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I have Ubuntu 20.04 server as my host machine and QEMU-KVM v6.0.0 as hypervisor. I created simple virtual machine configuration using SATA storage and successfully installed Windows 7 SP1 64 bit. After this all manuals suggest to add temporary virtio disk, get Windows 7 to install necessary drivers and then switch to new disk type.

I downloaded a set of latest stable drivers from https://fedorapeople.org/groups/virt/virtio-win/direct-downloads/archive-virtio/, attached a downloaded image file to virtual machine and attempted to install drivers.

Nothing worked at all. Windows 7 successfully identifies driver files as being signed by Red Hat Inc., however it refuses to load drivers because it is unable to verify digital signature until any trusted root certificates.

I might be able to sacrifice some disk IO performance, I might not need to run virtual machine at absolute maximum IO speeds, but exactly the same situation is observed with 3 other devices, exported from hypervisor: graphics, ACPI, memory manager and something else...

I might be missing something, since even this post on this site suggest to install drivers for Windows 10 from the same location and Windows 7 and Windows 10 are no different in regard with driver signatures.

How to properly configure Virt-Manager (QEMU/KVM) with Windows guest

Please, help.

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  • Is this not a windows question?
    – David
    Jan 24, 2021 at 5:39
  • @David QEMU-KVM is the best VM software that I have ever used, but it hasn't reached many users yet do partly to its incomplete documentation. I don't regard this question as a Windows question.
    – karel
    Jan 24, 2021 at 9:02
  • For me, the wizard says the minimum OS is windows 8 or server 2012, even with the older version that was provided. Is there any workaround for this?
    – moonboi
    Feb 26, 2023 at 11:23
  • @David Emulating windows is a very common use case on ubuntu systems. Of course it would be yet better if it would not be needed.
    – peterh
    Jan 29 at 21:42
  • Your comment to me adds no value to the question and I find to be quite rude. It is also 3 years after the fact. What was the purpose of this?
    – David
    Jan 30 at 17:14

4 Answers 4

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There are signed and unsigned drivers available on fedorapeople.org. It is possible to install signed drivers only. However, there is a small issue. Several root certificates, included in Windows installer expired recently. Because of this Windows 7 installer is not able to verify latest releases of drivers, since corresponding root certificate is only available after update.

This way the easiest solution is to install a copy of Windows 7 SP1 using virtualized SATA HDD and later change it to virtio after series of necessary updates.

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You need to use a different version of virtio drivers, for example, 173-9 (https://fedorapeople.org/groups/virt/virtio-win/direct-downloads/archive-virtio/virtio-win-0.1.173-9/virtio-win-0.1.173.iso).

At this moment, the latest version of virtio drivers (204-1) isn't recognized by Windows 7 as signed during installation, and therefore can't be used. (The answer by Paul Vetrov has an explanation for it, although I'm not qualified to say if it's correct.) However, earlier versions are recognized and do work! For example, I was able to use versions 160-1 and 173-9. Version 185-1 (the next one after 173-9) didn't work, and I assume that all versions between 185-1 and 204-1 don't work, too.

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    173-9 Says I need Windows 8 or newer, 173-1 worked but I didn't try newer
    – EkriirkE
    Aug 9, 2021 at 8:26
  • @EkriirkE Where does it say Windows 8 or newer? Regardless, all virtio-win ISOs that I looked at do contain directories for Windows 7 (called w7 or WIN7 or maybe something other) with appropriate drivers in it. And I'm currently running the 173-9 drivers under Windows 7.
    – pvgoran
    Aug 10, 2021 at 9:23
  • It does indeed say windows 8 or later Windows version required when run installer. Although there are win7 and xp driver folders. XP somhow install those drivers more successfully compared to win7, using device manager.
    – lrd
    Aug 13, 2021 at 13:09
  • I see. I wasn't even aware there was an installer to begin with, I just used the device manager.
    – pvgoran
    Aug 14, 2021 at 17:36
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    @EkriirkE, @pvgoran, latest supported for win7: 0.1.173-4. I tested.
    – don Rumata
    Aug 20, 2021 at 21:22
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I recommand 0.1.173-9 too. Check my test for reasons.

https://github.com/virtio-win/virtio-win-pkg-scripts/issues/40#issuecomment-1565538797

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  • This is a Ubuntu site. We won't answer Windows questions
    – kanehekili
    May 30, 2023 at 23:29
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My experience was this:

  1. Installing the guest tools (from the iso root directory) did not work with any version above 173-1. It said, it can not start "vdservice", I do not know what might it be. Maybe "virtual directory service", in this case, I could have solved it by not installing directory sharing.
  2. I could install the network driver (from the NetKVM directory) from 173-4. But it was a manual installation.
  3. 173-1 has no guest tools in the cd root directory.

Packing these together, I believe, nothing works really well, already with 173, but it can be done by some extra clicks and thinking.

I had luck, I need nothing more than virtio-network, so I am fine. If I would need a really top-top virtal win7, my next try would be the latest before all the 173 releases.

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