Extremely slow VM iso first boot

TrueNAS General
1

Hi all.

I am trying to install Ubuntu Server in the native TrueNAS VM manager:

1 CPU (host CPU is a 12600K)
2 cores
2 threads per core
100GB disk (on a SATA SSD)
8 GB RAM
Have tried both Host Model and Host Passthrough (honestly not sure when you’d use either, but have tried both)
Virtio
Ensure Display Device enabled

Trying to install Ubuntu Server 24.04.2 from iso that is in a different dataset on the same SSD (I have a “vms” dataset, with both “iso” and “ubuntu” datasets within it for images and the actual VM we are talking about respectively).

I can sit there in Spice for 30 minutes and still not have booted to the actual installation screen (I select “Try or Install Ubuntu Server” from the boot loader). Is this normal? Some steps seem to take an actual age. For example, I’ve been looking at a flashing cursor below “[ OK ] Finished systemd-update-done.service - Update is Completed.” for like 5 minutes now.

Am I missing something? Is this normal?

2

Have run Ubuntu server in a Scale VM for over a year with much the same install as you listed but always SSH into it and avoid using Spice. My install is different these ways:
2GB RAM
UEFI
No storage preset
Custom Host- No passthroughs

Ubuntu is a ZVOL with only the ISO image also in the dataset.