From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1L5i9j-0004R4-0H for qemu-devel@nongnu.org; Thu, 27 Nov 2008 09:47:47 -0500 Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1L5i9h-0004On-HX for qemu-devel@nongnu.org; Thu, 27 Nov 2008 09:47:46 -0500 Received: from [199.232.76.173] (port=54213 helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1L5i9h-0004OZ-7b for qemu-devel@nongnu.org; Thu, 27 Nov 2008 09:47:45 -0500 Received: from mail2.shareable.org ([80.68.89.115]:48673) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS-1.0:RSA_AES_256_CBC_SHA1:32) (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1L5i9g-0007GE-Mx for qemu-devel@nongnu.org; Thu, 27 Nov 2008 09:47:44 -0500 Received: from jamie by mail2.shareable.org with local (Exim 4.63) (envelope-from ) id 1L5i9e-0005hK-Qb for qemu-devel@nongnu.org; Thu, 27 Nov 2008 14:47:42 +0000 Date: Thu, 27 Nov 2008 14:47:42 +0000 From: Jamie Lokier Subject: Re: [Qemu-devel] qemu version updates break Windows activation Message-ID: <20081127144742.GI18400@shareable.org> References: <492EB0EA.50103@redhat.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <492EB0EA.50103@redhat.com> Reply-To: qemu-devel@nongnu.org List-Id: qemu-devel.nongnu.org List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , To: qemu-devel@nongnu.org Avi Kivity wrote: > Frederik Himpe wrote: > >Every time qemu/kvm is updated, the version strings in the virtual > >hardware change, which breaks an activated windows installation in qemu. > >Windows thinks it's running on other hardware, and requires manual re- > >activation by phone. > > > >Could the version strings please be made optional in the hardware? > > > > > > Perhaps we should switch the version strings not to include the qemu > version, but instead carry their own version numbers, which would bump > on on incompatible change (presumably, never). Microsoft Virtual PC lets you override the version strings and UUIDs yourself for some things, I think. They are in the XML VM description file, which is what you click on start a VM. This is helpful for moving existing VM images from one hypervisor to another without needing Windows re-activation. VMware probably does the same, to be able to run Virtual PC images unchanged. -- Jamie