Cannot activate Windows Server 2008

Cannot activate Windows Server 2008

[Jonathan Mezach]

Hi guys, 

I've recently gotten KVM to work on my Slamd64 12.1 machine running
kernel 2.6.26. Once I got everything up and running I tried installing
Windows Server 2008. The installation went fine and I can get
everything up and running and it seems to be working fine. Only
problem is that I cannot activate it. This problem seems to be caused
by the Software Licensing service that crashes on startup. Apparently
this service is needed for activation to work. 

I'm not sure if this is actually a KVM problem, but I can't believe
that Microsoft would ship this if it's not working right, because
without activation the system is pretty much useless. Also, the crash
occurs in ntdll.dll, which as far as I know is the kernel, so it does
seem to be some weird problem with the virtualization. So, I'm
wondering if anyone has actually tried activating Windows Server 2008.
The Wiki reports that Windows Server 2008 is supposed to work and
well, it does, but if I can't activate it, it's useless.
Of course,
I'm using a legit version of Server 2008. 

Here is some information on my system: 

CPU: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 5200+ 
KVM: version 71
Linux: 2.6.26
Arch: x86_64
Host: Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Edition x64
Cmd:

/usr/bin/qemu-system-x86_64 -hda /home/jmezach/VM/W2K8NET35/hda -cpu 
qemu64 -smp 
2 -cdrom /home/jmezach/VM/en_windows_server_2008_datacenter_enterprise_standard_x64_dvd_X14-26714.iso
-m 1024 -boot d -usb -net nic,macaddr=00:16:3e:1:00:01,model=rtl8139 -net 
tap,ifname=tap1,script=no -k en-us -monitor 
unix:/home/jmezach/VM/W2K8NET35/run/monitor,server,nowait -pidfile /home/jmezach/VM/W2K8NET35/run/pid -soundhw 
all

I've tried running with -no-kvm-irqchip, but that gives me a
bluescreen of death on startup. I also tried -no-kvm-pit, but that
didn't make any difference. Using -no-kvm it doesn't start up at all.
I get the Loading screen with the green bar and Microsoft copyright
message and after that the screen just stays black.

It's too bad I can't activate it, because apart from that it seems to
run pretty nice and the performance is quite good as well. I relly
want this stuff to work so I can do some experiments with the new
Server 2008 stuff. I hope someone can sort this out. If you need any
additional information, let me know. 

Greetings, 

Jonathan

Re: Cannot activate Windows Server 2008

[Avi Kivity]

Jonathan Mezach wrote:
> Hi guys, 
>
> I've recently gotten KVM to work on my Slamd64 12.1 machine running
> kernel 2.6.26. Once I got everything up and running I tried installing
> Windows Server 2008. The installation went fine and I can get
> everything up and running and it seems to be working fine. Only
> problem is that I cannot activate it. This problem seems to be caused
> by the Software Licensing service that crashes on startup. Apparently
> this service is needed for activation to work. 
>
> I'm not sure if this is actually a KVM problem, but I can't believe
> that Microsoft would ship this if it's not working right, because
> without activation the system is pretty much useless. Also, the crash
> occurs in ntdll.dll, which as far as I know is the kernel, so it does
> seem to be some weird problem with the virtualization. So, I'm
> wondering if anyone has actually tried activating Windows Server 2008.
> The Wiki reports that Windows Server 2008 is supposed to work and
> well, it does, but if I can't activate it, it's useless.
> Of course,
> I'm using a legit version of Server 2008. 
>
>   

I've just fixed a subtle-but-horrible bug affecting Windows Server 
2008.  In my tests, Windows would install, boot, and activate fine, but 
every once in a while would crash in the kernel during boot.  Hopefully 
the same bug caused the problem you're seeing as well.

I'll release kvm-72 soon, please try it out.

-- 
I have a truly marvellous patch that fixes the bug which this
signature is too narrow to contain.

Re: Cannot activate Windows Server 2008

[Jonathan Mezach]

On Saturday 19 July 2008 09:24:07 Avi Kivity wrote:
> Jonathan Mezach wrote:
> > Hi guys,
> >
> > I've recently gotten KVM to work on my Slamd64 12.1 machine running
> > kernel 2.6.26. Once I got everything up and running I tried installing
> > Windows Server 2008. The installation went fine and I can get
> > everything up and running and it seems to be working fine. Only
> > problem is that I cannot activate it. This problem seems to be caused
> > by the Software Licensing service that crashes on startup. Apparently
> > this service is needed for activation to work.
> >
> > I'm not sure if this is actually a KVM problem, but I can't believe
> > that Microsoft would ship this if it's not working right, because
> > without activation the system is pretty much useless. Also, the crash
> > occurs in ntdll.dll, which as far as I know is the kernel, so it does
> > seem to be some weird problem with the virtualization. So, I'm
> > wondering if anyone has actually tried activating Windows Server 2008.
> > The Wiki reports that Windows Server 2008 is supposed to work and
> > well, it does, but if I can't activate it, it's useless.
> > Of course,
> > I'm using a legit version of Server 2008.
>
> I've just fixed a subtle-but-horrible bug affecting Windows Server
> 2008.  In my tests, Windows would install, boot, and activate fine, but
> every once in a while would crash in the kernel during boot.  Hopefully
> the same bug caused the problem you're seeing as well.
>
> I'll release kvm-72 soon, please try it out.

I've tried using the recent git tree, but the problem is still there. I did 
notice though that the QEMU window no longer has the /KVM added to it. Not 
sure if that has anything to do with it though.

Re: Cannot activate Windows Server 2008

[Mohammed Gamal]

On Sat, Jul 19, 2008 at 5:58 PM, Jonathan Mezach <jmezach@home.nl> wrote:
> On Saturday 19 July 2008 09:24:07 Avi Kivity wrote:
>> Jonathan Mezach wrote:
>> > Hi guys,
>> >
>> > I've recently gotten KVM to work on my Slamd64 12.1 machine running
>> > kernel 2.6.26. Once I got everything up and running I tried installing
>> > Windows Server 2008. The installation went fine and I can get
>> > everything up and running and it seems to be working fine. Only
>> > problem is that I cannot activate it. This problem seems to be caused
>> > by the Software Licensing service that crashes on startup. Apparently
>> > this service is needed for activation to work.
>> >
>> > I'm not sure if this is actually a KVM problem, but I can't believe
>> > that Microsoft would ship this if it's not working right, because
>> > without activation the system is pretty much useless. Also, the crash
>> > occurs in ntdll.dll, which as far as I know is the kernel, so it does
>> > seem to be some weird problem with the virtualization. So, I'm
>> > wondering if anyone has actually tried activating Windows Server 2008.
>> > The Wiki reports that Windows Server 2008 is supposed to work and
>> > well, it does, but if I can't activate it, it's useless.
>> > Of course,
>> > I'm using a legit version of Server 2008.
>>
>> I've just fixed a subtle-but-horrible bug affecting Windows Server
>> 2008.  In my tests, Windows would install, boot, and activate fine, but
>> every once in a while would crash in the kernel during boot.  Hopefully
>> the same bug caused the problem you're seeing as well.
>>
>> I'll release kvm-72 soon, please try it out.
>
> I've tried using the recent git tree, but the problem is still there. I did
> notice though that the QEMU window no longer has the /KVM added to it. Not
> sure if that has anything to do with it though.
> --
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe kvm" in
> the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
>

Actually the "/KVM" window decoration was just removed by one of the
patches sent today in the most recent git tree.

Re: Cannot activate Windows Server 2008

[Avi Kivity]

Jonathan Mezach wrote:
> I've tried using the recent git tree, but the problem is still there. I did 
> notice though that the QEMU window no longer has the /KVM added to it. Not 
> sure if that has anything to do with it though.
>   

I've installed and activated Windows Server 2008 Enterprise x64 here.  
Can you try a fresh install?  Perhaps your current image is corrupted in 
some way.

-- 
error compiling committee.c: too many arguments to function

Re: Cannot activate Windows Server 2008

[Jonathan Mezach]

Avi Kivity <avi <at> qumranet.com> writes:

> 
> Jonathan Mezach wrote:
> > I've tried using the recent git tree, but the problem is still there. I did 
> > notice though that the QEMU window no longer has the /KVM added to it. Not 
> > sure if that has anything to do with it though.
> >   
> 
> I've installed and activated Windows Server 2008 Enterprise x64 here.  
> Can you try a fresh install?  Perhaps your current image is corrupted in 
> some way.
> 

I did a fresh install already. My previous image was in fact corrupt, so I
removed the harddisk I had created and created a new one and then did a fresh
install from the DVD.

After I compiled the new stuff from the git tree I unloaded my KVM modules and
reloaded them, so that should make sure I was in fact using the new sources,
right? Maybe it is a processor specific issue? Are you using an AMD processor as
well?

Re: Cannot activate Windows Server 2008

[Avi Kivity]

Jonathan Mezach wrote:
> Avi Kivity <avi <at> qumranet.com> writes:
>
>   
>> Jonathan Mezach wrote:
>>     
>>> I've tried using the recent git tree, but the problem is still there. I did 
>>> notice though that the QEMU window no longer has the /KVM added to it. Not 
>>> sure if that has anything to do with it though.
>>>   
>>>       
>> I've installed and activated Windows Server 2008 Enterprise x64 here.  
>> Can you try a fresh install?  Perhaps your current image is corrupted in 
>> some way.
>>
>>     
>
> I did a fresh install already. My previous image was in fact corrupt, so I
> removed the harddisk I had created and created a new one and then did a fresh
> install from the DVD.
>
> After I compiled the new stuff from the git tree I unloaded my KVM modules and
> reloaded them, so that should make sure I was in fact using the new sources,
> right? Maybe it is a processor specific issue? Are you using an AMD processor as
> well?
>
>   

I was testing on Intel.  I'll retry on AMD.  Are you using a 
Barcelona-class processor (on a server, those are the quad cores)?


-- 
error compiling committee.c: too many arguments to function

Re: Cannot activate Windows Server 2008

[jmezach]

On Mon, 21 Jul 2008 17:48:17 +0300, Avi Kivity <avi@qumranet.com> wrote:
> Jonathan Mezach wrote:
>> Avi Kivity <avi <at> qumranet.com> writes:
>>
>>   
>>> Jonathan Mezach wrote:
>>>     
>>>> I've tried using the recent git tree, but the problem is still there.
> I did 
>>>> notice though that the QEMU window no longer has the /KVM added to it.
> Not 
>>>> sure if that has anything to do with it though.
>>>>   
>>>>       
>>> I've installed and activated Windows Server 2008 Enterprise x64 here.  
>>> Can you try a fresh install?  Perhaps your current image is corrupted
> in 
>>> some way.
>>>
>>>     
>>
>> I did a fresh install already. My previous image was in fact corrupt, so
> I
>> removed the harddisk I had created and created a new one and then did a
> fresh
>> install from the DVD.
>>
>> After I compiled the new stuff from the git tree I unloaded my KVM
> modules and
>> reloaded them, so that should make sure I was in fact using the new
> sources,
>> right? Maybe it is a processor specific issue? Are you using an AMD
> processor as
>> well?
>>
>>   
> 
> I was testing on Intel.  I'll retry on AMD.  Are you using a 
> Barcelona-class processor (on a server, those are the quad cores)?
> 
> 
>

No, I'm using an AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 5200+ according to
/proc/cpuinfo.