Windows 10 free: Why is Microsoft giving away its new operating system?

[vinnywright]

@Vinny if you figure out how to read and write to a USB stick from the Windows VM, please post here or else PM me. I think I'm getting closer, starting with this and then using KVM's "Add Hardware > Filesystem" utility, but I'm not there yet.

I never did get USB working on mine in Kubuntu-14.04,,,,,,,,may try once agin in Debian and Kubuntu now that I have the post you linked to

VINNY

[dibl]

@Vinny if you figure out how to read and write to a USB stick from the Windows VM, please post here or else PM me. I think I'm getting closer, starting with this and then using KVM's "Add Hardware > Filesystem" utility, but I'm not there yet.

EDIT: 13 AUG -- YES, I cracked the USB storage connectivity issue, so the VM can now read and write to a USB thumb drive connected to the Linux host.

[vinnywright]

The GUI interface is provided by virt-manager. Note that to use KVM, your CPU has to include the kernel-mode virtualization capabilities (Vinny, you have no problem with that nice System 76 system.).

@gg, I did not have any crashes on my Debian sid system with the qemu packages, so that may be a *buntu issue. For both qemu and qemu-kvm, I am using version 2.3+dfsg-6a from the Debian unstable repo.

The first thing I learned was, it appears the world is waiting for a current, well-written, step-by-step guideline for setting up a Windows guest VM on a Debian-based Linux host, using KVM. The guidance is scattered, semi-accurate, obsolete in many cases, and far less than crystal clear in most cases. Perhaps I will try my hand at a guide one of these days, but as I've only bumbled and stumbled my way through the process one time, at this point I am not qualified to write "how to" on this topic, but I'll try to get you started.

1. Install qemu and make a virtual hard drive. Here's how I made my 50G virtual hdd:

qemu-img create -f qcow2 win10.img 50G

(Note that it does not actually use 50G of your hdd -- it starts out very small until you install your OS and software.)

2. Install the Linux software packages you will be using. I think the complete list is:

qemu-kvm
libvirt-bin
virt-manager
bridge-utils
spice-vdagent

3. Add your user to the kvm and libvirt groups.

4. Set up a network bridge as per this guidance:

https://wiki.debian.org/BridgeNetworkConnections

5. Review the Debian and Qemu guidance before you start trying to do anything, and bear in mind that some of it is oriented toward a Linux guest, some of it is a little obsolete for the current version of KVM, and some of it actually doesn't make sense once you have your hands on the keyboard and try to make it work. But you need to read it and get your head around the flow of the process.

https://wiki.debian.org/KVM

https://wiki.debian.org/QEMU#Host_an...n_same_network

6. Now you can run virt-manager, stick your windows installation CD into the optical drive, and with File > New Virtual Machine, start your own little "journey of discovery". Hint -- you probably want a Spice Server display and the br0 network interface.

Be really patient as things run very slowly at first. You will be very disappointed in the bootup speed of your new VM and you will wonder why anyone would use KVM. The magic happens when you get to the part where you download the VirtIO windows driver ISO image from this page:

https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Windo...irect_download

and connect it to your Windows VM as the virtual CD, and (while attempting to follow the guidance and finding out it doesn't exactly work that way) use it to convert the default (virtual) IDE hdd to a SCSI hdd. Likewise when you install the VirtIO network adapter, although I did have internet connectivity via the rtl8139 virtual adapter. Also I needed the PCI bus driver. As a result of doing this, my Win 10 VM's performance is very satisfactory -- maybe a tad slower than Win 8 on VMware, but not enough to bother me. I gave my VM 2 CPUs and 2GB of memory.

I did not attempt the CPU and Disk I/O tweaks under the "Performance Tuning" section of the Debian wiki, except to use the VirtIO driver ISO.

I've spent a ton of time attempting to get guest-host filesharing and that appears to be impossible. I spent somewhat less time working on LAN networking with other Windows guest VMs around the house, including via samba. I can see them, I can copy files from them to my Win 10 VM, but I have yet to get them to let me have "write" permission, and at this point I'm just going to use google drive to take care of that requirement. @life0riley, I'm not sure whether to point the finger at Win 10 or KVM -- both are new to me at this point and it could be either one.

I've spent some time trying to get USB storage to work (i.e. to connect a USB stick), and it looks like there are bugs in KVM. KVM has the "Add Hardware" capability, but you end up with an obscure error message that appears to be a bug in the handshake with the USB device. I haven't tried other USB devices (webcam) as that is way low on my priority list.

So, if I knew 2 weeks ago what I just wrote here, I could have saved about 20 hours of head-bashing.

Thanks @dibl ,, bookmarked for future play

I have qemu-kvm running in Kubuntu-14.04 with the win-10-tec-preview using virt-manager for the GUI-tool ,,,,,,,virt-manager was the only one of 3 that would work without crashing .

aqemu and qtemu being the ones that would not work .

I asked because I will be setting this one up in the Debian-8-KDE install the next time I have some time ,,,or need a good geek fest and I know you use Debian.

VINNY

[dibl]

I couldn't find how to create an HD img that wasn't qcow, which would not work on my Btrfs system

Yep. When I first set up my 2-drive BTRFS filesystem, I copied a VMware VM on it and tried to run it, and learned real fast that the design of BTRFS did not anticipate a single huge file with many frequent changes, such as a running VM. That was a number of years ago, and I have read that the devs have improved that shortcoming, but I have a big SSD that is great for running VMs so the BTRFS filesystem is only used to store backups of the VMs, alongside all my other user data.

[GreyGeek]

Your instructions are similar to those I found for installing qemu-kvm on Trusty Tahr. Besides frequent crashes I couldn't find how to create an HD img that wasn't qcow, which would not work on my Btrfs system

[dibl]

which GUI do you use ,,,,,,,,,or do you even use one ?

VINNY

The GUI interface is provided by virt-manager. Note that to use KVM, your CPU has to include the kernel-mode virtualization capabilities (Vinny, you have no problem with that nice System 76 system.).

@gg, I did not have any crashes on my Debian sid system with the qemu packages, so that may be a *buntu issue. For both qemu and qemu-kvm, I am using version 2.3+dfsg-6a from the Debian unstable repo.

The first thing I learned was, it appears the world is waiting for a current, well-written, step-by-step guideline for setting up a Windows guest VM on a Debian-based Linux host, using KVM. The guidance is scattered, semi-accurate, obsolete in many cases, and far less than crystal clear in most cases. Perhaps I will try my hand at a guide one of these days, but as I've only bumbled and stumbled my way through the process one time, at this point I am not qualified to write "how to" on this topic, but I'll try to get you started.

1. Install qemu and make a virtual hard drive. Here's how I made my 50G virtual hdd:

qemu-img create -f qcow2 win10.img 50G

(Note that it does not actually use 50G of your hdd -- it starts out very small until you install your OS and software.)

2. Install the Linux software packages you will be using. I think the complete list is:

qemu-kvm
libvirt-bin
virt-manager
bridge-utils
spice-vdagent

3. Add your user to the kvm and libvirt groups.

4. Set up a network bridge as per this guidance:

https://wiki.debian.org/BridgeNetworkConnections

5. Review the Debian and Qemu guidance before you start trying to do anything, and bear in mind that some of it is oriented toward a Linux guest, some of it is a little obsolete for the current version of KVM, and some of it actually doesn't make sense once you have your hands on the keyboard and try to make it work. But you need to read it and get your head around the flow of the process.

https://wiki.debian.org/KVM

https://wiki.debian.org/QEMU#Host_an...n_same_network

6. Now you can run virt-manager, stick your windows installation CD into the optical drive, and with File > New Virtual Machine, start your own little "journey of discovery". Hint -- you probably want a Spice Server display and the br0 network interface.

Be really patient as things run very slowly at first. You will be very disappointed in the bootup speed of your new VM and you will wonder why anyone would use KVM. The magic happens when you get to the part where you download the VirtIO windows driver ISO image from this page:

https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Windo...irect_download

and connect it to your Windows VM as the virtual CD, and (while attempting to follow the guidance and finding out it doesn't exactly work that way) use it to convert the default (virtual) IDE hdd to a SCSI hdd. Likewise when you install the VirtIO network adapter, although I did have internet connectivity via the rtl8139 virtual adapter. Also I needed the PCI bus driver. As a result of doing this, my Win 10 VM's performance is very satisfactory -- maybe a tad slower than Win 8 on VMware, but not enough to bother me. I gave my VM 2 CPUs and 2GB of memory.

I did not attempt the CPU and Disk I/O tweaks under the "Performance Tuning" section of the Debian wiki, except to use the VirtIO driver ISO.

I've spent a ton of time attempting to get guest-host filesharing and that appears to be impossible. I spent somewhat less time working on LAN networking with other Windows guest VMs around the house, including via samba. I can see them, I can copy files from them to my Win 10 VM, but I have yet to get them to let me have "write" permission, and at this point I'm just going to use google drive to take care of that requirement. @life0riley, I'm not sure whether to point the finger at Win 10 or KVM -- both are new to me at this point and it could be either one.

I've spent some time trying to get USB storage to work (i.e. to connect a USB stick), and it looks like there are bugs in KVM. KVM has the "Add Hardware" capability, but you end up with an obscure error message that appears to be a bug in the handshake with the USB device. I haven't tried other USB devices (webcam) as that is way low on my priority list.

So, if I knew 2 weeks ago what I just wrote here, I could have saved about 20 hours of head-bashing.

[GreyGeek]

which GUI do you use ,,,,,,,,,or do you even use one ?

VINNY

Is is he even using what the qemu-Kvn in the repository? After having installed and re-installed the repository versions, and trying both gui's I find it impossible to create guest OS with crashes interrupting the process.

[vinnywright]

FYI (and totally OT) I decided to make my new Win 10 VM with Qemu/KVM, hoping to escape the bonds of proprietary VM software. I have a fully-functioning Win 10 Pro system including virtIO network interface and SCSI drive emulation. Filesharing with the Linux host appears to be pretty impossible, even via samba, and USB storage support appears to be buggy and thus nonfunctional. But filesharing can (and will) be done with a cloud service, presently google drive which has more than enough free space for my purposes. So, bye-bye VMware and Vbox!

which GUI do you use ,,,,,,,,,or do you even use one ?

VINNY

[life0riley]

...Filesharing with the Linux host appears to be pretty impossible, even via samba, and USB storage support appears to be buggy and thus nonfunctional. But filesharing can (and will) be done with a cloud service,...

Is that because something changed with Windows 10 or is it a Qemu/KVM thing?

[dibl]

Many times, the slower 5-8-day shipping turns out to be pretty fast (like 3-5 day).

I almost always take the free slower shipping if it is offered, and rarely does it take 8 days to arrive. It's a good deal.

[Qqmike]

Yes.
Also, when indicated (seems like most of the time for me), if you order $35 or more, you get (good but slower 5-8 day) free shipping; and some of the "other sellers" shipping is included in that shipping-fee exclusion, and some are not. Many times, the slower 5-8-day shipping turns out to be pretty fast (like 3-5 day).

[GreyGeek]

I'm having great luck with Amazon these days, for all sorts of items, hard to find or not. On computer components, I usually go to NewEgg, but on my last build (Feb 2015) Amazon had the best selection and prices, so I bought all the parts from Amazon.

Amazon's prime prices include "free shipping" but if you check "other sellers" you'll find that their prices are lower but don't include shipping which, when added in, equals Amazon's Prime price. I do most of my shopping through Amazon because of HUGE selection and great return policy.

[Qqmike]

Amazon is generally a great source for many kinds of things you wouldn't necessarily expect, like electrical appliances and tools, via their third-party network. But for computer-related hardware and software, I go first to Newegg and if the price looks reasonable I rarely look further.

I'm having great luck with Amazon these days, for all sorts of items, hard to find or not. On computer components, I usually go to NewEgg, but on my last build (Feb 2015) Amazon had the best selection and prices, so I bought all the parts from Amazon.

[dibl]

Amazon is not the bargain shopping place it once was...

Amazon is generally a great source for many kinds of things you wouldn't necessarily expect, like electrical appliances and tools, via their third-party network. But for computer-related hardware and software, I go first to Newegg and if the price looks reasonable I rarely look further.

FYI (and totally OT) I decided to make my new Win 10 VM with Qemu/KVM, hoping to escape the bonds of proprietary VM software. I have a fully-functioning Win 10 Pro system including virtIO network interface and SCSI drive emulation. Filesharing with the Linux host appears to be pretty impossible, even via samba, and USB storage support appears to be buggy and thus nonfunctional. But filesharing can (and will) be done with a cloud service, presently google drive which has more than enough free space for my purposes. So, bye-bye VMware and Vbox!

[GreyGeek]

Amazon is selling the Win 10 Pro on a USB stick for $199.99. You can get the 32bit Win 10 Home for $140
Amazon is not the bargain shopping place it once was...