[vfio-users] Using a physical disk in QEMU

[Patrick O'Callaghan]

On Sun, 2017-10-22 at 14:27 +0100, Patrick O'Callaghan wrote:
> On Sun, 2017-10-22 at 10:53 +0100, Patrick O'Callaghan wrote:
> > On Sat, 2017-10-21 at 16:43 -0700, Nick S wrote:
> > > Can you at least boot via this UEFI screen if you select the necessary
> > > device? or does it complain?
> > 
> > My knowledge of UEFI is so limited that I haven't even got that far. I
> > get the menu with a bunch of devices but don't know how to proceed. As
> > I mentioned I did actually manage to do this some time in the past, but
> > didn't make any notes because from then on it just worked. I assume
> > that on this occasion the OVMF emulated EEPROM is still set to the
> > former (Linux raw file) drive and just needs to be changed.
> 
> I should point out that the UEFI screen shows only block devices, no
> \EFI directory. Is this salvagable or will I have to reinstall Windows?
>  Note that this is the exact same drive that boots correctly on the
> physical host, and was created by cloning the original Linux raw file,
> including all its partitions, using a backup program under Windows.

I think I may have figured it out.

My host system boots using BIOS, not UEFI, but of course the VM uses
OVMF UEFI. When I first booted the new drive with Windows, it took a
while "setting up disks" (typical obscure message which could mean
absolutely anything). I suspect that it was actually modifying the
Windows installation to use BIOS, so now it won't work under QEMU.

So I'll either have to modify my Linux installation to boot with UEFI,
or use a BIOS emulation to boot the Windows VM. The first of these is
preferable of course.

I'll report back if and when I get this sorted.

poc