Cannot get a Windows 11 VM to boot off the image

Apps and Virtualization
1

Running Truenas 25.10.2.1, and trying to bring up a Windows 11 VM. I’ve never been able to get this to work with Windows, and it’s probably something dumb I am doing.

I have an ISO set as the CD drive. It’s owned by libvirt-qemu :

-rwxrwx— 1 libvirt-qemu libvirt-qemu 7736125440 Nov 13 10:01 Win11_25H2_English_x64.iso
-rwxrwx— 1 libvirt-qemu libvirt-qemu 8317444096 Feb 18 12:11 en-us_windows_11_business_editions_version_25h2_updated_feb_2026_x64_dvd_9271bf68.iso

I’ve tried both of these images, and neither seems to even try to boot. Here’s the error log from the Serial shell console:

BdsDxe: loading Boot0001 "UEFI QEMU DVD-ROM QM00001 " from PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1F,0x2)/Sata(0x0,0xFFFF,0x0)
BdsDxe: starting Boot0001 "UEFI QEMU DVD-ROM QM00001 " from PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1F,0x2)/Sata(0x0,0xFFFF,0x0)
BdsDxe: failed to start Boot0001 "UEFI QEMU DVD-ROM QM00001 " from PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1F,0x2)/Sata(0x0,0xFFFF,0x0): Time out
BdsDxe: failed to load Boot0002 "UEFI QEMU HARDDISK hVYA2jdJ " from PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1F,0x2)/Sata(0x1,0xFFFF,0x0): Not Found
BdsDxe: loading Boot0003 “EFI Internal Shell” from Fv(7CB8BDC9-F8EB-4F34-AAEA-3EE4AF6516A1)/FvFile(7C04A583-9E3E-4F1C-AD65-E05268D0B4D1)
BdsDxe: starting Boot0003 “EFI Internal Shell” from Fv(7CB8BDC9-F8EB-4F34-AAEA-3EE4AF6516A1)/FvFile(7C04A583-9E3E-4F1C-AD65-E05268D0B4D1)
BdsDxe: failed to start Boot0003 “EFI Internal Shell” from Fv(7CB8BDC9-F8EB-4F34-AAEA-3EE4AF6516A1)/FvFile(7C04A583-9E3E-4F1C-AD65-E05268D0B4D1): Security Violation
BdsDxe: No bootable option or device was found.
BdsDxe: Press any key to enter the Boot Manager Menu.

I assume the problem is the “Time out” on the CD drive. What should I do to make some sort of progress here? Thanks.

2

If the issue is the timeout, once it fails to boot, in the VM console, type: exit

That will get you to the BIOS options where you can go into the boot options and select which drive to boot from.

3

The issue with the timeout is that TrueNAS ships OVMF_VARS_4M.ms.fd (UEFI NVRAM) with only 2011 Microsoft PK/KEK/db keys. Get an older ISO and it’ll probably not be rejected.

4

I’ve tried selecting the DVD in the boot loader. It’s not that.

5

Can you elaborate here? What would constitute an older ISO?

6

I checked that ISO that release should boot just fine. Some months back there was a release that did not. Did you press that any key they are asking you to press to boot into the ISO? :slight_smile:

7

Yes, I select the DVD drive from the BIOS, and it boots, asks to press any key to boot, I press the key, and then it boots, then reboots and back to the prompt.