Installing VirtIO drivers in Windows. Is it possible to install the VirtIO drivers. You should first download from linux-kvm.com the Windows Guest.
This repository contains KVM/QEMU Windows guest drivers, for bothparavirtual and emulated hardware. The code builds and ships as partof the virtio-win RPM on Fedora and Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and thebinaries are also available in the form of distribution-neutral ISOand VFD images. If all you want is use virtio-win in your Windowsvirtual machines, go to theFedora virtIO-win documentationfor information on obtaining the binaries.
If you'd like to build virtio-win from sources, clone this repo andfollow the instructions in Building the Drivers.Note that the drivers you build will be either unsigned or test-signedwith Tools/VirtIOTestCert.cer, which means that Windows will not loadthem by default. See Microsoft's driver signing pagefor more information on test-signing.
If you want to build cross-signed binaries (like the ones that ship inthe Fedora RPM), you'll need your own code-signing certificate.Cross-signed drivers can be used on all versions of Windows except forthe latest Windows 10 with secure boot enabled. However, systems withcross-signed drivers will not receive Microsoft support.
If you want to produce Microsoft-signed binaries (fully supported,like the ones that ship in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux RPM), you'llneed to submit the drivers to Microsoft along with a set of testresults (so called WHQL process). If you decide to WHQL the drivers,make sure to base them on commit eb2996de or newer, since the GPLlicense used prior to this commit is not compatible with WHQL.Additionally, we ask that you make a change to the Hardware IDs sothat your drivers will not match devices exposed by the upstreamversions of KVM/QEMU. This is especially important if you plan todistribute the drivers with Windows Update, see theMicrosoft publishing restrictions for more details.
This is a follow up to a pervious question. I have a Ubuntu host with a Win 2008 KVM. To improve performance the network and IO - @dyasny and the documentation recommends installing virtIO drivers. I did follow this :
http://www.linux-kvm.org/page/WindowsGuestDrivers/Download_Drivers
Downloaded the ISO from:
http://alt.fedoraproject.org/pub/alt/virtio-win/latest/images/
Now I am not sure how to proceed. I have the Win 2008 VM already installed with the virtual disk in RAW format with an IDE bus.
I opened the iso and have several folders. LikeE:BalloonE:NetKVME:vioserialE:viostor
I am assuming NetKVM is for the network drivers and viostor is for the disk drivers.For the NetKVM, there is only Vista and XP sub-folders.
Similarly for the viostor: there is a folder structure like below.E:viostorWin7E:viostorWlhE:viostorWnetE:viostorWXp
So in summary, my questions:
- Which folders should we use for Win2008 64 bit?
- How do I install the NetKVM for anexisting VM?
- How do I ins tall the viostor foran existing VM?
- Finally, just out of curiosity, what is Ballon and vioserial drivers for?
Thanks a ton for your help!
2 Answers
so, as I already mentioned - you have 3 options:
- hack windows to accept virtiodrivers for the boot device (highlyunrecommended) and then switch thedisk interface to virtio
- reinstall with virtio, using thedrivers you mention this time on afloppy image or ISO attached to theVM
- slipstream the virtio drivers intoyour windows ISO and reinstall
Virtio Drivers Fedora
- I would hazard a guess at the latest versions (Vista / Win7), windows won't happily install drivers that it can't support.
- Add a virtio nic, start the VM, install drivers when Windows looks for them, remove non-virtio nic.
- Add a temporary virtio disk, install drivers, remove temp disk and change your boot disk to virtio.
- The Balloon driver is for Memory Ballooning, but I have never managed to install it on any of my VM's, vioserial is apparently so you can have more than one serial port.