Windows XP, latest virtio drivers win8 and up only

[apap]

After finally managing to start the windows xp guest on proxmox (I have successfully passed the inaccessible boot device error), the next issue is the above thread title.

The latest virtio drivers only works from windows 8 and above. I will try each version going from the latest to the earliest, but if anyone knows which version of the virtio drivers are compatible with win-xp, it would save me time and is appreciated.

I have not yet tried to install the qemu agent (as I understand it, this will come after the virtio drivers).

Image 1: unrecognised devices in device manager.
Image 2: VM Hardware

 

[ph0x]

And the reason you're trying to revive an OS that has not been updated for years is?

 

[VirtMan]

phoX - really, this is the best you can do?

 

[ph0x]

Did you really sign up just to post this? That's determination, man ...

 

[VirtMan]

Yes I did ph0x, I did get ticked off with your reply to apap, but I shouldn't have called you names, and I apologise for that. I did receive a warning from one of the staff about that comment. Thanks, I wish you well.

 

[ph0x]

Apologies accepted, and I didn't report the comment, just to be clear.
Yes, my comment was mischievous, but I really wanted to know the reason behind it. Seems like it didn't matter in the end much, though.

 

[VirtMan]

Curiosity is a great thing, as is the desire to learn.

I was actually wondering myself about virtio drivers, as I was running up a W7 virtual machine at the time - hence why I came across this question. I've since found that the virtio drivers binaries from Redhat although officially no longer support W7 or earlier, as apap pointed out, the actual drivers for W7 are there in the folders, not sure if these can be used in XP though.
To help answer your original question to Apap - I was running up a W7 to run a "windows only" legacy configuration tool for some hardware I've got. I just ran up a W10 temporarily for the purpose to solve my particular need.
I really need to find a way to run legacy Windows stuff in a more permanent way...no doubt W10 will go the way of W7 as all this proprietary stuff does...using wine is too much of a hit and miss affair in my experience, though ReactOS is actually now looking very promising after soooo many years of development. Might spin that up and see!

 

[alexskysilk]

The latest virtio drivers only works from windows 8 and above. I will try each version going from the latest to the earliest, but if anyone knows which version of the virtio drivers are compatible with win-xp, it would save me time and is appreciated.

Best place to ask is https://fedorapeople.org/. That said, I would just use the binary tree method on https://fedorapeople.org/groups/virt/virtio-win/direct-downloads/archive-virtio/

Then I'd ponder what my time is worth and not bother

 

[VirtMan]

Then I'd ponder what my time is worth and not bother LOL!!!
The binary tree with all versions is a great link...didn't know, thanks.

 

[Dunuin]

I think its a great idea to virtualize old OSes. I'm running bare metal Win95,98,2000,XP,7 for retro gaming and it is getting harder and harder to find working hardware or they are just too expensive (its not uncommon today to pay 1000+€ for a DOS soundcard or 300€ for some 20 years old GPUs). And not everyone has the space to store different old PCs for bare metal installations. As long as they are isolated on an own bridge or in a different vlan without internet I dont see why not to virtualize a WinXP or Win7 for testing or whatever.

Edit:
Would also be intersting to know if a modern mainboards can PCI passthrough a very old GPU. GPUs use PCIe since 2004 and because PCIe is backwards compatible a 17 years old GPU should work with modern servers. Then it would get really intersting if it would be possible to run a WinXp+Win7+Win10 VM on the same host, each with a different GPU from that time passed through.

Win98 retro gaming is really a problem today. Its to complex to be emulated (like Dosbox for example) and too old to be backwards compatible with modern hardware (like AGP Voodoo GPUs).

 

[alexskysilk]

m running bare metal Win95,98,2000,XP,7 for retro gaming

Running a vm on a remote proxmox is not a good solution for this since the keyboard/mouse latency isnt guaranteed. just run them in virtualbox/hyperv/parallels on your host.

 

[Dunuin]

Its always an option to PCI passthrough a USB controller + GPU and use a KVM switch to connect multiple VMs to the same monitor/mouse/keyboard/gamepad. If you don't need a gamepad software kvm like InputDirector works fine too and no additional USB card is needed. That way you don't get compression artifacts and nearly no input lag. That way I use my Proxmox server as a Win10 HTPC directly connected to my TV.

 

[Roopee]

And the reason you're trying to revive an OS that has not been updated for years is?

I can't believe you wrote that, unless you were being facetious (which you need to make obvious - it wasn't).
If you didn't already realise (hard to believe if you work or even dabble in IT) - a significant use case for VMs (especially in, but certainly not restricted to, home lab and other non-production environments) is to run OSs that won't run on modern hardware... why else would QEMU actively support the huge range of antique and obsolete architectures?? A trivial amount of research would give you many reasons that people and organisations might want to do this. I don't blame the OP from calling you names; I prefer to educate instead.
Suggested reading: 'El Reg' aka theregister.co.uk
In case you were wondering, and for your edification: I came across your 2 yo post because I am trying to move a Windows XP VM from ESXi to PVE. I work in IT but VMs are not my field. This little VM is running a single Windows app that won't run on anything newer than XP and (shock-horror) manages without the Internet, so security (or any other) updates are irrelevent.
The app is still useful to me and it would be very inconvenient (i.e. costly in time/money) to replace the app - so there is one answer to your (hopefully) facetious question, and I know there are many others.
Hope that helps...

 

[Roopee]

I think its a great idea to virtualize old OSes. I'm running bare metal Win95,98,2000,XP,7 for retro gaming and it is getting harder and harder to find working hardware or they are just too expensive (its not uncommon today to pay 1000+€ for a DOS soundcard or 300€ for some 20 years old GPUs). And not everyone has the space to store different old PCs for bare metal installations. As long as they are isolated on an own bridge or in a different vlan without internet I dont see why not to virtualize a WinXP or Win7 for testing or whatever.

Edit:
Would also be intersting to know if a modern mainboards can PCI passthrough a very old GPU. GPUs use PCIe since 2004 and because PCIe is backwards compatible a 17 years old GPU should work with modern servers. Then it would get really intersting if it would be possible to run a WinXp+Win7+Win10 VM on the same host, each with a different GPU from that time passed through.

Win98 retro gaming is really a problem today. Its to complex to be emulated (like Dosbox for example) and too old to be backwards compatible with modern hardware (like AGP Voodoo GPUs).

Hi @Dunuin, looking at your profile you're probably nearly as old as me so apologies if I'm preaching to the converted, but this post might be useful to others...

I have various bits of old PC (and other) hardware and software (I imaged a lot of floppies before they became unusable) dating all the way back to a complete very high-end VL-Bus PC (anyone remember caching disk controllers?).

Back in those days, speed was everything - not particularly for games since 3D graphics weren't really a thing and certainly not mainstream - it was needed just to run Windows 3.x and its GUI WYSIWYG software at a reasonable speed at a decent resolution. In 1991-95 Windows was definitely the Crysis of its time. Software such as Word 2, Excel 3 or 4 and Access 1, at 800 x 600 non-interlaced...

In 1993 I was a Windows evangelist (how times change!) and an Excel (and SuperCalc and 1-2-3) expert, and I was so frustrated with the slowness of PCs I used at work (except my final personal 386DX company laptop wasn't too bad, faster than my own 386SX) that when I left I spent my entire redundancy payment on the fastest PC I could buy, my 2nd PC, which was way faster than any PC I'd previously used - pure luxury! I finished on Friday in Maidstone and started my new job in Bradford on Monday, so the £3k (over 6k in current £) was a 'leaving bonus' which bought me the high-end PC I mentioned above: 486 DX2-66 VL-Bus with the best GPU and caching disk controller and 17" FST screen .

Annoyingly the £900 screen died a couple of years later (yes, really, only 17", only FST - I replaced it with a 19" flat Trinitron CRT for only £500), the rest is still in my loft. I've disposed of most of the hardware between that museum piece and my first 'Crysis-capable' PC, but I still have a few other retro bits such as AGP and PCI GPUs, old RAM, skt 7 mobos etc.

I loved Crysis as soon as I saw its amazing graphics/physics/lighting and had a play with it on an unaffordable demo PC at Scan, maxed out at 1366 x 768 with less than full effects. Half-decent laptops now have no difficulty running Crysis at FHD with full effects, but I've yet to see any modern game with more realistic graphics - particularly the physics and lighting.

I'd be happy to part with most of my retro IT (and Hi-Fi - Beocenter 9000 anyone?) to good homes for the cost of postage - I'll compile a list if anyone is interested so feel free to get in touch!