Re: Windows 11/EFI firmware settings

[Josh Thompson <jo...@ncsu.edu>]

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Hi Joe,

Sorry for the late response.

At NCSU, we're only using KVM hosts now.

- From what I'm reading about VMware, a virtual TPM device needs to be defined 
for the VM, which can't be done by just adding entries to the vmx file - it 
apparently has to be done using the vSphere Client or making an API call to 
VMware.  I don't think the basic VCL VMware provisioning module can make API 
calls.  It may be possible to modify the vSphere_SDK module to do it.

The alternative is to disable TPM in Windows 11 during installation.  If I 
remember correctly, that's what we did for running it under KVM, though it 
does look like KVM can also be configured for vTPM.

Did you stick with adding "firmware" => "efi" to VMware.pm, or did you come up 
with another way of handling Windows 11?

We'd really like to get a release out that officially supports Windows 11 as 
well as some more updated ways of interacting with Linux.  Unfortunately, our 
available development time is really low.

Josh

On Monday, August 11, 2025 11:37:52 AM Eastern Daylight Time Joseph Fischetti 
wrote:
> Good morning,
> We've had a VCL deployment for quite a while (long before my time with the
> university).  I rolled out 2.5.x way back in 2017, and it's been mostly
> hands off with the exception of image creation and permissions each
> semester for the handful of faculty that are using it.
> 
> I'm curious what the current state is.  The mailing list archive is
> unsearchable (the links from the site don't load).  And the github repo
> says "Last year" for the most recent update.
> 
> We need to get windows 11 in our VCL and the only workaround I could come up
> with was adding `"firmware" => "efi",` to `%vmx_parameters` in
> `lib/VCL/Module/Provisioning/VMware/VMware.pm`.  Obviously NOT the right
> solution but an immediate fix.
> 
> When I search in my email for 'vcl.apache.org' and 'windows 11' or 'win11',
> I've got nothing (though there was some windows 10 discussion back in
> 2020/2021.  If this has been discussed before, apologies.  Similarly I get
> nothing meaningful in the github repo with similar searches.
> 
> I haven't gone down the 2.5.2 rabbit hole yet but I will if there's some
> confirmation on either efi (+secure boot + tpm) or generic win11 in a
> virtualized environment.
> 
> Thanks
> Joe Fischetti
> Marist University

- -- 
- -------------------------------
Josh Thompson
VCL Developer
North Carolina State University

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