Creting Windows 11 Guest VM under Ubuntu Host#

Install and Setup Windows 11 VM#

Prerequisites#

  1. Installation Script

    If you already have installed the required rpls_sriov_kvm_multios_emt-3.1_ww2525.zip script as part of the host setup, skip this step. Otherwise, download the installation script from a source provided by Your Intel Representative.

    Unzip and install it on the host OS:

    unzip -jo rpls_sriov_kvm_multios_emt-3.1_ww2525.zip

  2. Windows ISO Image

    Download Windows 11 Enterprise version 24H2 into your working directory, where you unzipped the installation scripts and ran the host setup. For purpose of this guide we’re assuming this directory to be /home/$USER.

Prepare Windows VM Image#

  1. Create a symlink.

    # Windows 11
ln -s 26100.1.240331-1435.ge_release_CLIENTENTERPRISE_OEM_x64FRE_en-us.iso windows.iso

  2. Create an empty Windows image file:

    cd /home/$USER/
qemu-img create -f qcow2 win.qcow2 64G

  3. Prepare OVMF files:

    ln -sf ovmf/OVMF_CODE.fd OVMF_CODE.fd
cp ovmf/OVMF_VARS.fd OVMF_VARS_windows.fd

Install Windows VM Image#

  1. Run install_windows.sh to install the Windows guest OS.

    # Start guest VM to install Windows
cd /home/$USER/
sudo ./install_windows.sh

    Note: If you miss the “Press Any Key” message, press ESC key until you reach the EFI shell prompt, then type “reset” to start over again. Then, follow the Windows installation steps.

  2. Select Install Windows 11 and click Next:

    Choose Setup Option

  3. Select Windows 11 IoT Enterprise”:

    Select Windows Image

  4. Select Drive 0 Unallocated Space and click Next:

    Select Install Location

  5. Select Ready to install:

    Ready to Install

  6. Follow the Windows installation steps as usual, rebooting as necessary. When the installer asks for a network connection, select I don’t have internet.

    Network

    Windows will be installed to win.qcow2.

  7. Once the installation is done, disable the automatic updates temporarily with the following steps:

    • Open Settings.

    • Click Updates & Security.

    • Click Windows Update.

    • Click Pause updates for 7 days.

  8. Properly shut down the Windows guest OS.

Configure SRIOV on Windows 11 Enterprise VM#

Required Drivers#

  1. Intel Graphics UHD Iris Xe GFX driver ver. 32.0.101.6733

  2. SRIOV ZeroCopy Windows driver (v1797)

  3. Windows 11 OS Patch 26100.3037:

  4. Windows VirtIO Drivers:

    Note: To get access to Intel Graphics UHD Iris Xe GFX driver ver. 32.0.101.6733 and SRIOV ZeroCopy Windows driver (v1797), apply for access in Intel AGS. Remember to setup the proxy settings if operating from behind a corporate firewall.

Launch Windows Guest VM and Install Drivers#

Launch Windows Guest VM#

From Host OS launch Windows guest VM with start_windows.sh.

# Start guest VM to install Windows drivers
cd /home/$USER/
sudo ./start_windows.sh
Download and install Windows 11 OS patches in correct order#

  1. Double click on the KB5043080 *.msu file to start the installation. After successful installation reboot the Windows Guest VM.

  2. Double click on the KB5050094 *.msu file to start the installation. After successful installation reboot the Windows Guest VM.

    patch1

    patch2

Install GFX Driver#

  1. Download Intel Graphics UHD Iris Xe GFX driver ver. 32.0.101.6733

  2. Use the File Explorer to navigate to the downloaded .exe file, and launch it.

  3. Wait for the Dell Update Package window to open, then click INSTALL and follow the prompts.

    Windows 11 Dell Update Package

  4. After intel GFX Driver installation windows opens, click the Begin Installation button:

    Windows 11 Intel Graphics Installer

  1. After the installation is completed, reboot the Windows guest VM:

    Intel Graphics Reboot Prompt

  2. Launch Device Manager to verify the installation.

  3. Expand the “Display adapters” item in the device list.

  4. Right-click on the graphics device and select Properties. Click Drivertab. Verify that the Intel® Graphics version is 32.0.101.6733.

Install SR-IOV Zero Copy Driver#

  1. Download Windows Zero Copy Drivers Release 1797 [DVServer, DVServerKMD] SRIOV ZeroCopy Windows driver (v1797)

    Please make sure the correct ZCBuild version is chosen from the drop-down. By default, the latest ZCBuild version will be the first one.

  2. Use File Explorer to extract the .zip file.

    The SR-IOV Zero Copy Driver can be installed either with the GUI installer or through the command line.

Install SR-IOV Zero Copy Driver Using GUI Installer

  1. Go to the directory containing ZeroCopyInstaller.

    Zero Copy Installer in Windows Explorer

  2. Double-click the ZeroCopyInstaller to run it.

    Zero Copy UAC Prompt

  3. Click on the Install button when prompted.

    Zero Copy Installer UI

  4. Once the installation is completed, click the Finish button to restart Windows.

Install SR-IOV Zero Copy Driver Using Command Line

  1. Open Powershell in administrator mode.

  2. Navigate to the directory containing ZeroCopyInstaller.

  3. Enter the following command to perform the installation:

    C:\> .\ZeroCopyInstaller.exe /VERYSILENT /SUPPRESSMSGBOXES

    Note: Option usage details:

    • /VERYSILENT Runs silently without displaying windows

    • /SUPPRESSMSGBOXES Suppresses message boxes from displaying

    • /NORESTART Avoids restarting the system after installation.

  4. Wait for the Windows guest to automatically restart.

Verify SR-IOV Zero Copy Driver Installation

  1. Launch Device Manager to verify the installation.

  2. Expand the Display adapters item in the device list, as shown below:

    Display Adapters

  3. Verify that DVServerUMD Device and VServerKMD driver are loaded properly.

  4. In Task Manager, verify that the GPU tab is showing correct information.

Disable Graphics Driver Updates#

Identify the Graphics Hardware ID#

  1. Launch the Device Manager.

  2. Expand the Display adapters item in the device list:

    Display Adapters Expanded

  3. Right click on the graphics device and select Properties.

  4. Switch to the Details tab and select Hardware IDs from the Property drop down list.

    Graphics Properties

  5. Right click on the second ID in the list and select Copy from the context menu.

Enable Group Policy Disabling Graphics Driver Update#

  1. In the Windows search bar type gpedit.msc and launch the Group Policy Editor.

  2. On the left pane, navigate to Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> System -> Device Installation -> Device Installation Restrictions

    Device Installation Restrictions

  3. On the right pane, double click Prevent installation of devices that match any of these device IDs to display additional configuration options.

    Prevent Device Installation

  4. In the new pop-up window, click the Enabled radio button.

    Prevent Device Installation - Enabled

  5. Clicking Show… will bring up a new window. Enter the device hardware ID copied earlier:

    Prevent Device Installation - Show

  6. Click OK in all the dialog windows to disable graphics driver updates.

    Note: To allow the graphics driver to be updated, follow the steps above, but select the Disabled radio button instead of Enabled.

Resume Windows Update#

Resume the automatic Windows updates (excluding Graphics driver) with the following steps:

  1. Open Settings.

  2. Select Update and Security.

  3. Select Windows Update.

  4. Click the Resume Updates button.

Install Windows VirtIO Drivers#

Use one of the provided links, or download the most recent virtio-win-gt-x64.msi or virtio-win-gt-x86.msi from inside the VM.

Run the downloaded installer and follow the installation process.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Please shutdown the guest properly once the installation is completed!

Configuration Options for Running Windows Guest VM#

HMI Buildtime and Runtime Customer Applications#

Contact Your Intel Representative to obtain the required application.

  1. Launch Windows VM

    # Change to work directory
cd <work directory>

# Launch Windows 11 guest VM
sudo ./start_windows.sh

  2. Install the HMI applications

    Download the HMI application to the host OS. In the Winodws guest VM use SCP to get the HMI application.

    Follow the HMI installation user guide to install and configure the License.

    IMPORTANT NOTE: Please shutdown the guest properly once the installation is completed! The win.qcow2 image is now ready to use.

Changing Guest VM Memory and Number of CPUs#

The default launch command without any parameters is for 2 cores and 2G RAM. You can change that with startup parameters:

Below is an example of guest start configuration for 4 cores and 4GB of RAM:

# Add -m option to specify 4G of memory
# Add -c option to specify 4 cpu cores for guest VM
sudo -E ./start_windows.sh -m 4G -c 4

Enabling USB Devices in Windows Guest VM**#

For Windows guest VMs, USB devices can be setup in two ways:

  1. Passthrough of all USB Host Devices

    USB host passthrough parameter option can be added in the launch command to passthrough all USB devices on the USB host.

    Specify an additional parameter to the Guest VM launch command as shown below.

    # Note: all connected USB devices will be passthrough to the
guest VM with USB host passthrough option
sudo -E ./start_windows.sh --passthrough-pci-usb

  2. Passthrough of selected USB devices.

    An external command option can be used to passthrough only a few selected USB devices.

    Retrieve the vendorid and productid of USB device. In this example, 046d is vendor ID, c06a is product ID.

    # On the target terminal.
$ lsusb

Displays the following information:

Bus 004 Device 003: ID 046d:c06a Logitech, Inc. USB Optical
Mouse

Specify an additional parameter to the Guest VM launch command:

# Add extra command when starting the guest OS
sudo -E ./start_windows.sh -e "-device usbhost,vendorid=0x046d,productid=0xc06a"

Note: A passthrough device option can only be used once because a device can be passed through to only 1 guest VM at a time.

Enabling PCIe Wi-Fi Adapter Device in Windows Guest VM#

For Windows guest VMs, PCI Wi-Fi device passthrough can be setup by adding --passthrough-pci-wifi parameter to guest VM launch command:

# Add --passthrough-pci-wifi for passing through Wifi adapter
sudo -E ./start_windows.sh --passthrough-pci-wifi