PopOS - VM Windows 11 24H2 install fails at 95% with popup window suggesting a restart that brings us back to the same state

[PythonesqueSpam]

PopOS - VM Windows 11 24H2 install fails at 95% with popup window suggesting a restart that brings us back to the same state

I have a physical drive partition labelled (WinApps) formatted to ext4 that I want to use to store the VM data.img, Windows.iso etc. files and downloaded the install image directly from Microsoft for Windows 11 24H2.

I've podman, podman desktop, podman-compose installed and am using this compose.yaml:

# For documentation, FAQ, additional configuration options and technical help, visit: https://github.com/dockur/windows

name: "winapps" # Docker Compose Project Name.
volumes:
  # Create Volume 'data'.
  # Located @ '/var/lib/docker/volumes/winapps_data/_data' (Docker).
  # Located @ '/var/lib/containers/storage/volumes/winapps_data/_data' or '~/.local/share/containers/storage/volumes/winapps_data/_data' (Podman).
  # data:
services:
  windows:
    image: ghcr.io/dockur/windows:latest
    container_name: WinApps # Created Docker VM Name.
    network_mode: "host"
    cap_add:
      - NET_ADMIN  # Add network permission
    environment:
      # Version of Windows to configure. For valid options, visit:
      # https://github.com/dockur/windows?tab=readme-ov-file#how-do-i-select-the-windows-version
      # https://github.com/dockur/windows?tab=readme-ov-file#how-do-i-install-a-custom-image
      VERSION: "11"
      RAM_SIZE: "8G" # RAM allocated to the Windows VM.
      CPU_CORES: "6" # CPU cores allocated to the Windows VM.
      DISK_SIZE: "256G" # Size of the primary hard disk.
      # DISK2_SIZE: "32G" # Uncomment to add an additional hard disk to the Windows VM. Ensure it is mounted as a volume below.
      USERNAME: "MyWindowsUser" # Edit here to set a custom Windows username. The default is 'MyWindowsUser'.
      PASSWORD: "MyWindowsPassword" # Edit here to set a password for the Windows user. The default is 'MyWindowsPassword'.
      HOME: "${HOME}" # Set path to Linux user home folder.
    # ports:
    #   - 8006:8006 # Map '8006' on Linux host to '8006' on Windows VM --> For VNC Web Interface @ http://127.0.0.1:8006.
    #   - 3389:3389/tcp # Map '3389' on Linux host to '3389' on Windows VM --> For Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP).
    #   - 3389:3389/udp # Map '3389' on Linux host to '3389' on Windows VM --> For Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP).
    stop_grace_period: 120s # Wait 120 seconds before sending SIGTERM when attempting to shut down the Windows VM.
    restart: on-failure # Restart the Windows VM if the exit code indicates an error.
    volumes:
      #- data:/storage # Mount volume 'data' to use as Windows 'C:' drive.
      - /mnt/WinApps:/storage
      - ${HOME}:/shared # Mount Linux user home directory @ '\\host.lan\Data'.
      #- /path/to/second/hard/disk:/storage2 # Uncomment to create a virtual second hard disk and mount it within the Windows VM. Ensure 'DISK2_SIZE' is specified above.
      - ./oem:/oem # Enables automatic post-install execution of 'oem/install.bat', applying Windows registry modifications contained within 'oem/RDPApps.reg'.
      #- /path/to/windows/install/media.iso:/custom.iso # Uncomment to use a custom Windows ISO. If specified, 'VERSION' (e.g. 'tiny11') will be ignored.
      - /media/pythonesquespam/Ventoy/Custom.iso:/custom.iso # <-- Windows 11 Win11_24H2_EnglishInternational_x64
      - /mnt/IronWolves:/IronWolves # <-- mount your RAID
    devices:
      - /dev/kvm # Enable KVM.
      - /dev/net/tun # Enable tuntap
      # Uncomment to mount a disk directly within the Windows VM.
      # WARNING: /dev/sdX paths may change after reboot. Use persistent identifiers!
      # NOTE: 'disk1' will be mounted as the main drive. THIS DISK WILL BE FORMATTED BY DOCKER.
      # All following disks (disk2, ...) WILL NOT BE FORMATTED.
      # - /dev/disk/by-id/<id>:/disk1
      # - /dev/disk/by-id/<id>:/disk2
      #- /dev/nvme0n1p6:/disk1
    group_add:      # uncomment this line and the next one for using rootless podman containers
      - keep-groups # to make /dev/kvm work with podman. needs "crun" installed, "runc" will not work! Add your user to the 'kvm' group or another that can access /dev/kvm.
    tmpfs:
      - /run/samba

I've spent a solid couple of days trying to get this working but it's just too hacking oriented and I want productivity, not wasted effort going through infinite fixes with no end in sight. This isn't rocket science, it should be trivial to get a VM working through a GUI, not messing about with bash as though we've gone back to 1980 and DOS. I dumped Windows because it was bloated and slow. Now it seems Linux is trim but brittle. There's got to be a middle ground.. sorry for venting.

[oskardotglobal]

Have you tried this without the custom ISO? Also, I think your secondary mount for /mnt/ironwolves should be mounted to /storage2, but double-check with the dockur/windows docs to be sure

[oskardotglobal]

Also, setting up the container with host networking is probably a bad idea