Post History

How does one create a Windows (11 25H2) VM with GPU passthrough (in Fedora 42)?

#### My Desire

To summarise, I want to create a Windows 11 25H2 Enterprise [Insider Preview Canary](https://github.com/massgravel/Microsoft-Activation-Scripts/discussions/1134#discussioncomment-14780084) virtual machine on my Fedora 42 installation. Ideally, via `virt-manager` (because `VirtualBox` taints the kernel).

However, I don't know whether anything needs to be modified to achieve this, what that would be if so, nor how to verify, when achieved, that it *is* operative (except by playing a game).

To elaborate:

#### My Environment

My OS (and DE) are, per `/etc/os-release`:

<blockquote>

~~~ini
NAME="Fedora Linux"
VERSION_ID=42
VARIANT="KDE Plasma Desktop Edition"
~~~

</blockquote>

#### Effort Undertaken To Achieve This

I have installed `virt-manager` (per `rpmreaper`):

<blockquote>

~~~YAML
L      3.5M virt-manager              5.0.0-2.fc42.noarch
        229K ├─> gtk-vnc2                  1.5.0-3.fc42.x86_64
        133K ├─> libvirt-glib              5.0.0-6.fc42.x86_64
         29K ├─> python3                   3.13.9-1.fc42.x86_64
         20K ├─> python3-gobject           3.50.0-3.fc42.x86_64
        282K ├─> spice-gtk3                0.42-6.fc42.x86_64
        6.2M ├─> virt-manager-common       5.0.0-2.fc42.noarch
        1.0M ├─> vte291                    0.80.4-1.fc42.x86_64
        316K │┌> dconf                     0.40.0-15.fc42.x86_64
 l      305K ├┴> dconf                     0.40.0-15.fc42.i686
       23.1M │┌> gtk3                      3.24.49-2.fc42.x86_64
       24.0M └┴> gtk3                      3.24.49-2.fc42.i686
~~~

</blockquote>

However, `VirtualBox` is also available to me.

I err on not bothering to add `amd_iommu=on` to `/etc/default/grub`, because IOMMU support appears to be detected without it, as [`discussion.fedoraproject.org/t/73815/3`](https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/t/adding-intel-iommu-on-to-kernel-command-line/73815/3) explains.

I don't know what else needs to be done, nor how to verify; the information online is sparse, terse, and inconsistent.

#### My Rationale

If relevant, I want it on a VM because:

1. As [`superuser.com/a/1865269`](https://superuser.com/a/1865269/904401) explains, I have had it install its EFI on the wrong storage device, causing a reinstallation of another OS to cause it to become inaccessible. This matters on a machine with solely NVMe-based storage.

1. When I *last* installed the desired OS, it added its EFI stub to every storage device, and reordered my EFI boot order. It does this after most feature updates.

I merely want to reinstall because:

1. As [`reddit.com/r/techsupport/comments/1l1wwsj/comment/nlbi86c`](https://www.reddit.com/r/techsupport/comments/1l1wwsj/comment/nlbi86c/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) cites, Windows Update always somehow becomes inoperative for me, despite me never touching the preinstalled MSIX/AppX packages, or the WU service.

1. When I *last* installed the desired OS, it would not exceed a 300 by 600-pixel display resolution, because the Basic Display Adapter failed to load, requiring a reinstallation.

Fedora is my primary OS, so I prioritise it.