bhyve In bhyve, how to boot bios like winxp?

Annalesa · Sunday at 2:30 AM

I don't find BHYVE_UEFI_CSM.fd in bhyve-firmware or edk2-bhyve

AlfredoLlaquet · Sunday at 3:43 AM

WinXP only works with BIOS. Bhyve cannot emulate BIOS, only UEFI. You can try using VirtualBox or QEMU.

Annalesa · Tuesday at 12:37 PM

AlfredoLlaquet said:
WinXP only works with BIOS. Bhyve cannot emulate BIOS, only UEFI. You can try using VirtualBox or QEMU.

I just like bhyve, really no way?

AlfredoLlaquet · Tuesday at 12:40 PM

Annalesa said:
I just like bhyve, really no way?

I don't think so. If there was, I guess another user would've corrected me. Maybe they will now. Maybe there's a way. Wait and see if anyone else has something to pitch in.

gotnull · Tuesday at 3:03 PM

In the the wiki, there is a list of supported windows versions, windowsXP is not mentioned:

Supported Windows Versions:
bhyve supports Windows desktop versions Vista, 7, 8/8.1/8.2, 10 and 11, and Windows Server versions 2008/2008R2, 2012/2012R2, 2016, 2019, 2022, and 2025.

jardows · Tuesday at 3:13 PM

I suppose it may be possible using the grub2-bhyve loader? Though getting a working Windows installation without using the UEFI graphics stack would be a lot of work. It may be more reliable and easier to just use QEMU.

Emrion · Tuesday at 3:28 PM

The main problem is: Windows needs a graphical output. You get that on bhyve with the UEFI frame buffer. Well, you can try to passthru a graphical card connected to a monitor. It so uncertain that I will never try this.

vermaden evoked a complex solution with the help of an install under VirtualBox and then convert/patch the image for bhyve (I suppose it needs to run under UEFI). I don't even want to know how to do.

AlfredoLlaquet · Tuesday at 4:10 PM

The most recent reference of vermaden about getting Windows XP to run on Bhyve using VirtualBox as a middle step, as Emrion has commented, that I can find is this one:

FreeBSD Bhyve Virtualization

The Bhyve FreeBSD hypervisor (called/spelled ‘beehive’ usually) was created almost 10 years ago. Right now it offers speed and features that other similar solutions provide – such…

vermaden.wordpress.com

I don't think he ever even tried, though. I may be wrong. Maybe he's not very busy and he can share a little of his immense knowledge in this thread.

covacat · Tuesday at 4:21 PM

you don't need graphical output to run windows vms (in the sense that the host can be headless)
you can use rdesktop after it's installed and vnc before
i run headless windows vms and i ran an xp vm in the past on virtualbox on a headless server

covacat · Tuesday at 4:25 PM

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7GygKu5WL4&t=79s

Emrion · Tuesday at 5:38 PM

covacat said:
you can use rdesktop after it's installed and vnc before

How to use vnc before? How to install something you can't install without graphic output?
That's not clear but the topic is complicated and not really of any interest from my point of view. Of course, it's possible as you did it (and maybe vermaden as well).

But, seriously, will it worth the work and the headaches? I mean, I use the right tool for what I want to achieve. bhyve isn't this tool, VirtualBox is. I won't try to screw a screw with a hammer.

covacat · Tuesday at 5:51 PM

the virtualization hosts provides a fake vga/vesa device to the guest. guests output to the fake device is shown by the vnc server (provided also by the virtualization system (bhyve/qemu/vbox))

hedwards · 2026-02-04T23:25:43+0000

covacat said:
the virtualization hosts provides a fake vga/vesa device to the guest. guests output to the fake device is shown by the vnc server (provided also by the virtualization system (bhyve/qemu/vbox))

Yes, IIRC, I've had Win XP running in both VBox and Qemu. I haven't gotten around to trying it under Bhyve. As long as the VM shows something that the OS thinks is a video card compatible of displaying the output, things should be fine.