Hello all!
I am trying to set up a Windows 7 VM so that I can use an older dye-sublimation printer that only has a Win7 driver to make some high-quality prints of various photos. I am using Virt-Manager 4.1.0 to build a QEMU/KVM session; steps 1 through 5 of the creation process for a new VM go smoothly, and when I click on Finish to start building the VM, it allocates the resources correctly, then Windows starts loading, then it halts at the first screen where you’re supposed to select language, time, and keyboard formats. Up until this point I have a controllable cursor, but when I click on the “Next” button in the client window, the cursor disappears and doesn’t do anything (i.e. doesn’t select “Next”). The only way to get my cursor back is to use the L-CTRL and L-ALT combination keystroke, but the Windows installer routine is stuck at that spot:
Ubuntu Version: 22.04.2 LTS
Desktop Environment: GNOME
Problem Description:
Based on what I’ve found online, I believe my problem is rooted in the fact that I’m using a wireless USB mouse, but I can’t figure out what I’m missing to make it work. In building the VM, I’ve done the following:
- Manually set the CPU topology to one socket, with 2 CPU cores
- Allocated to the VM 8GB of the 16GB available in the machine
- Allocated 80 GB out of over 600 GB on /dev/sda6 as SATA DISK 1
- Assigned the Win7.iso to SATA CDROM 1
- Assigned virtio-win-0.1.266.iso to SATA CDROM 2
- Ensured Virtual Input Device was set to EvTouch USB Graphics Tablet in Absolute Movement mode
- Added a USB Mouse and USB Keyboard via the Add Hardware button
I’ve also tried using the QEMU/KVM menu option Virtual Machine>Redirect USB Device; it gives me 3 options:
- SPICE CD (empty)
- Logitech USB Receiver at 3-60 (wireless mouse and keyboard receiver)
- RealTek 802.11ac Receiver at 3-3 (my WiFi adapter)
But if I choose the Logitech USB receiver, my whole computer freezes for about 5 minutes, then when it returns to normal, the Logitech option has been deselected.
Relevant System Information:
Dell OptiPlex with i7-4790 (8 cores), 16 GB RAM, 2.0 TB storage. The only thing out of the ordinary for this machine is that it has a USB WiFi adapter, and USB wireless keyboard/mouse. The keyboard and mouse receiver is shared with a separate Win11 machine via a KVM switch, which works for switching between the Ubuntu machine and Win11 machine just fine, but may be a monkey wrench in the works when dealing with VMs…
Screenshots or Error Messages: see above…
What I’ve Tried:
I’ve listed all of the modifications to the default VM-builder options above; if anyone sees something that could be done, I’m all ears. I appreciate in advance any and all suggestions…
Bill