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

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.
@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

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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