Could have put this in Linux talk

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Viewing 9 posts - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)
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  • August 29, 2019 at 11:04 pm #36187
    D-DanD-Dan
    Participant
      @d-dan
      Forumite Points: 6

      Because I just wanted to (no other reason) I decided to make a portable USB drive that would boot to Win 10.
      Now, as most will know, Windows 10 ties itself to the HW it’s installed on, so I had a cunning plan. Virtualisation. install a minimum Linux system (Arch in my case), xorg and virtualbox. Install Windows to a VM in VB, write a bash script to modify the VM depending on the HW, and boom. Off we go.

      I was using a bare Win 10 install pending receipt of a Win 10 Pro key, which arrived today, so booted the fake Windows (as in virtual) tonight, activated – which worked no problem, except – Windows now has to update itself to pro. 2.5 hours later, it finally finished.

      Booted back to my usual desktop (Arch again) and full update took 1.5 minutes.

      Is it any wonder I prefer Linux? Not even sure the portwin will remain activated. I’ll know in the morning. But 2.5 hours…..?!?!?!?

      Arch Linux, on a Ryzen 7 1800X, 32 GB, 5 (yes -5) HDs inc 5 SSDs, 4 RPi 3Bs + 1 RPi 4B - one as an NFS server with two more drives, PiHole (shut yours), Plex server, cloud server, and other random Pi stuff. Nice CoolerMaster case, 2 x NV GTX 1070 8GB, and a whopping 32" AOC 1440P monitor.

      August 30, 2019 at 7:23 am #36203
      Dave RiceDave Rice
      Participant
        @ricedg
        Forumite Points: 7

        The update to Pro usually takes 2.5 minutes. The differences between Home and Pro aren’t great.

        I suspect what you actually did was a major version upgrade and on a slow USB drive inside virtualization I’m not surprised.

        August 30, 2019 at 8:39 am #36210
        D-DanD-Dan
        Participant
          @d-dan
          Forumite Points: 6

          It’s a USB3 SSD, so not that slow, though I suspect you may be right regarding the major version upgrade. Virtualisation barely impacts on performance, since the host is doing next to nothing other than running X and the virtualisation container.

          Arch Linux, on a Ryzen 7 1800X, 32 GB, 5 (yes -5) HDs inc 5 SSDs, 4 RPi 3Bs + 1 RPi 4B - one as an NFS server with two more drives, PiHole (shut yours), Plex server, cloud server, and other random Pi stuff. Nice CoolerMaster case, 2 x NV GTX 1070 8GB, and a whopping 32" AOC 1440P monitor.

          August 30, 2019 at 9:26 am #36211
          Ed PEd P
          Participant
            @edps
            Forumite Points: 39

            Assuming you have a usb3 attached SSD, the big problem with virtualising Windows (or even Linux) is the i/o bus. Unless you have a completely separate adapter any i/o or Internet activity on the host can cause the guest to lock up for a period of time. (I suspect that a deadly embrace or race condition is taking place)

            As I know Dan will question Linux causing issues this can happen during the period after boot as Linus looks for or tries to download updates. In this situation Internet activity on the host will make the guest unresponsive.

            As I use virtualisation for nearly everything, my dream PC would be one with two or more separate i/o buses and some way of ensuring the guest and host use different ones.

            August 30, 2019 at 11:01 am #36218
            Dave RiceDave Rice
            Participant
              @ricedg
              Forumite Points: 7

              All I can say is that having done the Home to Pro upgrade many times – you can buy the same laptop with Home much cheaper than with Pro installed – it does only take minutes. So something else is clearly going on, it’s not “Windows being Windows”.

              Putting any product in a situation it’s not designed for and then calling it out isn’t really a test.

              August 31, 2019 at 9:47 am #36268
              D-DanD-Dan
              Participant
                @d-dan
                Forumite Points: 6

                If I’m honest it was only the upgrade that was noticibley slow. Everything is fine in normal usage, so it may, indeed, be a race condition somewhere, though I suspect between the update and the VM.

                The host OS is minimal Arch, which doesn’t run off and check for updates unless you specifically tell it to (fun fact, there is an AUR package called checkupdates specifically to that, though it’s not installed on the Arch host. I wanted as little as I could get away with on the host to get VB running with a desktop Windows).

                Probably worth reporting that I have, in fact, managed to get a truly portable Windows 10 installation going this way. I can plug the drive in any machine capable of booting from USB and boot (aesthetically) straight to Windows.

                I had to write a bash script on the Linux side to modify the VM to suit the host hardware (specifically RAM and CPU count – VB insists on reserving 30% of RAM for the host), though it’s such a short and easy script, and completes before VB is launched, that can’t be the issue.

                Arch Linux, on a Ryzen 7 1800X, 32 GB, 5 (yes -5) HDs inc 5 SSDs, 4 RPi 3Bs + 1 RPi 4B - one as an NFS server with two more drives, PiHole (shut yours), Plex server, cloud server, and other random Pi stuff. Nice CoolerMaster case, 2 x NV GTX 1070 8GB, and a whopping 32" AOC 1440P monitor.

                August 31, 2019 at 5:09 pm #36295
                Wheels-Of-FireWheels-Of-Fire
                Participant
                  @grahamdearsley
                  Forumite Points: 4

                  Ever since Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 all versions of Windows have had exactly the same code base. Even upgrading from Home to Enterprise server only involves changing a few registry entries. The first time an upgraded system is booted there is a tiny amount of reconfiguration to be done but it should take seconds.

                  The only exception to the above is if you had installed a MinWin version of windows such as Windows Core Server because it only installs whats needed to load and manage Hyper V virtual machines.

                  August 31, 2019 at 10:50 pm #36314
                  D-DanD-Dan
                  Participant
                    @d-dan
                    Forumite Points: 6

                    Dunno what to say – the download itself during the update process took an age, so there was clearly a lot more than registry changes going on, and this despite the unactivated install being fully up to date. Perhaps I just got unlucky with a major update at the same time (and there was a complete version bump involved – now 1903).

                    Arch Linux, on a Ryzen 7 1800X, 32 GB, 5 (yes -5) HDs inc 5 SSDs, 4 RPi 3Bs + 1 RPi 4B - one as an NFS server with two more drives, PiHole (shut yours), Plex server, cloud server, and other random Pi stuff. Nice CoolerMaster case, 2 x NV GTX 1070 8GB, and a whopping 32" AOC 1440P monitor.

                    September 1, 2019 at 9:00 am #36325
                    Dave RiceDave Rice
                    Participant
                      @ricedg
                      Forumite Points: 7

                      Yep, you got upgraded to the latest version.

                      I know it’s USB3 but a memory stick is still way slower than a HDD. At least that’s it for another year ?

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