Hyper-V Support?

ptr727 · November 29, 2016 at 3:56 PM

Hi, I would like Hyper-V support in order to easily test builds, specifically Plex Media Player embedded builds.
Why Hyper-V, because it comes included in Windows 10, free of charge in Pro editions, no need to install any 3rd party VM software.

It seems like the Hyper-V networking and video drivers are not included in the build.

I created a blank boot 1GB VHDX disk.
I wrote the install image to the mounted VHDX disk using Active Data studio, WinImage works but gives an error.
I created a type 1 VM, and added the boot VHDX as the boot drive.
Boot the VM, install on second VHDX, remove the boot VHDX from config, reboot.
System boots, no video driver detected, and waits for networking, that never starts.

If Hyper-V support will not be added to the native image, is there a way I can add it myself?

Thanks

**CvH** · November 29, 2016 at 4:40 PM Official Post

Quote from ptr727

is there a way I can add it myself?

probably yes, just have a look how we get it working for VMWare (we have working images for it) - its not that easy to maintain all of the drivers, virtualbox for example is kind of broken because they don't offer a working driver.
LibreELEC-Virtual.x86_64-7.90.008.ova

ptr727 · November 30, 2016 at 8:52 PM

Thx, can you please point me to the build scripts?

I'd also like you to consider Hyper-V as a first class citizen, it is part of Win10, and Linux it is actively supported by Microsoft.

**CvH** · November 30, 2016 at 11:14 PM Official Post

pls have a look here Search · vmware · GitHub
maybe you get how "much" is necessary
We have currently no interest of doing it by our self (because nobody from the team is using Hyper V), if someone pr the necessary changes we are happy to include it.

**chewitt** · December 1, 2016 at 7:41 AM Official Post

If you do the changes we promise Hyper-V will be neglected equally to vmware and vbox. Virtual is an internal testing tool not a "supported" project for broad public consumption. We have no objections to a few people using it as long as the support status is clearly understood. Some in the wider community would like Virtual to be taken seriously and supported, but as none of them want to step forward and act as its maintainer it's current status is unlikely to change anytime soon.

ptr727 · December 1, 2016 at 3:04 PM

Understood, and that is fair.

Can you still please point me to the scripts?

One last thought;
I see an overlap between users with unsupported hardware drivers, and some of those drivers being for VM environments.
What about a driver injection tool, similar to how image servicing works in Windows, where standard tools exists to inject drivers into boot / WIM images.
Such a tool, friendly enough for advanced end users, no Linux required, may be generally useful (vs. a user needing to be sufficiently skilled to build their own distribution)?

**lrusak** · December 1, 2016 at 5:26 PM Official Post

Quote from ptr727

Understood, and that is fair.

Can you still please point me to the scripts?

GitHub - LibreELEC/LibreELEC.tv: Just enough OS for KODI

Quote from ptr727

One last thought;
I see an overlap between users with unsupported hardware drivers, and some of those drivers being for VM environments.
What about a driver injection tool, similar to how image servicing works in Windows, where standard tools exists to inject drivers into boot / WIM images.
Such a tool, friendly enough for advanced end users, no Linux required, may be generally useful (vs. a user needing to be sufficiently skilled to build their own distribution)?

no, we are a small embedded distribution with a read only squashfs filesystem.

marc.bau · January 1, 2018 at 1:54 PM

Would also like to see hyperv as it is included with windows 10. Drivers are available in the mainline kernel... so just add the hyperv-daemons package and we are done.

**chewitt** · January 1, 2018 at 3:56 PM Official Post

For official dev purposes vmware does what we need, and we don't formally support it. If the community wants Hyper-V support, the community needs to band together and create/maintain a community release that provides it. If we see strong demand we can always later adopt the changes, but from experience virtual things are very niche. In its heydey the 'Virtual' image saw a maximum of 38 users. That would currently be 0.0001% of our userbase.

**CvH** · January 1, 2018 at 4:32 PM Official Post

Arch Linux - hyperv 4.14-1 (x86_64) doesn't looks too easy/trivial

Also Hyper-V would be nice to have as it is shipped with Windows so you have no need for an VMWare licence for proper usage (as the free VMWare Player is rather limited).

But like chewitt said, we stop nobody to pr a working solution, our time is also limited and the possible gain here is rather small.

marc.bau · January 1, 2018 at 4:55 PM

It is a bit difficult to repro and test bugs in production systems... I cannot create such a PR myself because of lack of knowledge.

hspijker · April 22, 2019 at 10:22 AM

Hallo, I'm a complete novice to Linux. I'm using a (dated) PC as a HTPC for more than 12Yrs now.

Due to the coming eol of win7 next year, I'm looking for another OS.

I don't want to watch TV when win10 is (forced) updating, of course win10 is not an option for HTPC purpose.

I found this nice distro, " KODI ONLY" sound OK to me, especially because I'm using KODI under win7, and my hw is dated, but no need to change it..

Win7 is provided with a VM (Windows virtual PC), so I'ld like to test this distro as a replacement of my current os. But this VM is only bootable via CD, USB/SD drives are not supported,

Is there a possibility to boot this distro with a CD? Or is there another way to get it running under de windows virtual PC? Or do I need another OS to be able to test a HTPC under virtual PC?

Regards Hein

**chewitt** · April 22, 2019 at 11:48 AM Official Post

Create an installation USB. Boot from it. Hit the keyboard at the syslinux boot prompt and type "run" and it will run from USB instead of installing.

hspijker · April 27, 2019 at 4:40 PM

Unfortunately, the ' Windows virtual PC' is not able to boot from the installation USB

**chewitt** · April 27, 2019 at 4:49 PM Official Post

Sorry I missed that. We have an (unsupported) OVA for vmware that we use for development work but Virtual PC, VirtualBox, Parallels, HyperV, KVM etc. all require drivers that we don't have in the distro images. There's no plan to change that.

hspijker · May 3, 2019 at 3:50 PM

Ok, Thanks for your replay.

I'll continue with NT 6.1 as a HTPC I believe browsers and other programms are still supported even after the EOL.

Regards,

Hein

renne · May 10, 2019 at 9:22 AM

I'd like to run Libreelec in a KVM on a Debian 10 NAS to reduce device and cabling clutter. The x86_64 installer does not detect VirtIO storage devices but changing SATA to VirtIO after installation works.

The show-stopper is Xorg failing to start on the passed-through Geforce GT-710. Debian 10 + GNOME works fine in the same VM.

I suggest to support running Libreelec in VMs on the lots of X86 NAS devices used today.

**aptalca** · May 10, 2019 at 2:31 PM

LE on VMs already work as long as the gpu is passed through correctly.

The problem is the virtual graphics drivers. Only the VMware virtual graphics driver is supported in the ova.

But passthrough graphics work. I ran LE that way via kvm for years