Cannot install Windoze guest from an XP iso

[DavidTangye]

I have no CD drive, so I made an iso from a CD using the linux command:

Code: Select all

dd if=/dev/hdc of=winxp.iso

The iso can be mounted and looked into under linux, so I think its ok.
I have run booted the iso file as a cd image in a virtual machine. The windows installer completes part 1, copying files out of the iso and into the virtual machine's virtual hard disk. However when the windows installer reboots, it immediately looks for the CD as D: drive, and fails at that point.

Is there a way to fix this?

Can Windows guests be built using isos?

[frank]

This is definitely possible. Did you attach the .iso permanently or using the startup wizard? Because in the latter case, the .iso is unmounted after the first reboot of the guest. Just mount the .iso image permanently and try again.

[DavidTangye]

Thanks for the reply.

I think that the cd is set for permanent mounting, because if I look into the Settings for the VM, under the CD/DVDROM section, "Mount CD/DVD Drive" is checked, and the correct iso image file is in the input box. This image does boot, as I get the Windows splash screen, then Windows reports onscreen 'Setup is being restarted'. The Windows startup script fails with an error message box "Installation Failed: D:\I386\asms. Error Message: The parameter is incorrect."

If I try to access a file below the top level of the mounted iso I get an error "Short read on old iso." I do not know what that means, but it seems that my iso file creation failed. Do Windows XP CDs have some sort of copy protection that fails even a low level command like "dd (devicename)"? How else should I get a Windows iso under linux?[/img]