How to Install Windows 8 in Linux with QEMU

Microsoft has just released Windows 8 Consumer Preview. Here’s a method to install Windows 8 in Linux using KVM and Qemu. You can use this beta version of Windows 8 until the 15th of January 2013, after which it will be unusable.

Here are the requirements to install Windows 8:

1 GHz Processor or greater
1 GB RAM
20 GB free storage for the 64-bit version

Before you start, make sure your processor supports Intel Virtualization Technology (VT) or AMD’s AMD V CPU virtualization extensions. Type this command to check vmx or svm flags:

egrep --color "(vmx|svm)" /proc/cpuinfo

1	egrep --color "(vmx\|svm)" /proc/cpuinfo

If this is the case, you can install KVM. Type the following command for RPM-based distributions such as Fedora:

sudo yum install kvm

1	sudo yum install kvm

or the following command for Debian or Ubuntu:

sudo apt-get install qemu-kvm

1	sudo apt-get install qemu-kvm

Then download the ISO image of Windows 8 on Microsoft website (64-bit version) :

wget http://iso.esd.microsoft.com/WCPDL/BD1B8A49393E30CC9C4E5C88457D73E964F1F3B18/Windows8-ConsumerPreview-64bit-English.iso

1	wget http://iso.esd.microsoft.com/WCPDL/BD1B8A49393E30CC9C4E5C88457D73E964F1F3B18/Windows8-ConsumerPreview-64bit-English.iso

Create a 20 GB virtual hard drive to install Windows 8:

dd if=/dev/zero of=disk.img bs=1G count=20

1	dd if=/dev/zero of=disk.img bs=1G count=20

Then start the virtual machine with qemu-kvm and the correct parameters:

qemu-kvm -m 1024 -hda disk.img -cdrom Windows8-ConsumerPreview-64bit-English.iso -boot order=cd &amp;

1	qemu-kvm -m 1024 -hda disk.img -cdrom Windows8-ConsumerPreview-64bit-English.iso -boot order=cd &

Here’s the Product Key: <removed due to DMCA request>

If you need to start Windows 8 after it has been installed, use the following command:

qemu-kvm -m 1024 -hda disk.img

1	qemu-kvm -m 1024 -hda disk.img

Press Ctrl + Alt to revert the keyboard/mouse control to the host machine.

If you have an older processor that does not support virtualization extensions, you can use VMWare Player 4.0.2 to install Windows 8.

Adapted from instructions on Tuxplanet (in French).

Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)

Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.