No Network Adapter in fresh Windows Server after Upgrade to Proxmox 7

I have just had a similar problem and just managed to solve it. I am not sure if it is the same problem, but here is what i have done:

Important: I am no Expert and i don't know what i am doing. But it worked for me. You should really do a snapshot/backup before even thinking about trying this.

- Delete every folder beginning with "netkvm.inf_" in C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository
- Uninstall the driver in the device manager. You probably need to check the "remove driver files" - i have also done it.
- Now i could install the driver using the device manager without any problems.

This worked for me :)

Steps i have taken to come to this solution:
- Watch the MSI log with verbose logging enabled. (https://www.msigeek.com/715/how-to-troubleshoot-the-error-1603-fatal-error-during-installation) There it mentioned an "error 0x2" which is a generic "ERROR_FILE_NOT_FOUND". There was also a GUID mentioned in the logfile.
- After searching the GUID in process monitor during the installation process i found out that it was a registry key in HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\DIFxApp\Components\{GUID}
- The registry key was not present, so i created it. The installation still was not successful.
- After looking at the other GUID's i found out that they all had a key pointing to a file in "C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository" containing a device driver name. So i decided to remove the device driver name associated with the network driver, netkvm.
 
What works for me while using German versions:

- setting VM hardware to Q35 v6.0
- install of Windows Server as usual (load drivers from the second ISO/DVD virtual io 208)
- install qemu-agent and missing drivers after first boot to desktop
- shut down the VM and change VM hardware to Q35 v6.1
This drivers virtio-win-0.1.208.iso help on Windows 10 Pro German version to install, bacause with virtio-win-0.1.215 not work of any solutions.

Thank and hope help community
 
I guess this problem is not directly related to Proxmox nor virtio.

We are currently starting to use Proxmox as our virtualization platform. Until now, we mainly used RHEL/CentOS with plain KVM/QEMU+libvirt for traditional VM-Hosts with our own management tools. Therefore the following might be interesting:

I can report the same problems (German Windows Server 2019 with an non-functional NIC, error 56 on driver installation / driver installation timeout) on CentOS 8 Stream as well as using KVM/QEMU in an unprivileged session with Fedora 35 for Windows 10 20H2 with GNOME Boxes. This is true for e1000 as well as any other virtual NIC (like virtio).

But good news: At least on CentOS 8 Stream, the problem went away after the last bunch of updates and reinstalling VMs. Not reproducable now (as it was for months). Currently working with the following versions on Kernel 4.18.0-365.el8.x86_64:

Bash:
dnf info qemu-kvm libvirt virt-install virtio-win

Last metadata expiration check: 0:31:47 ago on Thu Mar 24 16:04:37 2022.
Installed Packages
Name         : libvirt
Version      : 8.0.0
Release      : 2.module_el8.6.0+1087+b42c8331
Architecture : x86_64
Size         : 0.0
Source       : libvirt-8.0.0-2.module_el8.6.0+1087+b42c8331.src.rpm
Repository   : @System
From repo    : appstream
Summary      : Library providing a simple virtualization API
URL          : https://libvirt.org/
License      : LGPLv2+
Description  : Libvirt is a C toolkit to interact with the virtualization capabilities
             : of recent versions of Linux (and other OSes). The main package includes
             : the libvirtd server exporting the virtualization support.

Name         : qemu-kvm
Epoch        : 15
Version      : 6.2.0
Release      : 5.module_el8.6.0+1087+b42c8331
Architecture : x86_64
Size         : 0.0
Source       : qemu-kvm-6.2.0-5.module_el8.6.0+1087+b42c8331.src.rpm
Repository   : @System
From repo    : appstream
Summary      : QEMU is a machine emulator and virtualizer
URL          : http://www.qemu.org/
License      : GPLv2 and GPLv2+ and CC-BY
Description  : qemu-kvm is an open source virtualizer that provides hardware
             : emulation for the KVM hypervisor. qemu-kvm acts as a virtual
             : machine monitor together with the KVM kernel modules, and emulates the
             : hardware for a full system such as a PC and its associated peripherals.

Name         : virt-install
Version      : 3.2.0
Release      : 3.el8
Architecture : noarch
Size         : 33 k
Source       : virt-manager-3.2.0-3.el8.src.rpm
Repository   : @System
From repo    : appstream
Summary      : Utilities for installing virtual machines
URL          : https://virt-manager.org/
License      : GPLv2+
Description  : Package includes several command line utilities, including virt-install
             : (build and install new VMs) and virt-clone (clone an existing virtual
             : machine).

Name         : virtio-win
Version      : 1.9.24
Release      : 2.el8_5
Architecture : noarch
Size         : 874 M
Source       : virtio-win-1.9.24-2.el8_5.src.rpm
Repository   : @System
From repo    : appstream
Summary      : VirtIO para-virtualized drivers for Windows(R)
URL          : http://www.redhat.com/
License      : Red Hat Proprietary and BSD-3-Clause and Apache and GPLv2
Description  : VirtIO para-virtualized Windows(R) drivers for 32-bit and 64-bit
             : Windows(R) guests.

Maybe the information that this bug does not seem to be realted to virtio or Proxmox helps a bit.
 
Last edited:
Hallo, mein Englisch ist schlecht, deshalb der Workaround in deutsch. Sorry.
Ich habe das gleiche Problem, aber eben gelöst.

Server 2019 Std. VirtIo 0.196 / 0.215.

### Während der Installation der Netzwerkkartentreiber darf die VM KEIN VLAN Tag haben (Neustart VM ohne VLAN). ###
Das hat eben funktioniert. Danach einfach wieder den VLAN Tag setzen.

Viele Grüße
crmspezi

### Nachtrag
  1. pc-i440fx-5.2 muss der Type sein
  2. virtio Geräte vorher im Gerätemanger deinstallieren und Treiber löschen lassen
  3. VLAN muss bei der Installation AUS sein! (in der VM Konfig)
  4. Treiber im Gerätemanager suchen lassen
  5. alles ok
 
Last edited:
Hey,

i have the same issue with Win Srv 2016 (German).
None of the NIC "VirtIO", Realtek nor Intel1000 is working.

None of the given workarounds above was working for my systems.

Is there meanwhile a fix?

PS: The vm was migraded from XenServer 6.2. All Xen Tools have been uninstalled an then
VirtIO tools installed.


PVE7.1-11

i tried with
virtio-win 0.1.215-2.iso
virtio-win 0.1.215-1.iso
virtio-win 0.1.208-1.iso
virtio-win-0.1.196.iso

pc-i440fx-6.1
pc-i440fx-6.0
pc-i440fx-5.2


But no NIC is showing up in Windows.
 
Last edited:
try q35 Platform


With q35 i only got this error after i started the vm. The VM then stops again.


kvm: -device ide-hd,bus=ide.0,unit=1,drive=drive-ide1,id=ide1,rotation_rate=1: Can't create IDE unit 1, bus supports only 1 units
TASK ERROR: start failed: QEMU exited with code 1

After changing to SCSCI i get a BSOD "Inaccesable Boot Device".
 
Last edited:
Hy ProxiumMoxium


kvm: -device ide-hd,bus=ide.0,unit=1,drive=drive-ide1,id=ide1,rotation_rate=1: Can't create IDE unit 1, bus supports only 1 units
TASK ERROR: start failed: QEMU exited with code 1


Copy all Driver to C and delete the CD-Rom to start and install Drivers.




After changing to SCSCI i get a BSOD "Inaccesable Boot Device".

We had the same error after switch from I440 tp q35. We importet the Disk again.
Maybe also switch BootDisk to IDE and uninstall Storagedriver could help

kr
Roland
 
kvm: -device ide-hd,bus=ide.0,unit=1,drive=drive-ide1,id=ide1,rotation_rate=1: Can't create IDE unit 1, bus supports only 1 units
TASK ERROR: start failed: QEMU exited with code 1


Copy all Driver to C and delete the CD-Rom to start and install Drivers.
Its starting then but BSOD "Inaccesable Boot Device"


Maybe also switch BootDisk to IDE and uninstall Storagedriver could help
Still ""Inaccesable Boot Device"
 
is it possible to delete the disk and import it again?
before first boot change to q35
(we always did this)

If not possible, try to uninstall "storage driver" and "chipset drivers" which depends on pve in i440fx

kr
 
is it possible to delete the disk and import it again?
before first boot change to q35
(we always did this)

If not possible, try to uninstall "storage driver" and "chipset drivers" which depends on pve in i440fx

kr

I now created a new (second) VM witch q35 (5.1), imported the disks
The VM is booting.
I installed the tools and drivers and added the NICs.
But again NO NICS! (Intel, Realtek, VirtIO)

The device manager BTW is clean no errors and there are the three NIC devices, all marked as fine.

BTW: A Windows 10 i migrated the same way is running good, but not this Win Srv 2016 (German)
 
Last edited:
Hi people,
I happened to have a customer who wants winSRV2k22 on proxmox. A bad idea in general, but that's just my 2¢.

The first run was with the default settings, OVMF(UEFI), q35-6.1, Virtio Network adapter, ide hard disk drive. It failed miserably.The installation itself went smoothly, but the network card was not recognised, whatever I did and wahtever type I used.

After nearly 4 hrs of pointlessly klicking through driver directories I decided to start fresh.
I used, as mentioned earlier, SeaBIOS and i440fx-6.1 and after the installation completed, I removed the Network card via device manager.
Then I let Windows add new hardware, selected the NetKVM/win2k22/amd64 directory and - zapp - the network connection worked. After that, I installed the guest tools and the server is up and running.
 
Hi people,
I happened to have a customer who wants winSRV2k22 on proxmox. A bad idea in general, but that's just my 2¢.

The first run was with the default settings, OVMF(UEFI), q35-6.1, Virtio Network adapter, ide hard disk drive. It failed miserably.The installation itself went smoothly, but the network card was not recognised, whatever I did and wahtever type I used.

After nearly 4 hrs of pointlessly klicking through driver directories I decided to start fresh.
I used, as mentioned earlier, SeaBIOS and i440fx-6.1 and after the installation completed, I removed the Network card via device manager.
Then I let Windows add new hardware, selected the NetKVM/win2k22/amd64 directory and - zapp - the network connection worked. After that, I installed the guest tools and the server is up and running.
i found "my" solution.:
  • I installed the english language Pack via ISO
    • dism.exe /online /Add-Package /PackagePath:C:\full path to cab file directory\lp.cab
  • uninstalled NIC
  • installed driver
==> tadaaaa There is a NIC...

:-/ still no solution for the german LP...
 
Last edited:
I now created a new (second) VM witch q35 (5.1), imported the disks
The VM is booting.
I installed the tools and drivers and added the NICs.
But again NO NICS! (Intel, Realtek, VirtIO)

The device manager BTW is clean no errors and there are the three NIC devices, all marked as fine.

BTW: A Windows 10 i migrated the same way is running good, but not this Win Srv 2016 (German)
hmm interessting. changing to q35 always solved the problem by us.
i don't have access to the system, is it possible to send some pics from devicemanager and the nic?

kr
Roland
 
Hello, I have a problem

I have installed a Windows Server 2016 in German via Proxmox, but now I don't see a network adapter displayed even though I have set the system to q35, what can I do?

I have version 7. 1-7 from proxmox
 
Try to set version 6.0 of Q35, remove all unknown hardware in the device manager and let Windows re-scan for changed hardware.
 

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