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How to run Windows 11 on ARM in QEMU 6.1 on Apple Silicon Mac
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readme.en.md

How to run Windows 11 on ARM in QEMU 6.1 on Apple Silicon Mac

  1. Follow the excellent gist here, up to and including step 7 : https://gist.github.com/niw/e4313b9c14e968764a52375da41b4278

  2. I converted my VHDX to qcow2 - I doubt if that's significant, but YMMV:

./qemu-img convert -p -O qcow2 ~/Windows11_InsiderPreview_Client_ARM64_en-us__22454-orig.VHDX Windows11.img
  1. Run qemu with a slightly modified command-line. It may not be the most efficient, but it worked for me:
./qemu-system-aarch64 \
  -monitor stdio \
  -M virt,highmem=off \
  -accel hvf \
  -cpu host \
  -smp 8 \
  -m 8192 \
  -drive file=pflash0.img,format=raw,if=pflash,readonly=on  \
  -drive file=pflash1.img,format=raw,if=pflash \
  -device ramfb \
  -device qemu-xhci \
  -device usb-kbd  \
  -device usb-tablet \
  -device intel-hda \
  -device hda-duplex  \
  -nic user,model=virtio  \
  -drive file=Windows11.img,format=qcow2,if=none,id=boot \
  -device nvme,drive=boot,serial=boot \
  -boot c \
  -drive file=spice-guest-tools-0.164.iso,media=cdrom,if=none,id=drivers \
  -device usb-storage,drive=drivers
  1. Boot Windows and run the spice tool setup to install drivers to enable NICs, etc.
@brandonros
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image

qemu-system-aarch64 \
  -monitor stdio \
  -M virt,highmem=off \
  -accel hvf \
  -cpu host \
  -smp 4 \
  -m 4096 \
  -bios /opt/homebrew/Cellar/qemu/6.2.0/share/qemu/edk2-aarch64-code.fd \
  -device ramfb \
  -device qemu-xhci \
  -device usb-kbd  \
  -device usb-tablet \
  -device intel-hda \
  -device hda-duplex  \
  -nic user,model=virtio  \
  -drive file=~/Downloads/Windows11_InsiderPreview_Client_ARM64_en-us_22523.qcow2,format=qcow2,if=none,id=boot \
  -device nvme,drive=boot,serial=boot \
  -boot c 

 $ uname -a
Darwin Brandons-MacBook-Air.local 21.2.0 Darwin Kernel Version 21.2.0: Sun Nov 28 20:29:10 PST 2021; root:xnu-8019.61.5~1/RELEASE_ARM64_T8101 arm64

$ qemu-system-aarch64 --version
QEMU emulator version 6.2.0
Copyright (c) 2003-2021 Fabrice Bellard and the QEMU Project developers

@sergiyd
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sergiyd commented Jan 27, 2022

@brandonros were you able to handle it? I have the same issue.

@brandonros
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@sergiyd utmapp/UTM#3194 (comment)

@sergiyd
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sergiyd commented Jan 28, 2022

@brandonros thanks!

@PaSaSaP
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PaSaSaP commented Feb 2, 2022

I am trying to start Win11 using Windows11_InsiderPreview_Client_ARM64_en-us_22533.VHDX official image but I have some problems:

  • I cannot pass more than 3072 (3G) RAM memory (-m parameter)
  • qemu-system-aarch64 patched with agraf/qemu@e8ffde9
  • First window that shows is to set language/keyboard/timezone, then there is window about no internet connection with "Next" button but when clicking on that button then after ~15 minutes "First window" shows again…

QEMU was built with:
../configure --target-list=aarch64-softmmu,x86_64-softmmu,i386-softmmu --enable-cocoa

The command I use:

../qemu/patched/qemu-system-aarch64 \
  -monitor stdio \
  -M virt,highmem=off \
  -accel hvf \
  -cpu host \
  -smp 4 \
  -m 3G \
  -drive file=pflash0.img,format=raw,if=pflash,readonly=on  \
  -drive file=pflash1.img,format=raw,if=pflash \
  -device ramfb \
  -device qemu-xhci \
  -device usb-kbd  \
  -device usb-tablet \
  -device intel-hda \
  -device hda-duplex  \
  -nic user,model=virtio  \
  -drive file=Windows11.qcow2,format=qcow2,if=none,id=boot \
  -device nvme,drive=boot,serial=boot \
  -boot c

image

If PC uses WiFi - connect to WiFi network, but if PC does not use WiFi then insert network cable. So… without internet connection nothing can be done? What am I missing? And why can I only put max 3GB of RAM?

@bzuruce
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bzuruce commented Jan 12, 2023 •
edited

Just stuck at guest did not initialize screen yet.
Code:


qemu-system-aarch64 \
  -monitor stdio \
  -M virt \
  -accel hvf \
  -cpu host \
  -smp 8 \
  -m 8192 \
  -drive file=pflash0.img,format=raw,if=pflash,readonly=on  \
  -drive file=pflash1.img,format=raw,if=pflash \
  -device ramfb \
  -device qemu-xhci \
  -device usb-kbd  \
  -device usb-tablet \
  -device intel-hda \
  -device hda-duplex  \
  -nic user,model=virtio  \
  -drive file=Windows11.img,format=qcow2,if=none,id=boot \
  -device nvme,drive=boot,serial=boot \
  -boot c \
  -drive file=spice-guest-tools-0.164.iso,media=cdrom,if=none,id=drivers \
  -device usb-storage,drive=drivers

highmem caused another error

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