It is certain I am doing something wrong. I downloaded the Windows 10 Media Creation Tool. Created an ISO, uploaded and mounted it to install on a machine. The machine boots from the virtual mounted media (USB or CD-ROM do not seem to matter).
However, when I begin the setup, the target PC asks to load a driver as seen in this picture. I have tried alternatives to get past, but nothing has worked. I want to see if anyone might have any thoughts or suggestions.
Thank you,
Wes
Linked from:
- CCharles Hague @cghague2022-10-24 21:59:09.861Z
Hi Wes - thanks for your question about installing Windows!
Unfortunately, booting from a Windows image does not work currently. The reason is that TinyPilot can emulate a CD-ROM but not a DVD-ROM. CD-ROM images are limited to 2.2 GB in size which is usually smaller than the size of a Windows 10/11 installation image. The install may start but will fail it attempts to access space beyond this limit. I appreciate it's a hassle but the only workaround is to create a custom Windows 11 installation image that's smaller than 2.2 GB and mount it from TinyPilot in CD-ROM mode. We're interested in emulating a DVD-ROM as well, but it's a significant amount of work.
I hope this answers your query. Please let me know if you have any questions!
- RIn reply towes.spears⬆:@remlei
you can actually boot windows 10/11 iso images file using cdrom mass storage gadget on linux.
but it will need some things first for it to work, first is the linux kernel needs a patch that accept big isos, once the kernel is patched that it can accept big isos, the second thing you need to do is covert that ISO file from UFS to CDFS, I used poweriso to edit the iso file, and the last thing you will need to do is that install.wim file needs to be split into smaller files, since we will be using CDFS here with the ISO file, you cant really fit files larger than 4GB so you need to split that install,wim file into smaller files using DISM, I split mine into 3.5gb so that ended me up with 2 files one is 3.5gig big and the last file is around 1.4gig big. Once you split that install.wim file, you can just delete that original install.wim file on the iso and upload the splitted wim files. rebuild the iso image and try it. In my case I was able to install every Windows 10 and 11 ISO images that is rebuild with CDFS without any issue.
the main issue here is that for some reason, linux kernel cant properly emulate a DVD/Blu-ray drive. usb_gadget should be able to emulate every single mass storage device but not a DVD/Blu-ray drive.
to be honest this issue also exist with pikvm as well and there's no fix for it nor plan for a fix for it because the linux kernel just cant do it. unless someone can work on it which is a lost cause at this point, this has been a issue since I think past 2008 when people start asking for a proper DVD emulation.
- CCharles Hague @cghague2022-11-11 22:26:06.873Z
Hi @remlei - thanks for sharing this with us! You mentioned a kernel patch to enable support for large ISOs - that sounds really interesting. Would you mind sharing a link to the patch so I can look into it?
In reply towes.spears⬆:Timmy Andersson @TimmyITOne way to do this would be to use WinPE as the boot image and from there access the full windows installation over the network. The WinPE boot image is around 400mb. I have successfully done this with my TinyPilot and Im working on a guide that will be published soon. I'll link it here in the thread once its live.
https://timmyit.com/2022/11/22/tinypilot-kvm-installing-windows-with-virtual-media-and-winpe/
Timmy Andersson @TimmyITLink to the article to Install Windows with Virtual media with WinPE
https://timmyit.com/2022/11/22/tinypilot-kvm-installing-windows-with-virtual-media-and-winpe/
Michael Lynch @michael2022-11-22 19:01:44.781ZThis is great! Thanks so much for sharing this thorough tutorial.
- Progresswith handling this problem
- WWes Spears @wes.spears
Thank you. It is appreciated.
If anyone else might have an idea of how to:
Create a small boot device that can be a virtual media from TinyPilot.
Allow a boot to some, perhaps, Linux which could partition a new drive, install grub or other and point it at an ISO retrieve and placed on the partition.
Then reboot and grub runs the ISO which is a windows install and allows a full install on a disk.Let me know. I would be interested in participating, but I don't have the time to solve all the pieces.
- CCharles Hague @cghague2022-10-27 21:15:57.322Z2022-10-31 13:13:58.420Zreplies towes.spears⬆:
Thanks for sharing your idea Wes! Booting to a Linux live CD is possible but I'm not certain if it can be used to bootstrap a Windows installation. I searched online to see if anyone has attempted this before but unfortunately I wasn't able to find anything useful.
You might be able to use the DISM tool to split a Windows image into multiple smaller files (i.e. each one less than 2.2GB). I'm afraid this isn't something we're able to test but hopefully it might be a useful starting point if you'd like to investigate further.
I hope this is helpful. Please let me know if you have any further questions!