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Windows 11 example for x86-64 - #369

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Windows 11 example for x86-64#369
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@dreamliner787-9 dreamliner787-9 commented Jul 28, 2026 •
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Desktop guest OS now works reliably on top of mainline libvmm, running on QEMU.

  • Ubuntu 26.04, works out of the box.
  • Windows 10, need to install virtIO drivers via the Windows installer GUI, otherwise works out of the box.
  • Windows 11, same as Windows 10, but need TPM and Secure Boot bypass, otherwise works out of the box.

For Windows to work, a kernel patch is required to enable Intel APICv (hardware accelerated APIC virtualisation) until I can get my RFC below ratified.

This is not quite ready yet, but opening a PR to keep track.

TODOs for me to get this finalised:

  • Complete RFC-24: Add support for Intel APICv seL4/rfcs#37
  • Ensure the above get integrated into Microkit.
  • Add Windows/Ubuntu boot into CI somehow. I'm thinking we have a golden image on the CI runners, then have an app that prints something to COM1 when Ubuntu/Windows get to the desktop. Unsure of licensing implications, something to look into.
  • Write down how to install Windows 10 or 11 on the VM. Especially the latter since the process is a bit complicated, maybe I can automate it.

Nice to haves before merging this:

  • Investigate turning on xsaves and AVX in Microkit for better performance.
  • Separately upstream any libvmm changes in this branch.
  • Implement MSI-X.

Things to look into post-merging:

  • Support multiple VCPUs on x86-64 #368
  • Boot Windows on hardware. The main challenge is getting video out of the VM, other than that I don't think there are any huge issues, since I already got OVMF booting on hardware.
  • On the topic of video, maybe I need to look into emulating, or providing a solid mechanism to passthrough a proper GPU some how. Right now I just passthrough the bochs-display device on QEMU.
  • Emulate an NVMe SSD rather than a virtIO block device, so users don't have to install the virtIO drivers. Same applies for networking.

Closes #279.

Example of Windows 11 virtualised on libvmm, running on QEMU, i.e. nested virtualisation. But it still runs with great performance all things considered:
image
image

Ubuntu:
image

@dreamliner787-9
cp -r examples/virtio_pci examples/windows
68af6c8 
Except for ARM stuff, Linux and Buildroot config files.

Signed-off-by: Bill Nguyen <bill.nguyen@unsw.edu.au>
@dreamliner787-9
examples/windows: renamed and purged stuff from virtio_pci
bc8b61e 
Signed-off-by: Bill Nguyen <bill.nguyen@unsw.edu.au>
@dreamliner787-9
examples/windows: +QEMU RAM, fix virtio regs moving, +bochs-display
2656df3 
Signed-off-by: Bill Nguyen <bill.nguyen@unsw.edu.au>
@dreamliner787-9
examples/windows: rm serial subsystem + boot UEFI
897df0c 
Signed-off-by: Bill Nguyen <bill.nguyen@unsw.edu.au>
@dreamliner787-9
x86_64: implement QEMU bochs-display passthrough
1b29e85 
Signed-off-by: Bill Nguyen <bill.nguyen@unsw.edu.au>
@dreamliner787-9
examples/windows: add bochs-display passthrough
1637976 
Signed-off-by: Bill Nguyen <bill.nguyen@unsw.edu.au>
@dreamliner787-9
guset_ram: bump max to 3 regions
433122d 
For above 4G region on x86

Signed-off-by: Bill Nguyen <bill.nguyen@unsw.edu.au>
@dreamliner787-9
examples/windows: bump guest RAM to 11G
b039fa3 
Signed-off-by: Bill Nguyen <bill.nguyen@unsw.edu.au>
@dreamliner787-9
examples/windows: passthrough kb + mouse
e04c560 
Signed-off-by: Bill Nguyen <bill.nguyen@unsw.edu.au>
@dreamliner787-9
examples/windows: handle all IRQ passthrough
7f2308c 
Signed-off-by: Bill Nguyen <bill.nguyen@unsw.edu.au>
@dreamliner787-9
examples/windows: fix BSOD inaccessible boot device
a590623 
Turns out Windows is very strict on ACPI DSDT parsing. The PCI devices
need an interrupt link device. The Link devices must have all the
methods even if they are dummy, else the Windows' resource arbiter will
not accept the interrupt and fail the viostor driver binding process.

Signed-off-by: Bill Nguyen <bill.nguyen@unsw.edu.au>
@dreamliner787-9
examples/windows: purge linux
6ada6ab 
Signed-off-by: Bill Nguyen <bill.nguyen@unsw.edu.au>
@dreamliner787-9
examples/windows: fix PS/2 KB+M not working on Windows
1e7fe3c 
We need to tell Windows that our virtual PCI bridge decodes I/O Ports
range that these legacy devices live in.

Signed-off-by: Bill Nguyen <bill.nguyen@unsw.edu.au>
@dreamliner787-9
HACK: enable Intel APICv operation
b222034 
Signed-off-by: Bill Nguyen <bill.nguyen@unsw.edu.au>
@dreamliner787-9
checkpoint windows 10+11 working on QEMU, just need APICv kernel patch
af2f3be 
main things that need to be cleaned up from this commit are:

- investigate MSR changes
- investigate xsaves and avx in microkit

Signed-off-by: Bill Nguyen <bill.nguyen@unsw.edu.au>
@dreamliner787-9
x86_64: implement VM Exit counting
96fb2dd 
Signed-off-by: Bill Nguyen <bill.nguyen@unsw.edu.au>
@dreamliner787-9
x86_64/apic: minor typo fix
71c8f71 
Signed-off-by: Bill Nguyen <bill.nguyen@unsw.edu.au>
@dreamliner787-9
examples/windows: metaprogram clean ups
6fe2378 
Signed-off-by: Bill Nguyen <bill.nguyen@unsw.edu.au>
@dreamliner787-9
x86_64/msr: handle IA32_TSC_ADJUST read
6c51313 
Windows like to read this sometimes. If we don't handle it then it will
triple fault.

Signed-off-by: Bill Nguyen <bill.nguyen@unsw.edu.au>
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Create a Windows 10/11 example for x86-64

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