Install Windows 11 in LXD

Install Windows 11 as a LXD virtual machine using a dedicated LXD profile and updated virtio drivers. At the end of this article is some information about templating.

Tools

These are the tools needed if you use Ubuntu 22.04 LTS:

sudo snap install distrobuilder --classic
sudo apt -y install libwin-hivex-perl wimtools genisoimage virt-viewer

Note: remote-viewer (added by virt-viewer) is the recommended Spice client. See the Spice User Manual for more information.

Installation image

Go to Microsoft’s page to Download Windows 11 and download the Windows 11 Disk Image (ISO) for x64 devices.

On the same page, after selecting the language, you should find the SHA256 of the iso.

On directory where you have the ISO create a hash result file. For Windows 11 23H2 x64 English (United States) edition:

echo '71A7AE6974866603D366A911B0C00EACE476E0B49D12205D7529765CC50B4B39 Win11_23H2_English_x64.iso' > Win11_23H2_English_x64.sha256

then check the hash of the downloaded image. The command:

sha256sum -c Win11_23H2_English_x64.sha256

should return Win11_23H2_English_x64.iso: OK

Prepare the ISO execute:

sudo distrobuilder repack-windows Win11_23H2_English_x64.iso win11.lxd.iso

Create a dedicated LXC profile for Windows 11

lxc profile create win11

lxc profile set win11 limits.cpu=4
lxc profile set win11 limits.memory=8GiB

lxc profile device add win11 root disk \
    path=/ pool=default size=64GiB

lxc profile device add win11 eth0 nic \
    name=eth0 network=lxdbr0

lxc profile device add win11 vtpm tpm path=/dev/tpm0

# if you want audio
lxc profile set win11 raw.qemu='-device intel-hda -device hda-duplex'

Install Windows 11

lxc init win11vm --vm --empty --profile=win11

lxc config device add win11vm \
    install_media disk source=/absolute_path_to_the_prepared_iso/win11.lxd.iso \
    boot.priority=9

lxc start win11vm --console=vga

To reconnect to vm’s console use:

lxc console win11vm --type=vga

After Windows 11 is installed disconnect the install disk:

lxc config device remove win11vm install_media

Virtio drivers

Method 1

From virtio-win / virtio-win-pkg-scripts select the virtio-win direct-downloads full archive link, download virtio-win-gt-x64.msi and execute it.

Method 2

If you are offline or the previous method does not work for some reason, use this method.

From virtio-win / virtio-win-pkg-scripts download the Stable virtio-win ISO and add it to the Windows 11 virtual machine:

lxc config device add win11vm virtio_win disk source=/absolute_path_to_the_iso/virtio-win-0.1.240.iso

then, in Windows 11 virtual machine, execute virtio-win-gt-x64.msi.

When done remove the virtio-win disk:

lxc config device remove win11vm virtio_win

Templating

Make all the settings you want.

You can use Sysprep to generalize the Windows installation. There is more to be said about Sysprep but the simplest usage is:

Sysprep /generalize /shutdown

When the virtual machine is stopped you can create an image with:

lxc publish win11vm --public --alias=my_windows_11