Windows XP x64 SP2 UEFI VirtIO running as bhyve VM

[Bosko]

Hi everyone,

this is my first post as this forum has been extremely helpful to me to get the Windows XP x64 SP2 running under bhyve on my TrueNAS Core server not wanting to brag but thank to everyone and possibly help someone else that wants to go through similar thing.

The process was roughly as follows:

1. Install Windows XP x64 SP2 on Virtualbox (in my case using iSCSI for easier testing on VM Host) with RedHat VirtIO Network driver (booting with ICH6 IDE on ICH9 chipset selection)
2. Install VMWare SVGA II display driver and delete vga.sys and vgapnp.sys with corresponding registry keys, also delete disable emulation registry key and reboot (still legacy)
3. Install Generic_AHCI_1.0 from George King's driver pack
4. Make the installed Windows XP x64 SP2 boot under pure UEFI (using UefiSeven, UEFI:NTFS and AHCI) under Virtualbox with great help of this forum
5. Shutdown virtualbox and boot same VM on bhyve using AHCI driver and 512 byte sector size
6. Fiddle around with cleaning up the unnecessary and nonfunctional drivers (several reboots required)
7. Eventually uninstall too much and break the VM that did not boot anymore. Restore from backup. Repeat. Several times
8. After cleaning up, add one more disk to VM, this time with VirtIO interface.
9. Install VirtIO drivers from RedHat (there is no XP x64 version so i used 2003 64bit version), reboot, possibly two or three times
10. The second disk visible and working under Windows XP x64 SP2, total success
11. Uninstall and remove AHCI drivers, shutdown
12. Remove second disk and set Windows boot disk to VirtIO

I intentionally did not write versions and detailed paths to the above, possibly also forgot a step or two, if more details needed ask away

There were issues with stability, that now after getting rid of AHCI and with working VirtIO i hope will go away. Still testing. Fingers crossed.