Cannot Install Windows 10 in New VM
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@mickwilli What's the current CPU topology and number of CPUs in your VM? I'd suggest playing around with these parameters to see if things change.
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@dinhngtu I think it’s just a simple single processor with dual cores configuration, but I’ll check when I can.
Worth noting too that that crash dump was from a VM with Viridian disabled (not an intentional choice, was just disabled from some other playing around). I’ve tried to get a crash dump with it enabled, but the system just keeps hanging at about the point I expect it to crash, so I never get a crash dump.
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@dinhngtu I can confirm that it was setup as a single CPU with dual cores. I have adjusted to be one CPU with 6 cores, and that doesn't help matters.
It's worth noting that I occasionally get it to boot off the install ISO and complete the installation, but booting into the installed OS subsequently fails. It appears there is something intermittent here that's causing it to fail most of the time, but occasionally make it through.
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@mickwilli Does changing it to multiple CPUs with 1 core each change the situation?
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@mickwilli Hi, here are some more suggestions after discussing with the team:
- Try rebooting the host first;
- Try using the following commands to change the guest TSC mode:
xe vm-param-add uuid=(VM UUID) param-name=platform tsc_mode=2 xe vm-param-add uuid=(VM UUID) param-name=platform nomigrate=true- Then try reenabling Viridian
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@dinhngtu well, would you believe it, but a reboot of the host seems to have solved the problem. I haven't done anything else and one of the Windows 10 test VMs that I was playing with quite merrily completed its setup process and loaded into Windows with no drama.
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Well sadly that's not the end of the story. After running just fine for a week or two, including multiple reboots in the early stages of installing apps etc, the most recent reboot (to install some sort of 'touchscreen driver' update) has caused a reoccurrence of this issue.
After a few tries, and leaving the VM off for a few minutes, I managed to get it to boot up again, but there is clearly some sort of issue here.
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@mickwilli Is it still the same issue? If it's intermittent and resolves after a few minutes, it might be hardware-related.
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@dinhngtu yes, same issue, same BSOD error message at the same point (very early) in the boot process. System seems to be perfectly stable once booted.
I struggle to see how it’s a hardware issue when older versions of Windows have worked just fine, as has every single Linux VM I’ve installed. Also, if it was a hardware issue I’d expect the VM to be unstable, which it does not appear to be. Seems more likely that there is something happening during the very early stages of boot that Xen is not handling gracefully/reliably.
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@mickwilli Did you try the tweaks I've posted above?
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@dinhngtu No, I haven't tried those. The host reboot appeared to fix the original issue and I had forgotten about them when I was troubleshooting the restart yesterday.
I'll do a bit more playing around with this in a few days and report back.