v6.2.0-winrt-v3

QEMU that can emulate Windows on ARM (Windows RT)

Patched version by @driver1998 plus new UEFI firmware.

Fixed issues in this release:

• SD card performance problem (slow boot)

Prebuilt QEMU binaries are compiled with MSYS/MinGW64 for Windows x64 host.

While testing, make sure to use firmware binary from this release.

Configuration with boot priority: 1) SD card, 2) USB disk

This is how you install WoA from WinPE disk image, and then boot the system.

@echo off
set HDD=sdcard.vhd
set USB=winpe9600.vhd

qemu-system-arm ^
-M virt,highmem=false ^
-cpu cortex-a15 ^
--accel tcg,thread=multi ^
-m 2G ^
-bios QEMU_EFI_1512_driver1998.fd ^
-device VGA ^
-device usb-kbd,id=kbd ^
-device usb-tablet,id=mice ^
-drive id=mydrive,if=none,file=%HDD% -device sd-card,drive=mydrive ^
-drive id=usbstick,if=none,file=%USB% -device usb-storage,drive=usbstick ^
-rtc base=2013-07-15,clock=vm

Configuration with boot priority: 1) USB CD-ROM, 2) SD card

This is how you install WoA from CD/DVD ISO image, and then boot the system.

@echo off
set ISO=9600.17053.winblue_refresh.141120-0031_woafre_client_CoreARM_O15_en-us-IR5_CCSA_WOAFRER_EN-US.iso
set HDD=sdcard.vhd

qemu-system-arm ^
-M virt,highmem=false ^
-cpu cortex-a15 ^
--accel tcg,thread=multi ^
-m 2G ^
-bios QEMU_EFI_1512_driver1998.fd ^
-device VGA ^
-device usb-kbd,id=kbd ^
-device usb-tablet,id=mice ^
-drive id=usbcdrom,if=none,media=cdrom,format=raw,file=%ISO%,readonly=on -device usb-storage,drive=usbcdrom ^
-drive id=mydrive,if=none,file=%HDD% -device sd-card,drive=mydrive ^
-rtc base=2013-07-15,clock=vm

---

Result should look like this: https://twitter.com/x86corez/status/1523303255438028800

Tested Windows on ARM builds

• Windows RT beta - build 6.2.8330.0.armfre.fbl_woa.120424-2227
  • ❌ Windows PE - hangs on boot logo
  • ✔️ Full installation (works, however boot is not stable)
• Windows RT beta - build 6.2.8422.0.armfre.fbl_woa.120524-2000
  • ❌ Windows PE - not bootable
  • ✔️ Full installation (works, but not stable at all - harder to install than build 8330)
• Windows RT beta - build 6.2.8513.0.armfre.win8_gdr_soc_ti.120710-2000
  • ❌ Error Code: 0x0000005C (0x00000110, 0x05250631, 0x00000014, 0xC0000001) - both PE and full installation
• Windows RT - build 6.2.9200.16551.armfre.win8_gdr.130306-1502 (Surface RT 8.0 North America recovery)
  • ❌ Windows PE - hangs on boot logo
  • ❌ Full installation - Error Code: 0x0000005C (0x00000110, 0x05250631, 0x00000014, 0xC0000001)
• Windows RT 8.1 - build 6.3.9600.16452.armfre.winblue_gdr.131030-1505
  • ❌ KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED - both PE and full installation (SurfaceRT_BMR_10.8.17.0 recovery)
  • ❌ KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED - both PE and full installation (SurfaceRT_BMR_20.8.17.0 recovery)
• Windows RT 8.1 - build 6.3.9600.17328.armfre.winblue_r3.140827-1500
  • ✔️ Windows PE
  • ✔️ Full installation
• Windows 10 Enterprise - build 10.0.15035.0.woafre.rs2_release.170209-1535
  • ✔️ Windows PE
  • ✔️ Full installation
• Windows 10 Polaris - build 10.0.16299.241.armfre.rs3_release_svc_sec.180102-2128
  • ✔️ POLARIS_BOOT - boots to Windows logo
  • ✔️ POLARIS_INSTALL - boots to black screen
• Windows 10 PE - build 10.0.17763.1.armfre.rs5_release.180914-1434
  • ❌ Hangs on boot logo
• Windows Server 2016 Datacenter Nano - build 10.0.20308.1.armfre.fe_release.210305-1700
  • ❌ ContainerOS - not bootable
  • ❌ UtilityVM - not bootable

Known issues:

• USB EHCI emulation is not perfect and may get broken, especially during installation
  • Workaround to fix input, enter commands in compatmonitor0:
  • Reattach keyboard: device_del kbd then device_add usb-kbd,id=kbd
  • Reattach mouse: device_del mice then device_add usb-tablet,id=mice
• Older beta builds like 8330 and 8422 will throw an exception on reboot
  • It may be a problem with ResetSystemLib - need to double check
• Works only on 1 CPU core, it's possible to add more, but they are not being started:
  • ACPI MADT table is missing
  • MpPark protocol is not implemented in CPU
  • WFI has to be handled
  • Each CPU should have own GIC
• Not tested on Linux with KVM yet, maybe SMP will work there

---

Appendix A - building UEFI firmware:

UEFI firmware was built on Debian 11 with GCC 11.

git clone https://github.com/driver1998/edk2-winrt
cd edk2-winrt
make -C BaseTools
source edksetup.sh
export GCC49_ARM_PREFIX=arm-linux-gnueabihf-
build -a ARM -t GCC49 -b RELEASE -p ArmVirtPkg/ArmVirtQemuWinRt.dsc