XCP-ng Windows PV tools announcements

[Pilow]

@dinhngtu tried on a Windows Server 2025 VM, UEFI BIOS
working well, no reboot needed

[dinhngtu]

Hello all,

Version 9.1.145 Release of the Windows PV tools has been released.

(Despite the name, it's still signed; I simply dropped the "Signed" moniker)

Download the latest release here: https://github.com/xcp-ng/win-pv-drivers/releases

It will be integrated into the XCP-ng built-in tools ISO after a test period of 2 weeks.

This release brings the new XCP-ng Standard VGA Display Driver as well as multiple bug fixes to all Windows drivers and guest tools components.

Changes since 9.1.100

• NEW: The XCP-ng Standard VGA Display Driver is now included in the package.
• Improved: XenClean is now a single executable that's more convenient to use.
• Improved: Better uninstalling of existing drivers.
• Fixes: Automatic time sync is now disabled by default on new installations. NTP sync with W32Time is recommended instead.
  • To disable time sync on an existing installation, use the Modify button in Installed apps.
• Fixes: Xen Guest Agent now operates correctly during driver restarts and upgrades.
• Fixes: Fix uninstallation of individual drivers.
• Fixes: Improve stability and efficiency of Xenbus and Xenvbd.

Help / Community support

If you encounter installation/uninstallation errors, please try again with one of the following commands:

For installing:
msiexec.exe /i XenTools-x64.msi /log install.log

For uninstalling:
msiexec.exe /x XenTools-x64.msi /log uninstall.log

Please include this log along with the file C:\Windows\INF\setupapi.dev.log in your bug report. These files will help us troubleshoot any installation issues.

Full Changelog: https://github.com/xcp-ng/win-pv-drivers/compare/v9.1.100...v9.1.145
Original build: https://github.com/xcp-ng/win-pv-drivers/actions/runs/23188455900

[acebmxer]

Install went with out issues on my homelab pc windows 11.

I used the installer found in the package folder.

[manilx]

@dinhngtu Upgraded from previous tools (big jump from citrix was already done ) @home and @office a dozen Windows11 and Windows Server 2022.
No issues.

[conitrade-as]

We noticed that using the XCP-ng Windows PV tools brakes some functionality of the shared clipboard. On a fully patched XCP-ng 8.3 host using Xen Orchestra 5 (actually the 6.2.2 build, but the v5 interface) allows only to copy the clipboard from the VM to the browser, not the other way around.

[dinhngtu]

@conitrade-as There should be a fix for that in 9.1.145. Could you try it?

[conitrade-as]

@dinhngtu That indeed seems to work. I just realized, that this is a timing issue as well. Sometimes the copy&paste works after a slight delay, where the console seems non-responsive (e.g. cannot move the mouse cursor). After something like ~15 secs things work as expected. For subsequent copy&paste operations the delay seems to be much lower.

[dinhngtu]

@conitrade-as Sounds like a problem somewhere in the clipboard stack, I'll look into that.

[manilx]

@dinhngtu We have one Win11 in production, which dodn't install the new tools, running the previous ones.

We always get:

We have rebooted before installing the tools: same issue
We have run Xenclean before installing: same
We have run Xenbootfix: same

Basically we'tried everything. I haven't opened an official ticket yet because the answer here might help others.

[dinhngtu]

@manilx Can you check if there's a Copy-XenVifSettings task in Task Scheduler and delete it if it exists report back? Normally it's supposed to self-destruct but maybe something went wrong there.

[manilx]

@dinhngtu Noting there:

[dinhngtu]

@manilx What do you see when you run this command from PowerShell?

schtasks /query /tn Copy-XenVifSettings /hresult ; echo $LASTEXITCODE

[manilx]

@dinhngtu

[dinhngtu]

@manilx Interesting... It's checking for "ERROR: The system cannot find the file specified. -2147024894", which is why it's failing. What if you specified the command this way, with a backslash?

schtasks /query /tn \Copy-XenVifSettings /hresult ; echo $LASTEXITCODE

[manilx]

@dinhngtu

[conitrade-as]

@manilx Try installing the .msi from an elevated powershell prompt. That worked for one of our Windows 11 VMs.

[manilx]

@conitrade-as Yes, fixed. Thx!

The issue on this VM was we were installing as non-admin. All others were admin by default.

Good catch