UEFI Shell on Windows 11 Guest Install Attempt

Discussions about using Windows guests in VirtualBox.
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spflanze
Posts: 29
Joined: 4. Sep 2016, 05:37

UEFI Shell on Windows 11 Guest Install Attempt

Post by spflanze »

I have Ubuntu 22.04.1 running on a RAIDed, and encrypted, ZFS file system. I am attempting to install Windows 11 as a guest in VirtiualBox 6.1.34. The ISO filename is "Win11_English_x64v1.iso" which I downloaded directly from the MS website.

When I setup the VM I give it 140GB HDD disk space, and a share of RAM of 65MB which is 50% of available RAM on my system. When I attempt to run this Windows 11 VM, and select the ISO file, Windows 11 does not boot. What I get instead is a black window that displays this:

Code: Select all

UEFI v2.70 (EDK II, 0x00010000)
Mapping Table
  FS0: ...
  FS1: ...
  BLK0: Alias(s)s: ...
  BLK1: Alias(s)s: ...
  BLK2: Alias(s)s: ...
Shell>
Not all of what is there is shown above because I was not able to do a screen shot, or copy this text. In place of what is missing I put the "..." characters.

The above Shell prompt is responsive to keyboard commands. Its help commands show it has many of the UNIX commands.. I did not know what to do with this prompt. The mouse cursor disappeared. I was not able to make it appear again so to get out of this I had cycle computer power.

The above happened repeatedly regardless of whether I chose the VDI, VHD, or VMDK, file system, or chose a dynamic, or a static VD, for them.

What went wrong here?
scottgus1
Site Moderator
Posts: 20965
Joined: 30. Dec 2009, 20:14
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Windows, Linux

Re: UEFI Shell on Windows 11 Guest Install Attempt

Post by scottgus1 »

Type Exit at the shell prompt. You'll get a boot menu where you can boot from the VM's CD drive.
spflanze wrote:I was not able to do a screen shot
Regular screenshotting apps make good screenshots, especially PNGs, which can then be posted using the forum's Upload Attachment tab on the first day first post.
spflanze
Posts: 29
Joined: 4. Sep 2016, 05:37

Re: UEFI Shell on Windows 11 Guest Install Attempt

Post by spflanze »

I was not able to take screenshots because I did not have a functioning mouse. The mouse cursor disappeared.

I did as you suggest, and proceeded with the CD ROM selection, and got a Windows 11 installation window. I entered my license key, and then got a window with the message"
This PC can't run Windows 11
The mouse cursor appeared, and was functional again. A screen shot of the above message is the attached file "This Computer Can't Run Windows 11 2022-09-16_08-32.png". I went to the website given in this message, which forwards to:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows ... ifications
and did see where my VM configuration comes up short. The system resources I gave this VM are shown in the attached screen shot fie: "This Computer Can't Run Windows 11 2022-09-16_08-32.png" . When I originally received this computer it had Windows 10 on it. It is well capable of running Windows as the native OS.

Is there a way to get the Windows 11 installation program to indicate exactly what is missing?

Any suggestions on what might be missing would be appreciated.
Attachments
This Computer Can't Run Windows message window
This Computer Can't Run Windows message window
VM Configuration 2022-09-16_08-39.png (79.32 KiB) Viewed 2812 times
VirtualBox VM Configuration
VirtualBox VM Configuration
This Computer Can't Run Windows 11 2022-09-16_08-32.png (9.76 KiB) Viewed 2812 times
scottgus1
Site Moderator
Posts: 20965
Joined: 30. Dec 2009, 20:14
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Windows, Linux

Re: UEFI Shell on Windows 11 Guest Install Attempt

Post by scottgus1 »

6.1 does not present Windows-11-compatible 'hardware'. You'd need to use the web-publicized incompatible-hardware hacks for Windows 11 to get 11 into a 6.1 VM.

There is a 7.0 Beta Virtualbox which does present compatible 'hardware' viewtopic.php?f=15&t=107088. Note the warnings in the link.
spflanze wrote:I was not able to take screenshots because I did not have a functioning mouse. The mouse cursor disappeared.
That'll probably be because the mouse got captured by the VM, with no Mouse Integration active. Tapping the Host Key, see the VM's Status bar, lower right corner, probably Right Ctrl, will release the mouse back to the host.
spflanze
Posts: 29
Joined: 4. Sep 2016, 05:37

Re: UEFI Shell on Windows 11 Guest Install Attempt

Post by spflanze »

Thanks fort he tip about the mouse. I can now recover the mouse.

After reading this:
https://hothardware.com/news/windows-11 ... l-machines
it became apparent why I cannot install Windows 11. I do not want to trouble with hacks. So at least until the next version of VirtualBox is formally released, I have decided to make do with Windows 10. I had trouble installing Windows 10 also. Although the installation got a lot farther than did Windows 11, it ultimately failed. For that I will started this new thread: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=107138
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