Created attachment 202340 [details]
Screenshot of the issue

Copying my reply to a message list answer here:

Fortunately, I know what this might be, since the first windows guest I've tried my initial unattended install code is windows XP 2 years ago and I've hit this issue.

What most likely is going on here is a slight mismatch on the floppy image size used to hold the unattended install file. If I recall correctly, I was trying to provide 1.44 M to dd at the time to create the floppy.

Then we switched to qemu-img and 1440k as the size, so the idea of creating a floppy that Windows XP will like (and so all the other OS) is:

c_cmd = '%s create -f raw %s 1440k' % (qemu_img_binary, path)
utils.run(c_cmd, verbose=DEBUG)
f_cmd = 'mkfs.msdos -s 1 %s' % path
utils.run(f_cmd, verbose=DEBUG)
m_cmd = 'mount -o loop,rw %s %s' % (path, self.mount)

This is from

https://github.com/autotest/autotest/blob/master/client/virt/tests/unattended_install.py

I have a class there that prepares the file like this, copies the unattended file to the mount point [1], and then we're done, unmount the path. There we have a ready floppy image that Windows XP will happily accept.

I was looking over and over unattended-installer.vala and what is going on on your floppy creation code:

    private async void create_floppy_image (Cancellable? cancellable) throws GLib.Error {
        var floppy_file = File.new_for_path (floppy_path);
        var template_path = get_unattended_dir ("floppy.img");
        var template_file = File.new_for_path (template_path);

        debug ("Creating floppy image for unattended installation at '%s'..", floppy_path);
        yield template_file.copy_async (floppy_file, 0, Priority.DEFAULT, cancellable);
        debug ("Floppy image for unattended installation created at '%s'", floppy_path);

        created_floppy = true;
    }

Analyzing the floppy file

[lmr@freedom data]$ file floppy.img
floppy.img: x86 boot sector, mkdosfs boot message display, code offset 0x3c, OEM-ID " mkdosfs", sectors/cluster 4, root entries 512, sectors 4096 (volumes <=32 MB) , Media descriptor 0xf8, sectors/FAT 3, heads 64, serial number 0x46d6dab4, label: "           ", FAT (12 bit)
[lmr@freedom data]$ du -sh floppy.img
20K    floppy.img

This certainly doesn't look like a well formed floppy, at least for Windows XP standards. I see that you copy the unattended file using mcopy

        debug ("Copying unattended file '%s' into floppy drive/image '%s'", unattended_dest_name, floppy_path);
        // FIXME: Perhaps we should use libarchive for this?
        string[] argv = { "mcopy", "-i", floppy_path,
                                   unattended_tmp_path,
                                   "::" + unattended_dest_name };
        yield exec (argv, cancellable);

So, although this seems fine at a first look, it's not good enough for WinXP standards Perhaps you guys are open to a more traditional approach like the one we use on our unattended code?

Created attachment 202601 [details] [review]
Regenerate floppy image using qemu-img

Regerated using following commands:

* qemu-img create -f raw floppy.img 1440k
* mkfs.msdos -s 1 floppy.img

With this fix, express install works for Windows XP now. \o/

Acked-by: Lucas Meneghel Rodrigues <lmr@redhat.com>

Attachment 202601 [details] pushed as 721c6fa - Regenerate floppy image using qemu-img