[SUCCESS] Virtualize Windows 10 for ARM on M1 with Alexander Graf's qemu hypervisor patch

[Susurs]

All the settings and changes during the setup are made within the VHDX file as far as I understand, right? There are no files / folders created outside the VHDX and besides the AVCM app itself?

 

[netkas]

Is there any way to enable at least FHD resolution?

[SUCCESS] Virtualize Windows 10 for ARM on M1 with Alexander Graf's qemu hypervisor patch

Great idea, getting full res via rdp need to change network to this option to allow rdp bypass into vm -nic user,model=virtio,hostfwd=tcp::3389-:3389,hostfwd=udp::3389-:3389

forums.macrumors.com

then microsoft remote desktop
native resolution of your screen will be provided.

 

[Javi74]

Go to System Preferences->Security & Privacy. Make sure you are on the General tab. Click on the button to allow the app. Because of libraries you may have to do this several times. Just keep going, it will work eventually.

Thanks.

 

[Javi74]

sudo xattr -r -d com.apple.quarantine /path/to/MyApp.app

is your friend

Thanks.

 

[supak111]

Hey can you explain this a bit more? I get success after running the command but I still can't install driver after a restart

 

[supak111]

“bcdedid -set ...” succeeded, however for some reason there was still error for signed drivers for network.

As an alternative I tried restarting by pressing the shift key (on screen keyboard), “Choose an Option”, “Troubleshoot”, “Advanced Options, “Startup Settings”, “Restart” and pressed 7 to disable driver signature enforcement. That worked and network driver installed fine.

P.S. Just for testing - I got 1494 SC and 4765 MC score with 4 cores / 4GB in Geekbench 5

Never mind I got it to go into Test Mode. I started win10, ran bcdedit -set.... left that win10 running, stared another one in the terminal before quitting the first one and it worked.

 

[kupan787]

I've opened an issue for ACVM on github to fix the resolution issue. If we are lucky it will get patched

Screen Resolution change not saved across restarts · Issue #7 · KhaosT/ACVM

When starting QEMU you can click esc to enter the boot menu to change the resolution to 1024x768. After a reboot it will change the resolution accordingly. I think the partition for efi variables i...

github.com

I just submitted a pull request to resolve this.

create a plfash image to store nvram by ubenmackin · Pull Request #12 · KhaosT/ACVM

Rudimentary nvram file creation. To solve #7. Checks if there is a file called DISK_IMAGE.nvram. If it doesn't exist, create it using the included qemu-img. If it does exist, just continue on.

github.com

 

[supak111]

I also get a automatic repair boot loop after a while.. not sure why and can not get back into win10

 

[kupan787]

I just submitted a pull request to resolve this.

create a plfash image to store nvram by ubenmackin · Pull Request #12 · KhaosT/ACVM

Rudimentary nvram file creation. To solve #7. Checks if there is a file called DISK_IMAGE.nvram. If it doesn't exist, create it using the included qemu-img. If it does exist, just continue on.

github.com

So I've been playing with the source some more, and am working on throwing together a quick little VM Manager.

I'm going to add in the ability to use qemu-img to create a blank RAW or qcow disk from the configuration screen.

Anything else that'd be worth adding in as well? I'll get this all packaged up and submitted as a pull request tomorrow or Wednesday (depending on day job). I've done some basic testing so far, and it seems to work ok.

 

[UCDHIUS]

So I've been playing with the source some more, and am working on throwing together a quick little VM Manager.

View attachment 1689947 View attachment 1689950

I'm going to add in the ability to use qemu-img to create a blank RAW or qcow disk from the configuration screen.

Anything else that'd be worth adding in as well? I'll get this all packaged up and submitted as a pull request tomorrow or Wednesday (depending on day job). I've done some basic testing so far, and it seems to work ok.

That's amazing !

 

[Susurs]

So I've been playing with the source some more, and am working on throwing together a quick little VM Manager.

View attachment 1689947 View attachment 1689950

I'm going to add in the ability to use qemu-img to create a blank RAW or qcow disk from the configuration screen.

Anything else that'd be worth adding in as well? I'll get this all packaged up and submitted as a pull request tomorrow or Wednesday (depending on day job). I've done some basic testing so far, and it seems to work ok.

Thank you!

Will there be a possibility to change screen resolution?

 

[netkas]

Thank you!

Will there be a possibility to change screen resolution?

you can do that within virtual machine in case of ubuntu + virtio=gpu

 

[MrMacintoshBlog]

So I've been playing with the source some more, and am working on throwing together a quick little VM Manager.

View attachment 1689947 View attachment 1689950

I'm going to add in the ability to use qemu-img to create a blank RAW or qcow disk from the configuration screen.

Anything else that'd be worth adding in as well? I'll get this all packaged up and submitted as a pull request tomorrow or Wednesday (depending on day job). I've done some basic testing so far, and it seems to work ok.

Oh this is great!

How about drive options like what UTM uses? Maybe the ability to add a drive or a shared disk? Also it looks like UTM is the only app that will allow you to do full screen with the window. (I know we can use RDP) but would be nice just to hit the green full screen button.

 

[Gnattu]

Also it looks like UTM is the only app that will allow you to do full screen with the window. (I know we can use RDP) but would be nice just to hit the green full screen button.

UTM is using SPICE as display and heavily patched it to use it with Cocoa, but ACVM is using qemu's built-in Cocoa display. qemu's built-in Cocoa does not support native full screen, but the UTM's implementation does, that's why we can use native full screen on UTM. To implement a full front end of display is somehow out of the scope as ACVM is just a GUI wrapper, not meant to be an all-in-one virtualization solution.

If you are booting Linux, you can set your virtual gpu to virtio, and press command+f when your host has the keyboard to toggle fullscreen, then just change the resolution in the VM to match your screen. Windows can only use a framebuffer device but not the virtio gpu and you are locked to 1024x768 because of that, which makes full-screen meaningless.

How about drive options like what UTM uses? Maybe the ability to add a drive or a shared disk?

I think he mentioned the ability to add a disk using qemu-img.

 

[Gnattu]

Thank you!

Will there be a possibility to change screen resolution?

Because we do not have virtio-gpu driver on windows, we are locked on 1024x768 for now unless you use RDP.

 

[Gnattu]

I think there is an issue in nvme qemu driver, at least on macos/m1/hvf host and windows guest as we use it here. Sometimes I get corrupted files after shutdown/startup cycle, it also invokes disk check on boot pretty often. I am not doing anything that can specifically cause this.

I think it might be caused by the qemu's internal drive cache. The write-back cache may not work fine at current state, so use write-through might help:

-drive file=Windows10_InsiderPreview_Client_ARM64_en-us_20231.VHDX,if=none,cache=writethrough,id=NVME1 \

 

[Stromos]

I think it might be caused by the qemu's internal drive cache. The write-back cache may not work fine at current state, so use write-through might help:

-drive file=Windows10_InsiderPreview_Client_ARM64_en-us_20231.VHDX,if=none,cache=writethrough,id=NVME1 \

Is this workaround possible to use with the ACVM App? I keep ending up with a corrupt VHDX really quickly.

Anyone else seeing lost cores after reboots? Tried a fresh VHDX and it started up with 2 of 4 cores not starting in device manager (Object not found). Then after another reboot I was down to 1 core.

I'm just tinkering I am fasinated by all of this.

So in a more stable launch I loaded Steam and ran Unreal Tournament. It's amazing how the intro and everything ran with no lag whatsoever. The mouse is totally wonky in it but I got as far as launching a session just to see it work. Doom 3 and Quake 3 Arena both have OpenGL errors. Anyone know how to easily extend the VHDX file? I assume I could easily do it in Windows 10 but I am being lazy and having too much fun being on OS X again after a lot of years.

 

[Gnattu]

Anyone else seeing lost cores after reboots

This is a bug in qemu now

Is this workaround possible to use with the ACVM App?

I'm going to submit a pull request for this, so that it will be the default.

 

[Stromos]

This is a bug in qemu now


I'm going to submit a pull request for this, so that it will be the default.

Thanks I feel better now haha I was losing my mind trying to figure out what changed in the last couple days.

I was looking into the write cache thing you mentioned it looked like that was in the first release in GitHub.

Commits on Nov 30, 2020
Change disk caching type to cache=writethrough.
This works around an FS corruption issue on Windows builds 2023x.

 

[netkas]

Thanks I feel better now haha I was losing my mind trying to figure out what changed in the last couple days.

I was looking into the write cache thing you mentioned it looked like that was in the first release in GitHub.

Commits on Nov 30, 2020
Change disk caching type to cache=writethrough.
This works around an FS corruption issue on Windows builds 2023x.

Not sure it helps
Still saw firefox's files corruption once after started to use this cache option

 

[Gerdi]

Is this workaround possible to use with the ACVM App? I keep ending up with a corrupt VHDX really quickly.

Anyone else seeing lost cores after reboots? Tried a fresh VHDX and it started up with 2 of 4 cores not starting in device manager (Object not found). Then after another reboot I was down to 1 core.

I'm just tinkering I am fasinated by all of this.

So in a more stable launch I loaded Steam and ran Unreal Tournament. It's amazing how the intro and everything ran with no lag whatsoever. The mouse is totally wonky in it but I got as far as launching a session just to see it work. Doom 3 and Quake 3 Arena both have OpenGL errors. Anyone know how to easily extend the VHDX file? I assume I could easily do it in Windows 10 but I am being lazy and having too much fun being on OS X again after a lot of years.

Regarding OpenGL errors, there is an OpenGL/OpenCL compatibility pack from Microsoft in the App Store in particular for ARM devices. It provides OpenGL 3.3 compatibility, which make Doom3 and Quake 3 run on Windows ARM. Of course as long as there is no HW accelerated Direct3D12 driver on the Mac, this is without any HW acceleration.

VHDX files can be mapped as virtual drive under Windows. Not sure about MacOS.

 

[Stromos]

Regarding OpenGL errors, there is an OpenGL/OpenCL compatibility pack from Microsoft in the App Store in particular for ARM devices. It provides OpenGL 3.3 compatibility, which make Doom3 and Quake 3 run on Windows ARM. Of course as long as there is no HW accelerated Direct3D12 driver on the Mac, this is without any HW acceleration.

VHDX files can be mapped as virtual drive under Windows. Not sure about MacOS.

When it gets a bit more stable I’ll tinker more it’s purely for the damn even without hardware acceleration this stuff runs. I was shocked anything started at all.

 

[Susurs]

So I've been playing with the source some more, and am working on throwing together a quick little VM Manager.

View attachment 1689947 View attachment 1689950

I'm going to add in the ability to use qemu-img to create a blank RAW or qcow disk from the configuration screen.

Anything else that'd be worth adding in as well? I'll get this all packaged up and submitted as a pull request tomorrow or Wednesday (depending on day job). I've done some basic testing so far, and it seems to work ok.

How is it going with the project?

 

[kupan787]

How is it going with the project?

Sorry normal work has kept me busy.

I'll post what I have done thus far tonight.

EDIT: I just decided to post what I have done so far.

Release v1.0-5 · ubenmackin/ACVM

Added a first pass at a simple VM Manager

github.com

Changes:

• Updated QEMU to the latest v5.2 with patch set 4 (https://patchwork.kernel.org/project/qemu-devel/list/?submitter=185121)
• Added a VM manager
  • Added ability to create, edit, and delete vm configurations​
  • Added ability to create new disk images (either RAW or QCOW2 format). Right now this is accessed via the File menu.​
  • Added ability to start/stop multiple VMs​
• Incorporated the cache=writethrough for the main drive image

I have a lot to clean up visually, and move stuff around. This is may first time coding Swift, and I am learning as I go. I'm mainly doing this so that I can learn more about the language and have some fun. I'm open to suggestions.

I've done a handful of testing locally on my computer, and it seems to be working ok, but I do expect there to be bugs/issues.

 

[Nate Spencer]

I think it might be caused by the qemu's internal drive cache. The write-back cache may not work fine at current state, so use write-through might help:

-drive file=Windows10_InsiderPreview_Client_ARM64_en-us_20231.VHDX,if=none,cache=writethrough,id=NVME1 \

Having the same issue w/ UTM. Wonder if I can manually set that. I'm going to use qemu-img and upsize to 50GB anyway. I need to see if I can find a gparted for ARM or maybe the x86 will work work well enough to upsize the partition and NTFS vol.