Re: [Qemu-devel] qemu version updates break Windows activation

[Ben Taylor]

On Thu, Nov 27, 2008 at 9:47 AM, Jamie Lokier <address@hidden> wrote:
> Avi Kivity wrote:
>> Frederik Himpe wrote:
>> >Every time qemu/kvm is updated, the version strings in the virtual
>> >hardware change, which breaks an activated windows installation in qemu.
>> >Windows thinks it's running on other hardware, and requires manual re-
>> >activation by phone.
>> >
>> >Could the version strings please be made optional in the hardware?
>> >
>> >
>>
>> Perhaps we should switch the version strings not to include the qemu
>> version, but instead carry their own version numbers, which would bump
>> on on incompatible change (presumably, never).
>
> Microsoft Virtual PC lets you override the version strings and UUIDs
> yourself for some things, I think.  They are in the XML VM description
> file, which is what you click on start a VM.
>
> This is helpful for moving existing VM images from one hypervisor to
> another without needing Windows re-activation.  VMware probably does
> the same, to be able to run Virtual PC images unchanged.

Being to set a bios string may also allow things like recovery disks
to be used in qemu (My HP recovery disks only boot on the system
it's built for, via a bios string - I discovered this while trying to make
it partition the disk differently during the restore).