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Building Windows 10 with GitHub Actions

My goal was to use GitHub Actions to build Windows 10 images... but have been running into some issues...

Using QEMU Builder

QEMU Builder Docs:

  • https://developer.hashicorp.com/packer/integrations/hashicorp/qemu/latest/components/builder/qemu
  • https://www.qemu.org/docs/master/system/index.html
  • https://wiki.qemu.org/Documentation
  • https://qemu.weilnetz.de/doc/9.0/index.html
  • https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/QEMU/Options
Use virt-install instead of qemu?

See https://askubuntu.com/questions/1181765/qemu-system-x86-64-property-md-clear-not-found

QEMU Builder Logging

Add -serial file:./qemu-output.log to the qemu_args or to the command. Otherwise, add -D qemu-debug.log to the qemu_args or to the command.

References:

  • https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/QEMU/Monitor#log
  • https://stackoverflow.com/questions/72375049/logging-as-many-info-as-possible-using-qemu-system
  • https://askubuntu.com/questions/1393012/ubuntu-qemu-display-output-to-logfile
  • https://superuser.com/questions/269228/write-qemu-booting-virtual-machine-output-to-a-file
  • https://cpolizzi.github.io/podman/enabling-qemu-cli-monitoring-and-logging.html
  • https://stackoverflow.com/questions/57282462/how-to-enable-kvm-qemu-logs

Articles/blogs about building VMs with QEMU and KVM

  • https://raphtlw.medium.com/how-to-set-up-a-kvm-qemu-windows-10-vm-ca1789411760
    • Setup a Windows 10 VM with QEMU and KVM
  • https://www.tecmint.com/install-qemu-kvm-ubuntu-create-virtual-machines/
    • How to Install QEMU/KVM on Ubuntu to Create Virtual Machines
  • Install and Use Qemu on Ubuntu
    • https://itsfoss.com/qemu-ubuntu/
  • How to create Windows installation ISO with built-in VirtIO drivers
    • https://portal.nutanix.com/page/documents/kbs/details?targetId=kA00e000000bt28CAA
Questions about building VMs with QEMU and KVM
  • https://superuser.com/questions/1057959/windows-10-in-kvm-change-boot-disk-to-virtio
    • Windows 10 in KVM: change boot disk to Virtio

Win10 Build Issue Tracking

This is a list of the known issues related to building Windows 10 images...

QEMU Builder Known issues

QEMU Builder Known issues:

  • https://github.com/hashicorp/packer/issues/10223
    • When using qemu "disk_image: true", packer tries to open output file twice and fails
  • https://github.com/hashicorp/packer-plugin-qemu/issues/168
    • QEMU packer build is unable to start the windows OS ISO
    • Opened on March 19, 2024 and is still open
    • Overview: When trying to run the qemu packer build to build windows 2022 image, it is not recognizing the iso and it is struck at the BIOS only.
  • https://github.com/hashicorp/packer-plugin-qemu/issues/144
    • Qemu not launching VNC Viewer to connect to VM even with explicit setting 'headless = false'
    • Opened on June 10, 2023 and is still open
    • Overview: Qemu is not launching the user VNC Viewer automatically on my Macs. The docs on this page for the headless setting implies that it should be launching the vncviewer unless headless = true: https://developer.hashicorp.com/packer/plugins/builders/qemu I've set headless = false explicitly in the packer config and it still doesn't start the user VNC Viewer.
  • https://github.com/hashicorp/packer-plugin-qemu/issues/131
    • net_bridge and WinRM communicator
    • Opened on March 16, 2023 and is still open
    • Overview: When defining a net_bridge and using the WinRM communicator, some unexpected things happen.
  • https://github.com/hashicorp/packer-plugin-qemu/issues/85
    • QEMU builder unable to bring up builder VM for windows server ISO
    • This was closed as completed on September 28, 2022
    • Overview: I am currently attempting to use the QEMU builder to build a basic windows 10 image but it seems that whenever it attempts to build it just ends immediately...

Using the cdrom and disk

There might be an issue accessing the ISO and virtio drivers...

  • https://github.com/hashicorp/packer-plugin-qemu/issues/136
  • https://github.com/hashicorp/packer-plugin-qemu/issues/35
  • https://github.com/hashicorp/packer/issues/10211
  • https://github.com/hashicorp/packer/issues/10280

Testing the ISO

According to https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/quick-docs/qemu/#testing-iso-images, we should be able to test an ISO by running: 

qemu-system-x86_64 -m 512M -cdrom ./virtio-win-0.1.248.iso

When attempting to run qemu-system-x86_64 -m 512M -cdrom ./virtio-win-0.1.248.iso in the runner, we get the following: 

  gtk initialization failed
  Error: Process completed with exit code 1.

Links about testing an ISO - https://www.kubuntuforums.net/forum/general/documentation/knowledge-base/663368-test-a-bootable-iso-cdrom-or-usb-stick-using-qemu

error: gtk initialization failed

  gtk initialization failed
  Error: Process completed with exit code 1.

Issues related to the gtk initialization failed error:

  • https://discuss.hashicorp.com/t/qemu-gtk-initialization-error-ubuntu-22-04/39397
  • https://github.com/hashicorp/packer/issues/10211
  • https://github.com/sickcodes/Docker-OSX/issues/445
  • https://github.com/sickcodes/Docker-OSX/issues/517

Other links about the gtk initialization failed error:

  • https://forum.osdev.org/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=56325

QEMU documentation:

  • https://web.archive.org/web/20200304204518/https://qemu.weilnetz.de/doc/qemu-doc.html
  • https://www.qemu.org/docs/master/system/bootindex.html
  • https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/QEMU/Options

Run qemu in the command line

  • https://ostechnix.com/setup-headless-virtualization-server-using-kvm-ubuntu/
  • https://stackoverflow.com/questions/6710555/how-to-use-qemu-to-run-a-non-gui-os-on-the-terminal
  • https://stackoverflow.com/questions/68512608/how-to-run-headless-qemu-without-libvirt-on-a-remote-ubuntu-debian-linux-server
  • https://stackoverflow.com/questions/49716931/how-to-run-qemu-with-nographic-and-monitor-but-still-be-able-to-send-ctrlc-to
  • https://www.baeldung.com/linux/qemu-from-terminal

Debugging and testing

  • https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/quick-docs/virtualization-howto-debug-issues/
  • https://www.linux-kvm.org/page/WindowsGuestDrivers/UpdatedGuestDebugging
  • https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/quick-docs/qemu/#testing-iso-images

Building a VM

Other links about building a VM using KVM:

  • https://www.reddit.com/r/linuxquestions/comments/tlwc1e/kvmqemu_how_to_create_a_vm_on_a_headless_setup/
  • https://serverfault.com/questions/434064/correct-way-to-move-kvm-vm
  • https://ostechnix.com/setup-headless-virtualization-server-using-kvm-ubuntu/
  • https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/11ruj9u/creating_a_qemu_windows_10_vm_on_linux/
  • https://askubuntu.com/questions/1293497/help-setting-up-a-windows-vm-with-qemu-kvm
  • https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=277584
  • https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=274354
  • https://futurewei-cloud.github.io/ARM-Datacenter/qemu/how-to-launch-aarch64-vm/

Building a VM with virt-install

  • https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_enterprise_linux/7/html/virtualization_deployment_and_administration_guide/sect-guest_virtual_machine_installation_overview-creating_guests_with_virt_install
  • https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_enterprise_linux/7/html/virtualization_deployment_and_administration_guide/sect-guest_virtual_machine_installation_overview-creating_guests_with_virt_install#sect-Guest_virtual_machine_installation_from_ISO_image