Bringing up a Win10 VM on Fedora 28 Cinnamon Desktop
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I finally have, in my opinion, a very clean, stable, and workable Linux desktop installed on my laptop that I'm very happy with: Fedora 25 Cinnamon Desktop. Using the native KVM and QEMU (virt-manager), a nice and speedy Win10 VM (IT-specific Image) running to do my work at work. When Fedora 26 is out and stable, I'll be upgrading for sure!
I PXE booted and installed my VM via an WDS server on the network, but I'm sure everything will work just find if you install from .iso.
For future reference, I'm posting my basic steps here.
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Install Fedora Cinnamon Desktop
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Upgrade everything, then reboot:
sudo dnf upgrade -
Install the virtualization stuff:
sudo dnf groupinstall virtualization
sudo dnf install qemu-img libvirt libvirt-python libvirt-client
==================== BEGIN virtio drivers install instructions ====================================
The below instructions explain how to install the virtio drivers. It is better to install Spice Tools, but here are the steps anyways:
- Configure the virtio drivers repo:
sudo wget https://fedorapeople.org/groups/virt/virtio-win/virtio-win.repo -O /etc/yum.repos.d/virtio-win.repo - If you want to (I did) enable latest:
sudo dnf --enablerepo=virtio-win-latest upgrade virtio-win - Install the drivers .iso:
sudo dnf install virtio-win - Mount the following .iso to a cd drive on your VM. You will need to shutdown or restart your VM if it's already running:
/usr/share/virtio-win/virtio-win.iso - In the Windows guest VM, copy all contents of the cdrom (probably D:) to a new folder on your
drive.
I used C:\drivers\ - In the Win10 guest, run the following command to automatically comb through and install/upgrade all relevant drivers:
pnputil /add-driver c:\drivers\*.inf /subdirs /install
==================== END virtio drivers install instructions ====================================
- Install SPICE Guest Tools inside of Windows VM. (thanks @coliver)
https://www.spice-space.org/download/windows/spice-guest-tools/spice-guest-tools-latest.exe - Reboot VM.
Reference Links:
RedHat 10.2. Installing the Drivers on an Installed Windows Guest Virtual Machine
https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/6/html/Virtualization_Host_Configuration_and_Guest_Installation_Guide/form-Virtualization_Host_Configuration_and_Guest_Installation_Guide-Para_virtualized_drivers-Mounting_the_image_with_virt_manager.htmlClassroom on using Libvirt
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Introduction_to_libvirt_(20090503_Classroom)Getting started with virtualization
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Getting_started_with_virtualization -
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Here's the beta screenshot:
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Do you find pinning things to the start menu helpful instead of typing something into cortana?
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@Dashrender said in Bringing up a Win10 VM on Fedora 25 Cinnamon Desktop:
Do you find pinning things to the start menu helpful instead of typing something into cortana?
Cortana was so bad when Windows 10 released, it's the first thing I get rid of on the start menu bar. Have they improved it much since release?
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@Dashrender said in Bringing up a Win10 VM on Fedora 25 Cinnamon Desktop:
Do you find pinning things to the start menu helpful instead of typing something into cortana?
It looks like that in the default image, but I pin my most used things on the task bar, and the less used things in the start menu.
But yes, it seems more helpful and simple to hit start and click the icon I want.
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I rarely see my desktop, so desktop icons are completely useless to me.
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@travisdh1 said in Bringing up a Win10 VM on Fedora 25 Cinnamon Desktop:
@Dashrender said in Bringing up a Win10 VM on Fedora 25 Cinnamon Desktop:
Do you find pinning things to the start menu helpful instead of typing something into cortana?
Cortana was so bad when Windows 10 released, it's the first thing I get rid of on the start menu bar. Have they improved it much since release?
Yeah I remove it from my task bar too. That screen shot is just the default sysprepped image right after deployment.
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@Tim_G said in Bringing up a Win10 VM on Fedora 25 Cinnamon Desktop:
I rarely see my desktop, so desktop icons are completely useless to me.
Don't disagree with you there. But clicking Cortana then typing a few characters of what you're looking for, then hit enter seems better than looking for an icon in that mass of icons.
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@travisdh1 said in Bringing up a Win10 VM on Fedora 25 Cinnamon Desktop:
@Dashrender said in Bringing up a Win10 VM on Fedora 25 Cinnamon Desktop:
Do you find pinning things to the start menu helpful instead of typing something into cortana?
Cortana was so bad when Windows 10 released, it's the first thing I get rid of on the start menu bar. Have they improved it much since release?
I rarely customize my setup these days. Mostly so I don't forget "the norm" when working on someone else's computer, and frankly the customization rarely is overly beneficial.
Though I do pin my own most commonly used things to the task bar.
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Same here, I run things very stock no matter what the platform.
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Did you install the SPICE drivers for Windows 10? It fixes issues with copy and paste as well as provides dynamic cursor capture.
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I'm using Korora as the base OS on my Lenovo laptop. It's actually been significantly more stable then Windows 10. Granted I've only been using it for a week.
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@coliver said in Bringing up a Win10 VM on Fedora 25 Cinnamon Desktop:
I'm using Korora as the base OS on my Lenovo laptop. It's actually been significantly more stable then Windows 10.
Pretty low bar there.
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@Dashrender said in Bringing up a Win10 VM on Fedora 25 Cinnamon Desktop:
@Tim_G said in Bringing up a Win10 VM on Fedora 25 Cinnamon Desktop:
I rarely see my desktop, so desktop icons are completely useless to me.
Don't disagree with you there. But clicking Cortana then typing a few characters of what you're looking for, then hit enter seems better than looking for an icon in that mass of icons.
I go both ways. If it's not pinned on my task bar, I will do it either way depending on what I'm doing:
If both hands are on keyboard, I'll hit the windows key to bring up start and start typing what I want.
If I'm using the mouse, I'll hit the windows key to bring up start and click what I want, rather than bringing over my other hand to start typing. -
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@coliver said in Bringing up a Win10 VM on Fedora 25 Cinnamon Desktop:
Did you install the SPICE drivers for Windows 10? It fixes issues with copy and paste as well as provides dynamic cursor capture.
Are the SPICE drivers something I would install in addition to all the stuff in the virtio-win.iso? I haven't done anything with those SPICE drivers.
Asking because when I'm in full screen mode, I can't even tell I'm on a VM.
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@Tim_G said in Bringing up a Win10 VM on Fedora 25 Cinnamon Desktop:
@coliver said in Bringing up a Win10 VM on Fedora 25 Cinnamon Desktop:
Did you install the SPICE drivers for Windows 10? It fixes issues with copy and paste as well as provides dynamic cursor capture.
Are the SPICE drivers something I would install in addition to all the stuff in the virtio-win.iso? I haven't done anything with those SPICE drivers.
Asking because when I'm in full screen mode, I can't even tell I'm on a VM.
Yes, the SPICE drivers would be in addtion. If you're in full screen don't worry about it but the SPICE drivers make it much easier to work between Windows and Fedora.
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@coliver said in Bringing up a Win10 VM on Fedora 25 Cinnamon Desktop:
@Tim_G said in Bringing up a Win10 VM on Fedora 25 Cinnamon Desktop:
@coliver said in Bringing up a Win10 VM on Fedora 25 Cinnamon Desktop:
Did you install the SPICE drivers for Windows 10? It fixes issues with copy and paste as well as provides dynamic cursor capture.
Are the SPICE drivers something I would install in addition to all the stuff in the virtio-win.iso? I haven't done anything with those SPICE drivers.
Asking because when I'm in full screen mode, I can't even tell I'm on a VM.
Yes, the SPICE drivers would be in addtion. If you're in full screen don't worry about it but the SPICE drivers make it much easier to work between Windows and Fedora.
I noticed that in the VM settings, the Display already says "Display Spice". Does that mean they are already installed?
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@Tim_G said in Bringing up a Win10 VM on Fedora 25 Cinnamon Desktop:
@coliver said in Bringing up a Win10 VM on Fedora 25 Cinnamon Desktop:
@Tim_G said in Bringing up a Win10 VM on Fedora 25 Cinnamon Desktop:
@coliver said in Bringing up a Win10 VM on Fedora 25 Cinnamon Desktop:
Did you install the SPICE drivers for Windows 10? It fixes issues with copy and paste as well as provides dynamic cursor capture.
Are the SPICE drivers something I would install in addition to all the stuff in the virtio-win.iso? I haven't done anything with those SPICE drivers.
Asking because when I'm in full screen mode, I can't even tell I'm on a VM.
Yes, the SPICE drivers would be in addtion. If you're in full screen don't worry about it but the SPICE drivers make it much easier to work between Windows and Fedora.
I noticed that in the VM settings, the Display already says "Display Spice". Does that mean they are already installed?
I don't believe so, but that could be. It doesn't come pre-installed and isn't part of the virtio iso that I'm aware of.
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@Tim_G I believe that if you get this SPICE driver installed inside windows then you get clipboard copy paste portability and such.
