Please help with creating a new Windows 11 VM

[JustinChase]

The issue I'm having is with network adapter.

 

When creating a new Win 11 VM, windows doesn't find a network adapter, so you just can't proceed..  I tried selecting e1000 as the adapter, but that didn't work.  I then had to select the accessibility options in the windows setup BEFORE getting to the 'no network' scree, since you cannot access the on-screen keyboard at that point.  Once i had that turned on, I could then get the command prompt, then type something (oobd/netpasssomething - i don't have it in front of me now), to bypass the force network issue, so I could get the windows installation to finish.

 

But, I do not have a network adapter in windows now.  The troubleshooter doesn't even find an adapter, so I figured I'd have to change it in the VM setup, but network is not even shown in the VM setting page now, so I can't even try changing the adapter to see if I can get that to force an adapter into this windows install.

 

I cannot find a current 'how to install windows 11 VM' guide where any of this is covered, and I'm stuck at this point, and ready to just give up on having a working windows 11 install.

 

I used to have one working, but it began working at about 1/10th speed, and I could not find any help in resolving that, so I figured just reinstalling windows would be faster, but this network thing is just killing me.

 

How can I get a working network inside a brand new Windows 11 VM?

[Kilrah]

Best is probably to delete the VM (but keep the vdisk) and recreate one with the default network adapter and manually choosing the existing vdisk.

 

Note that on the OOBE screen once you open command prompt OOBE\BYPASSNRO is one solution, another is to browse to the virtio iso (probably e:) and launch the setup from there, it'll install all the drivers there in front of the OOBE and network will be detected. 

[JustinChase]

Sadly, the root of my issue is that the existing windows install is borked and I cannot figure out what is wrong, and I've spent too much time trying to find an answer.  I've posted here a few times asking for help, but have not gotten any help to get it working properly again, so I decided to just start fresh (thinking it would save me time; it has not!)

 

The real issue is that the VM setup has just simply removed the network setting part.  There is literally no network setting provided to change.  I could probably figure out how to add them with the XML, but i really don't want to have to dive that deep to fix what i think is just a bug in unraid.

 

 

[ghost82]

I read about this a couple of times in the forum, and indeed it seems a bug in unraid.

The users solved the issue by deleting the network config in unraid, and creating a new one from scratch. Then magically it seemed the network options were again available in the vm settings.

Edited March 13, 2023 by ghost82

[Kilrah]

That's why I said to delete it and recreate with the same settings, it'll have the default network card again and takes 2 minutes.

Sure it shouldn't break when changing options, but the workaround is quick.

Edited March 13, 2023 by Kilrah

[SimonF]

1 hour ago, ghost82 said:

I read about this a couple of times in the forum, and indeed it seems a bug in unraid.

The users solved the issue by deleting the network config in unraid, and creating a new one from scratch. Then magically it seemed the network options were again available in the vm settings.

Fixed in 6.12 will show without MAC or you can just add back in XML

 

    <interface type='bridge'>
      <mac address='52:54:00:xx:xx:xx'/>
      <source bridge='br0'/>
      <model type='virtio-net'/>
    </interface>

 

[JustinChase]

Yes, recreating the VM from scratch and pointing to the existing image did work, thank you.

 

Sadly, I cannot get the USB passthru to work in either the old/slow/borked image, nor in the newly created, installed from iso windows install.

 

I have both VM's running as Q35-7.1 machines, thinking this is newer and allows for PCIe, but maybe this is the issue with the USB3 controller.

 

Anyone know if USB3 can/should work in a Q35 VM, or if there is some other trick I'm missing?  This is the same controller that used to work before I ran into the borked/slow windows issue, so I know if can/should work.

 

10 hours ago, SimonF said:

Fixed in 6.12 will show without MAC or you can just add back in XML

 

    <interface type='bridge'>
      <mac address='52:54:00:xx:xx:xx'/>
      <source bridge='br0'/>
      <model type='virtio-net'/>
    </interface>

 

Thank you for acknowledging and fixing this issue!

[SimonF]

3 hours ago, JustinChase said:

I cannot get the USB passthru

So the ports do not show in Windows device manager or does the VM not start?

[JustinChase]

7 hours ago, SimonF said:

So the ports do not show in Windows device manager or does the VM not start?

The posts show, but the first one listed has the yellow triangle.  I can update the driver for it, but the triangle comes back eventually.  I can delete it, but upon restart it comes back.

 

I suspect one of the folders in the virtio disk has the correct driver, but I think I've tried pointing to every main folder, drilling down to the w11/amd64 folder, but none have worked.

 

The really weird thing is that the windows install that was working, but just really, REALLY slow now also does not work for this USB.  So, I don't have a keyboard or mouse, so I'm trying to do everything via remote desktop.

 

I really just wanted to 'fix' the otherwise working windows, but that hasn't worked, and installing a new machine also isn't working, and I'm just spending way, way too much time trying to get what used to work working again.  Some days i really do hate computers!

[SimonF]

2 hours ago, JustinChase said:

The posts show, but the first one listed has the yellow triangle.  I can update the driver for it, but the triangle comes back eventually.  I can delete it, but upon restart it comes back.

 

I suspect one of the folders in the virtio disk has the correct driver, but I think I've tried pointing to every main folder, drilling down to the w11/amd64 folder, but none have worked.

 

The really weird thing is that the windows install that was working, but just really, REALLY slow now also does not work for this USB.  So, I don't have a keyboard or mouse, so I'm trying to do everything via remote desktop.

 

I really just wanted to 'fix' the otherwise working windows, but that hasn't worked, and installing a new machine also isn't working, and I'm just spending way, way too much time trying to get what used to work working again.  Some days i really do hate computers!

Have you tried no passing thru the USB card but just the mouse and keyboard? i.e. remove USB card vfio binding and map in the usb section once rebooted.

[JustinChase]

3 hours ago, SimonF said:

Have you tried no passing thru the USB card but just the mouse and keyboard? i.e. remove USB card vfio binding and map in the usb section once rebooted.

funnily enough, I was just about to do that when I saw this.

 

Yes, that worked.  not sure why the whole controller being passed thru no longer works, but considering how much time I've lost to this stupid computer situation, I'm going to call it "good enough" for a while.

 

i'd still love to figure out why it seems the entire VM seems to be running as if the CPU has been replaced with a 25 year old pentium, but again, another day.

 

Thanks for your help