---
layout: wiki
title: HvmCreate
permalink: /wiki/HvmCreate/
---

Creating and using HVM (fully virtualized) domains in Qubes 2
=============================================================

What are HVM domains?
---------------------

HVM domains (Hardware VM), in contrast to PV domains (Paravirtualized domains), allow to create domains based on any OS, if one only has its installation ISO. E.g. this allows to have Windows-based VMs in Qubes.

Interested readers might want to check [​this article](http://theinvisiblethings.blogspot.com/2012/03/windows-support-coming-to-qubes.html) to learn why it took so long for Qubes OS to support HVM domains (Qubes 1 only supported Linuxed-based PV domains).

Creating an HVM domain
----------------------

First, lets create a new HVM domain (use the --hvm switch to qvm-create, or choose HVM type in the Qubes Manager VM creation dialog box):

``` {.wiki}
qvm-create win7 --hvm --label green
```

(Of course, the name of the domain ("win7"), as well as it's label ("green"), are just exemplary).

Now, we need to install an OS inside this VM, this can done by attaching an installation ISO upon starting the VM (this currently can be done only from command line, but in the future we surely will added an option to do this also from the manager):

``` {.wiki}
qvm-start win7 --cdrom=/usr/local/iso/win7_en.iso
```

The command above assumes the installation ISO was somehow transferred to Dom0, e.g. copied using `dd` command from an installation CDROM. If one wishes to use the actual physical media without copying it first to a file, then one can just pass `/dev/cdrom` as an argument to `--cdrom`:

``` {.wiki}
qvm-start win7 --cdrom=/dev/cdrom
```

Now, the VM will start booting from the attached CDROM device, which in the example above just happens to be the Windows 7 installation disk. Depending on the OS that is being installed in the VM, one might be required to start the VM several times (as is the case e.g. with Windows 7 installation), because whenever the installer wants to "reboot the system", it actually shutdowns the VM (and Qubes won't automatically start it), so several invocations of qvm-start command (as shown above) might be needed.

[![No image "r2b1-win7-installing.png" attached to HvmCreate](/chrome/common/attachment.png "No image "r2b1-win7-installing.png" attached to HvmCreate")](/attachment/wiki/HvmCreate/r2b1-win7-installing.png)

Using Installation ISOs located in other VMs
--------------------------------------------

Sometimes one wants to download the installation ISO from the Web and use it for HVM creation. However, for security reasons, networking is disabled for Qubes Dom0, which makes it not possible to download an ISO within Dom0. Also Qubes do not provide any (easy to use) mechanisms for copying files between AppVMs and Dom0, and generally tries to discourage such actions. So, it would be inconvenient to require that the installation ISO for an HVM domain be always located in Dom0. And the good news is that this is indeed not required -- one can use the following syntax when specifying the location of /usr/local/iso/win7\_en.iso the installation ISO:

``` {.wiki}
--cdrom=[appvm]:[/path/to/iso/within/appvm]
```

Assuming e.g. the an installation ISO named `ubuntu-12.10-desktop-i386.iso` has been downloaded in `work-web` AppVM, and located within `/home/user/Downloads` directory within this AppVM, one can immediately create a new HVM and use this ISO as an installation media with the following command (issued in Dom0, of course):

``` {.wiki}
qvm-create --hvm ubuntu --label red
qvm-start ubuntu --cdrom=work-web:/home/user/Downloads/ubuntu-12.10-desktop-i386.iso
```

[![No image "r2b1-installing-ubuntu-1.png" attached to HvmCreate](/chrome/common/attachment.png "No image "r2b1-installing-ubuntu-1.png" attached to HvmCreate")](/attachment/wiki/HvmCreate/r2b1-installing-ubuntu-1.png)

Setting up networking for HVM domains
-------------------------------------

TODO

Cloning HVM domains
-------------------

TODO

Installing Qubes support tools in Windows 7 VMs
-----------------------------------------------

TODO

Assigning PCI devices to HVM domains
------------------------------------

TODO

-   Manually disable/enable on resume from S3