Use BIOS boot instead of UEFI

Author: nightkr

README.md

@@ -25,20 +25,18 @@ It also assumes that the Kubernetes cluster and Windows VM will be running on th
 - A Windows Server installation ISO (download from https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/download-windows-server-2022)
 - A Kubernetes cluster (kind is suggested) running the Stackable Data Platform
 
-In addition, for a completely unattended installation, the ISO must be patched using cdrtools.
-
 When using Nix, you *need* to run inside `direnv` or `nix-shell` (which will provide Ansible for you). Nixpkgs's regular Ansible is *not* enough.
 
 ## Using it
 
 1. Put your Windows ISO in `target/Windows Server 2022 EVAL.iso` (or modify `install_iso_windows` to point at it)
 2. Run `ansible-playbook install.yaml -i inventory.ini`
-3. Open virt-manager
-4. When the VM appears, open it and answer the "press any key to boot" prompt (reboot the VM if you missed it)
-5. Wait for the playbook to complete
-    6. Done!
+3. Wait for the playbook to complete
+4. Done!
+
+### Completely unattended on UEFI (noprompt patch)
 
-### Completely unattended (noprompt patch)
+NOTE: This is mostly a note for any future remigration to UEFI. This patch is not required when using BIOS boot.
 
 The "press any key to boot" prompt can be disabled by patching the Windows ISO, but this requires a slightly manual one-time process as root:
 

roles/create-vm/defaults/main.yaml

@@ -21,13 +21,3 @@ install_iso_virtio_win: "{{ lookup('first_found', 'target') }}/virtio-win.iso"
 install_exe_spice_guest_tools_url: https://www.spice-space.org/download/windows/spice-guest-tools/spice-guest-tools-0.141/spice-guest-tools-0.141.exe
 install_exe_spice_guest_tools_checksum: sha256:b5be0754802bcd7f7fe0ccdb877f8a6224ba13a2af7d84eb087a89b3b0237da2
 install_exe_spice_guest_tools: "{{ lookup('first_found', 'guest-files') }}/spice-guest-tools.exe"
-
-# Some distributions don't ship firmware selection manifests, so we need to
-# provide an override ourselves.
-# vm_firmware_override will be set to the first candidate that exists, if any.
-vm_firmware_override: null
-vm_firmware_override_candidates:
-  # NixOS:
-  # https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/issues/115996, and
-  # https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/issues/318079
-  - /run/libvirt/nix-ovmf/OVMF_CODE.fd

roles/create-vm/files/windows-install-config/Autounattend.xml

@@ -15,39 +15,18 @@
       <DiskConfiguration>
         <Disk wcm:action="add">
           <CreatePartitions>
-            <CreatePartition wcm:action="add">
-              <Type>EFI</Type>
-              <Size>200</Size>
-              <Order>1</Order>
-            </CreatePartition>
-            <CreatePartition wcm:action="add">
-              <Type>MSR</Type>
-              <Size>200</Size>
-              <Order>2</Order>
-            </CreatePartition>
             <CreatePartition wcm:action="add">
               <Type>Primary</Type>
-              <!-- Will be extended to the full rest of the disk in ModifyPartition -->
-              <Size>1024</Size>
-              <Order>3</Order>
+              <Extend>true</Extend>
+              <Order>1</Order>
             </CreatePartition>
           </CreatePartitions>
           <ModifyPartitions>
             <ModifyPartition wcm:action="add">
               <Order>1</Order>
               <PartitionID>1</PartitionID>
-              <Format>FAT32</Format>
-            </ModifyPartition>
-            <ModifyPartition wcm:action="add">
-              <Order>2</Order>
-              <PartitionID>2</PartitionID>
-              <!-- MSR partition is managed by Windows, and cannot be formatted manually -->
-            </ModifyPartition>
-            <ModifyPartition wcm:action="add">
-              <Order>3</Order>
-              <PartitionID>3</PartitionID>
               <Format>NTFS</Format>
-              <Extend>true</Extend>
+              <Active>true</Active>
               <Letter>C</Letter>
             </ModifyPartition>
           </ModifyPartitions>

roles/create-vm/tasks/main.yaml

@@ -24,13 +24,6 @@
     url: "{{ install_exe_spice_guest_tools_url }}"
     checksum: "{{ install_exe_spice_guest_tools_checksum }}"
 
-- name: Find firmware path
-  set_fact:
-    vm_firmware_override: "{{ item }}"
-  with_first_found:
-    - files: "{{ vm_firmware_override_candidates }}"
-      skip: True
-
 - name: Create VM Network
   community.libvirt.virt_net:
     name: "{{ vm_network_hostnet_name }}"

roles/create-vm/templates/windows-vm.xml.j2

@@ -9,14 +9,9 @@
   <currentMemory unit="MiB">{{ vm_memory_mib }}</currentMemory>
   <vcpu placement="static">{{ vm_vcpus }}</vcpu>
   <os
-    {% if not vm_firmware_override %}
-      {# firmware=... actually controls *autodetection*, so only set if there is no override #}
-      firmware="efi"
-    {% endif %}>
+    {# EFI seems to vary more between distributions, and makes Windows always do the "press any key to install" prompt #}
+    {# firmware="efi" #}>
     <type arch="x86_64" machine="pc-q35-8.0">hvm</type>
-    {% if vm_firmware_override %}
-      <loader type='pflash'>{{ vm_firmware_override }}</loader>
-    {% endif %}
   </os>
   <features>
     <acpi/>