Windows 7 installation DVD can't boot in qemu 2.6.0/OVMF

[Aleksei Kovura]

With Qemu 2.5.50 (compiled from git some time ago) I can boot Windows 7 x64 installation DVD as follows:
~/code/qemu-v2/bin/slic-v2/native/x86_64-softmmu/qemu-system-x86_64 \
    -machine type=pc,accel=kvm \
    -enable-kvm \
    -cpu host \
    -m 2048 \
    -vga cirrus \
    -boot d \
    -drive if=pflash,file=/vms/ovmf_x64_firstrun.bin,format=raw \
    -cdrom /vms/win7_sp1.iso \
    -monitor stdio

This bug suggests different vga options https://bugs.launchpad.net/qemu/+bug/1581936. Here's the behaviours I'm getting with 2.6.0:

std - "Starting Windows" with wavering flag hangs indefinitely
cirrus - at "Starting Windows" wasps of light freeze before assembling into a flag
qxl - "Starting Windows" with wavering flag hangs indefinitely
virtio - "Starting Windows" with wavering flag hangs indefinitely

[Laszlo Ersek (lacos-ludens)]

supposed to be fixed by <http://git.qemu.org/?p=qemu.git;a=commit;h=94ef4f337fb614f18b765a8e0e878a4c23cdedcd>, please confirm

[Aleksei Kovura (alex3kov)]

Running on latest git code a93c1bdf0bd4689287094ddb2aae3dc907da3535, DVD loads installation screen on everything except cirrus (same symptom). I don't really need cirrus, but I can test patches if you want.

[Laszlo Ersek (Red Hat) (lersek)]

The following combination:

- OVMF without the SeaBIOS CSM ("pure EFI" in Gerd's RPMs)
- Cirrus video card
- Windows 7 installer in the guest

has never been supported. The VBE Shim in OVMF works on stdvga and QXL only. This is documented; please refer to OvmfPkg/README, section "UEFI Windows 7 & Windows 2008 Server".

According to your results, stuff works on latest QEMU, in all configurations that are expected to be functional. Gerd CC'd <email address hidden> on his patch referenced above, so I guess it will be part of 2.6.1, whenever it is released. I'm closing this with fix committed. Thanks.

[Gannet (ken20001)]

The same thing. Qemu 2.5 and no possibility to install Windows 7 on OVMF, no possibility to install Windows 7 with QXL video. This is something terrible. Several hours I'm trying to install it but only on BIOS and with Cirrus video. What Qemu version will be fixed?

[Aleksei Kovura (alex3kov)]

@Gannet I've built latest qemu from git just to get through installation, after that everything runs fine on 2.6.0. It's easy enough http://wiki.qemu.org/Hosts/Linux#Simple_build_and_test

[Saverio Miroddi (saveriomiroddi)]

Fails on my machine, even with the HEAD of master as of today (5d3217340adcb6c4f0e4af5d2b865331eb2ff63d).

Simplest configuration:

    cp $MY_BIOS $MY_BIOS_TMP; ./qemu-system-x86_64 \
      -drive if=pflash,format=raw,readonly,file=$MY_BIOS \
      -drive if=pflash,format=raw,file=$MY_BIOS_TMP \
      -enable-kvm \
      -m 3072 \
      -cpu host,kvm=off -smp 4,sockets=1,cores=4 \
      -cdrom $MY_WINDOWS_CD
    ;

Hangs on "Starting Windows".