Windows Server 2008 Xen HVM installation fails - Firmware (BIOS) is not ACPI compatible

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When attempting to install Windows Server 2008 as a Xen HVM domainU guest the installation process fails in the early stages with a status 0xc0000225 message which reads:

Info: Windows failed to load because the firmware (BIOS) is not ACPI compatible.

The entire error screen displayed by the Windows Server 2008 installer appears as follows:


Windows Server 2008 failing to installl under Xen


ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) provides an interface used by operating systems for hardware recognition, configuration and power management.

The reason this error is occurring is typically because ACPI has not been enabled in the Xen domainU configuration file for the Windows Server 2008 guest. By default this support is disabled, so unless it has been specifically enabled in the configuration file the Windows Server 2008 Xen installation will fail as outlined above.

ACPI support is enabled in the Xen domainU guest configuration file as follows:

# enable/disable HVM guest ACPI, default=0 (disabled)
acpi=1

Once the change has been made, the configuration file saved and the domainU guest restarted. The installation of the Windows Server 2008 system as a Xen HVM guest should proceed without any further problems:


Windows Server 2008 Installing as a Xen HVM Guest