Install WinXP as a Q35 machine

[fpdragon]

Hello,

I had a hard time in my project in trying to create an virtualized testsetup that can be supported for many years.

As it came out, the common way to install a WinXP OS is to configure it as "pc-i440fx" machine and this works fine.
However I need to use one interface card to be passed through and there I have compatibility issues in that configuration. On a Win10 with Q35 I do know that the same card is working.

So one of the potential plans would be to install WinXP as Q35.
When I run an original WinXP SP3 setup disk in Q35 first the setup loads. I see the F6 message for loading additional drivers and afterwards the setup crashes in a blue screen and it says "incompatible ACPI" 0x0000007B.

I searched the web and there is some general information about QEMU and WinXP with the same error.
One stated that his problem has been solved by deactivating ACPI support at all. In my case this has not helped and the blue screen text has changed to something with wild things like "check for viruses" and "chkdsk". The hard disk ist at this state completely empty.
Others internet reports were more cryptic and I have no idea what they were writing about. I guess they patched the QEMU source code or so.

So my questions:

Does WinXP with Q35 make sense at all? As far as I understood, it should be working but due to a bug it isn't.

Is there a way to get WinXP running in Q35?

Maybe there is an updated slipstreamed version of the WinXP setup disk with additional ACPI drivers?

Why does deactivating the ACPI support still lead to a blue screen but with this strange error message.

Thanks a lot for every help.

 

[LnxBil]

virtualized testsetup that can be supported for many years.

With Windows XP? I would recommend to use your working Windows 10 or update to Windows 11 becauce Windows 10 will not be around for "many years".

 

[fpdragon]

With Windows XP? I would recommend to use your working Windows 10 or update to Windows 11 becauce Windows 10 will not be around for "many years".

That's not the question but in our case there is no correct choice for the OS since our projects run for 10th of years and we need to give support and keep our system available for delivering updates of our porducts, just in case.

The goal was to freeze the whole software environment including the OS in a VM and over the years we would be still able to upgrade and repair the HW with less effort and SW upgrade issues.

Just as an anecdote:
A few years ago I recycled the last Win 3.11 machines and also Win95 equipments will be end of mission in short. But for the future it would be much more elegant to handle such long time support cases in more encapsulated virtualized environment.
Porting an old Win95 test equipment to Win10 equals practically the full effort for a new development. So it totally makes sense to have an environment where you run old OSs even if they are outdated for the mainstream.

 

[fpdragon]

With Windows XP? I would recommend to use your working Windows 10 or update to Windows 11 becauce Windows 10 will not be around for "many years".

Oh and regards Win11.
I think Win11 will end in the same tradition as WinME, Vista, Win8: Most will skip it because the advantages does not overcome the disadvantages.
That's what statistics say and just what I think. Don't touch a running system. Especially in a secured offline lab environment.

 

[Kingneutron]

I suggest you try other hypervisors, Proxmox may not be the best candidate for this.

 

[alexskysilk]

Does WinXP with Q35 make sense at all?

No.

Is there a way to get WinXP running in Q35?

Probably yes so long as you set it to bios boot mode.

Maybe there is an updated slipstreamed version of the WinXP setup disk with additional ACPI drivers?

To what end? Whats the use case for this anyway?

 

[fpdragon]

No.

Probably yes so long as you set it to bios boot mode.


To what end? Whats the use case for this anyway?

WHY not?

If it would just that easy.

The usecase is to be able to use an existing software environment made for WinXP for several years without any problem to buy and fix broken hardware at any point. As I wrote in one of the posts before. But that's not the question. The question is how to get WinXP running with Q35?

 

[fpdragon]

I suggest you try other hypervisors, Proxmox may not be the best candidate for this.

Do you have experience in this?

Which one could you recommend?

I was thinking of making a test with HyperV since ESXI is going to other directions regards price policy and support.
But up to now I was not that sure how promissing this try would be.

 

[alexskysilk]

The usecase is to be able to use an existing software environment made for WinXP for several years without any problem to buy and fix broken hardware at any point.

There is no utility that q35 hardware emulation provides a windows xp guest. If your software works on windows xp, it will work regardless of the virtual hardware presented. Thats also the answer to your first question.

 

[Kingneutron]

Vmware Workstation would be one, Virtualbox is another. Both run on Linux, OSX/MacOS and Win

Worst-case scenario you might try qemu, but performance would likely not be the best

 

[LnxBil]

... and in addition to all of that: buy real old hardware for XP and run it with an SSD and have disk-images available. You may need to be a disk jockey.

Otherwise you need to be or to hire a developer that fixes all your problems in a self-made windows xp driver. Even then, I don't know if hardware passthrough is going to fly with Windows XP, even newer Windowses <10 may have problems with that.

 

[fpdragon]

Thanks for the answers.

I guess I have to accept that WinXP can't be Q35. At least at that state.