivers before installing Windows 11 in KVM. As we need the driver iso during the installation process.

Go to following URL:

https://fedorapeople.org/groups/virt/virtio-win/direct-downloads/latest-virtio/

Download virtio-win.iso and virtio-win-guest-tools.exe.

Setup KVM

Prepare ISO

On KVM host, put both Windows iso and virtio-win.iso into KVM storage pool. The default location is /var/lib/libvirt/images/.

If done correctly, they should show up in KVM storage pool like following.

Create VM

Start KVM creation.

1. Choose local media. Then Forward.
   

2. Select Windows ISO either by drop down or Browse....
   If operating system was not detect automatically, type Microsoft in the box and you should be presented with a pop up menu. Choose Microsoft Windows 11.
   Then Forward.
   

3. Set memory size. Then Forward.
   CPU will be override in customization steps.
   

4. Set disk size. Then Forward.
   

5. Set name of new VM.
   Checkmark Customize configuration before install.
   Then Finish.
   

Customization screen will pop up. Continue to next section.

Customize VM

We will set VM to use VirtIO, TPM.

1. In Overview
Chipset should be Q35
Firmware should be UEFI
   

2. In CPUs (IMPORTANT)
   Windows Home only use 1 CPU socket, Windows Pro only use 2 CPU sockets. If vCPU is used to assign more cpu, Windows VM will only use 1(home) or 2(pro) CPUs and become extremely slow. We have to use Topology instead.
   Checkmark Manually set CPU topology.
   Set Sockets to 1. Set Cores to your desire value.
   Then Apply.
   

3. In SATA Disk 1, change Disk Bus to VirtIO. Then Apply.
   

4. In NIC ..., change Device model to virtio. Then Apply.
   

5. In TPM vNone,
   Set Model to TIS.
   Set Version to 2.0.
   Then Apply.
   

6. Click Add Hardware to open add hardware pop up.
   In Storage:
   Click Select or create custom storage
   Click Manage and assign virtio-win.iso.
   Set Device type to CDROM device.
   Then Finish.
   This allow us to add storage and network drivers during Windows installation.

7. Click Boot Options.
   Checkmark SATA CSROM 1 and move it to the top.
   Then Apply.
   

8. Click Begin Installation to start Windows installation.
   

Windows Installation

We will not go through every single screen for Windows 11 setup, but only a few points:

Press A Key

When VM start, you have to press a key to boot CD(ISO). Else it will enter EFI prompt and you have to restart the VM again. You only have a few seconds to do it.

Loading Drivers

When we reach the disk screen, it will be empty. We will be loading both the storage driver and network driver.

1. Click Load driver
   

2. Click OK.
   

3. Select Red Hat VirtIO SCSI controller with w11 in the path.
   Then Next.
   

The above not only load the VirtIO SCSI driver, but also the network driver.

Finish the installation process and boot into Windows. Do not remote the virtio-win ISO yet. We still need it in next phase.

VirtIO Guest Tool

After Windows installation and initial setup, go CDROM drive with wirtio-win, run virtio-win-guest-tools.exe. That will install all remaining drivers and most importantly, the display driver allow for remote resizing.

Turn on auto resize in virt-manager.