Windows 7/2008R2 driver support

izmeritel

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Oct 29, 2020
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Hi, guys!
Can you tell me what latest VirtIO drivers support Windows 7/2008 R2? I trying install drivers from latest iso (0.1.189), but when installing drivers for:
  • Balloon - I get a BSoD (balloon.sys+wdf01000.sys)
  • PCI Simple Communications (VirtIO Serial driver) - driver installed with Code 10 (not starting)
  • virtio-win-gt-x64.exe - failed with "OS must be Windows 8, Windows Server 2012 or higher" message.
All of this happens with Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2. On Windows 10 drivers installed with no problems (no yellow signs in device manager).
Thus, I came to the conclusion that driver support for guest OS 7 /2008R2 is discontinued in proxmox 6.2 and I need latest drivers supporting these OSes.

P.S. I know, that supporting of this OSes are ended, but such are techical requirements.
P.P.S. In addition, usb passthrough is also not working on 7/2008R2 (on Windows 10 all ok).
P.P.P.S. Sorry for my english.
 
there is two different version stable and most recent please try to use the stable version [1]

[1] https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Windows_VirtIO_Drivers#Using_the_ISO



What error are you getting when you passthough USB?
Thanks for your feedback.

Stable (0.1.185) is also not working (i get same errors).

No errors with USB passthrough. I add USB device on Hardware page (Vendor/Device ID or Port, no matter), starting guest VM and nothing happens (no USB-devices in My Computer).
 
On my workstation I have Windows Server 2012R2 everything works fine, can you try to install Windows and VirtIO again as the following tutorial [1]

No errors with USB passthrough. I add USB device on Hardware page (Vendor/Device ID or Port, no matter), starting guest VM and nothing happens (no USB-devices in My Computer).
After you solved the VirtIO issue we can discuss about USB passthrough or you can open a new thread about USB passthrough, because its a different issue

[1] https://forum.proxmox.com/threads/install-windows-2016-server-on-proxmox-ve-video-tutorial.31344/
 
On my workstation I have Windows Server 2012R2 everything works fine, can you try to install Windows and VirtIO again as the following tutorial [1]
I have installed Windows 2012 R2 and all drivers (Balloon, VirtIO Serial driver). Everything got up without any problems.
Thus, this once again confirms that something is wrong with the support of Windows 2008 R2 and I need to find the last ISO-file suitable for 2008 R2.
After you solved the VirtIO issue we can discuss about USB passthrough or you can open a new thread about USB passthrough, because its a different issue
I agree. I indicated this so as to once again show that something is wrong with the support of 7/2008R2.
 
Anyone? What iso files (with VirtIO drivers) have you used recently when installing the 2008 R2?
 
Just started an old Win 2008 R2 Enterprise system to have a look...
1604778540252.png

1604778568277.png

1604778712888.png

I am not using SCSI since I want to use FSTRIM - which only works with SATA on these old Windows versions...
 
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Rainerle

Thank you for reply. I have almost the same settings, except for a few non-essential ones, it seems to me:
proxmox-2008R2_1.jpg
proxmox-2008R2_2.jpg

Ignore the OS type: I've already experimented with this in an attempt to solve the problem. Originally was 7/2008 R2.
My only question is, which version of VirtIO ISO are you using? If this does not help, then most likely the matter is in the hardware (I use the usual powerful hardware, not server hardware), and apparently will have to continue using the Hyper-V Server. (((
 
No, the same results. Apparently it's in the hardware, since everything works for others.
I tried options with IDE, SCSI and VirtIO Block (unlikely, but suddenly this was the case) - the same thing (VirtIO serial driver is installed with code 10, Balloon with BSoD). I conclude that something is wrong with my hardware.
We'll have to sit on the MS Hyper-V for now (it has no problems with old OS and it works well with Linux).
Thank you all for your help.
 
Last edited:
Negrutiu,
The problem isn't getting the system up and running (7 or 2008 R2), it installed and run. The problem is to get rid of the yellow marks in Device Manager (yes, I'm a perfectionist))). And in order to use, if possible, all modern virtualization developments (ballooning, guest agent, etc.).
But your option is interesting. Thanks, I'll try. Just tell me what type of hard drive are you using?
 
I'm a perfectionist myself so that makes two of us ;)
I had one additional requirement: the VM was required to sleep (S3) and hibernate (S4) which is an even bigger challenge...
So:
  • Memory ballooning: I remember that the W7 balloon driver crashed immediately. I managed to install the W2008 driver (on W7) which I remember that it worked well... However it crashed later when doing sleep/hibernate tests with the VM. In the end I turned OFF memory ballooning since it isn't important in my usecase
  • The guest agent (the one from SPICE) works fine
  • My HDD is attached to the IDE controller. VirtIO-block may also work for your. Again, in my scenario I had problems with waking from sleep, so I've chosen the IDE controller
  • No other yellow/unknown devices, after installing KB3063109
Good luck with your setup!
 
Use 187 version. It works for me. 189 and 185 there is bsod when installing balloning driver.
 
And so, to summarize:

0. 187 version of the drivers did not help. Further down the list, Spice-Guest-Tools were used everywhere instead of drivers with ISO.
1. When using SCSI as a disk subsystem, neither the Balloon driver nor the VitrIO Serial driver is installed.
2. When using SATA as a disk subsystem, the VirtIO Serial driver installed fine (no yellow characters in the device manager), but with Balloon the same as before (BSoD).
3. When using VirtIO Block as a disk subsystem, everything is the same as with SCSI (point 1).
4. When using IDE as a disk subsystem, Balloon was installed normally, but with VirtIO Serial the driver has the same problem as before (code 10).

I'm exhausted. )) As I wrote earlier, since everything works for others, and even newer systems are installed and work for me without problems, then apparently the point is in the bundle of the old OS and non-server hardware. I will try Proxmox next time when I don’t need to use outdated OS or when it will only be used to start Linux machines.
Once again, thank you all for your help!
 
I had a similar problem and I fixed it with old virtio driver version 137.

You can find old version of virtio here:
https://fedorapeople.org/groups/virt/virtio-win/direct-downloads/archive-virtio/
@taich, thanks for the hint on version 137. works like a charm on epyc host hardware with guest w2k8R2.

After all the to summarize the steps to get a working w2k8R2 guest via live migration:

1. use disk2vhd to make a vhdx file (i used an smb target to move the file on)
2. meanwhile generate new vm with scsi controller (ide disk 0) and virtio network
3. on proxmox shell use qm importdisk <vmid> /mnt/share/your.vhdx <storage> (I had to tick thin provisioning for the storage settings (zfs) because of the size of the vhdx file
4. assign the new disk to the controller and start the vm (check config to choose the right startdevice)
5. start the vm, log in and install the ethernet driver and the baloon driver. You're done :)

Hope this is still usefull on this old thread.

best regards
 
Hello,

For 2008 R2 :

1. Spice Guest Tools 0.74
2. Virtio 0.1-81
3. QEMU Agent 7.5.0 (32 or 64 bits)

The other versions that I tested either they do not recognize the drivers or blue screen.

There are 3 hidden devices left : 2 x vport0p1 and 1 x ACPI\QEMU
I know how to install them with Windows 2012 but it doesn't work with Windows 2008
 
Hello,

For 2008 R2 :

1. Spice Guest Tools 0.74
2. Virtio 0.1-81
3. QEMU Agent 7.5.0 (32 or 64 bits)

The other versions that I tested either they do not recognize the drivers or blue screen.

There are 3 hidden devices left : 2 x vport0p1 and 1 x ACPI\QEMU
I know how to install them with Windows 2012 but it doesn't work with Windows 2008
Thanks a lot, it worked!
 

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