In this blog post, I will show you how to install and setup Fedora Workstation 29 in Hyper-V. Since Hyper V comes shipped with Windows OS (Except Home Edition), chances are that you already have Hyper V available in your system, ready to be used.

Please note that – Fedora is not supported on Hyper-V. As such, installation has some issues. For example, after the installation completes, you will be asked to restart the VM. You will see that the process gets stuck at “Starting GNOME Session”. Luckily, there is a way to get around this issue as explained from step 15 on wards to fix issue

Download Fedora Workstation

You can download Fedora Workstation from here. Default option is to create installation media using media creation tool.

But I prefer to download the ISO file, link to which is available under Other Options section on the download page. Choose 64 bit version for Hyper-V.

What is Hyper-V

Hyper V is a virtualization software from Microsoft which allows you to run multiple Operating system on your Windows Machine. Hyper V is exactly like VMware Workstation or Oracle VirtualBox, except that Hyper V is from Microsoft and is available for free for almost all the versions of Windows except Home version.

Which Windows Version Supports Hyper V and how to Enable it

Since Hyper V is a part of Windows OS, separate installation is not required. But Hyper-V is not enabled by default and to use it, it needs to be enabled. To enable Hyper V, the following requirements must be met.

• Windows 10 Enterprise, Professional, or Education
• 64-bit Processor with Second Level Address Translation (SLAT)
• CPU support for VM Monitor Mode Extension (VT-c on Intel CPU’s)
• Minimum of 4 GB memory.
• The Hyper-V role cannot be installed on Windows 10 Home.

For detailed discussion please go through my blog on how to enable Hyper V in Windows.

Enable Virtualization Technology either Intel VT-x or AMD-V

To enable Hyper V, system must have Virtualization Technology Enabled in BIOS. For AMD processors, Virtualization is enabled by default, but in the case of Intel, VT-x may not be enabled by default. So, there are steps to be followed to enabled Intel VT in BIOS or UEFI. Please follow my post on Step by step guide to enable Intel VT-x or AMD-V in BIOS or UEFI in Windows 10 and Windows 8.

Before you start installing Kali Linux, we will have to create network connection switch first. Please follow the steps below

• Open Hyper-V Manager
• Click Virtual Switch Manager under action on the right pane in Hyper-V Manger screen
  

  Hyper V- Virtual Switch Manager

• Select External and click on create virtual switch.
  

  Hyper V Manager – Create New Virtual switch

• In the Virtual Switch properties dialog box, specify the name of your choice of the virtual switch and under Connection Type -> External Network, select your system Ethernet card and not your WiFi card. Click on OK to complete the process.
  

  Hyper V Manger – Virtual Switch Properties

Once you have Hyper V setup successfully, Please follow the below steps to Install Fedora Workstation 29

Step 1 – Open Hyper V Manager

First step is to open Hyper V manager. If you have setup everything correctly, you can search for Hyper-V Manager in Taskbar or you can find the shortcut in Start Menu under Windows Administrative tools.

On the right hand side you will see New-> Virtual Machine. Click on Virtual Machine to launch New Virtual Machine Wizard and click Next.

Step 2 – New Virtual Machine Wizard – Specify Name and Location

In this dialog box, please enter the name of the Virtual Machine. In Our case, we can name our Virtual machine as Kali Linux. But you can specify anything according to your preference. There is a checkbox to chnage the location where the Virtual Machine Files will be created. If you leave this unchecked, default location will be used. Else Check the box to change the location. I normally leave it as default. But if you have disk space constraints, it better to specify the location in a different disk drive.

Step 3 – New Virtual Machine Wizard – Specify Generation

These days you can create two versions(Generation) of Virtual Machines. The latest one is Generation 2. Before generation 2 type virtual machines came into existence, there was nothing like generation 1 virtual machines. All virtual machines were the same. But from generation 2 virtual machines, older virtual machines were called generation one virtual machines. Generation one virtual machines supports legacy hardware. Generation 2 Provides the following new functionality on a virtual machine:

• PXE boot by using a standard network adapter
• Boot from a SCSI virtual hard disk
• Boot from a SCSI virtual DVD
• Secure Boot (enabled by default)
• UEFI firmware support

We will be creating Generation 2 virtual machine. Select Generation 2 and click next.

Step 4 – New Virtual Machine Wizard – Assign Memory

In this dialog box you will have to specify the amount of RAM you want to allocate to the virtual machine once the virtual machine is turned on. By default it is 1GB(1024 MB), but I normally prefer 2GB(2048 MB). Also, check Use Dynamic Memory for this Virtual Machine. This will allow Hyper V to adjust RAM according to the requirement of the Virtual machine.

Step 5 – New Virtual Machine Wizard – Configure Network

For virtual machines to be be able to communicate with other virtual machines or internet, it should have a network adapter. In this dialog box you will have to specify the network adapter. Please choose connection(external virtual virtual switch) from the drop down menu and click on next.

Step 6 – New Virtual Machine Wizard – Connect Virtual Hard Disk

Virtual Machines require hard disk space. This is the place where you decide how much disk space you want to allocate to the virtual machine. For Kali, its recommended to select around 60 GB of disk space. Give Virtual disk a name of your choice. Please note that, not all of the allocated disk space will be used during the installation process. It is dynamically created, that is it will expand as the usage grows with the maximum limit of what you specify as the virtual disk size. Give the name of the virtual hard disk, specify the disk space and click next.

Step 7 – New Virtual Machine Wizard – Installation Option

In this dialog box you will be asked to specify the setup media. Check Install an operating system from bootable CD/DVD-ROM -> Image File. Browse to the downloaded ISO image file and click next.

Step 8 – New Virtual Machine Wizard – Completing the New Virtual Machine Wizard

This dialog box will show you the summary of the options you have selected. Click Finish to create the Virtual Machine. You will see the process for creating new virtual machine will begin. At the end end you will see Hyper-V Manager with the newly created virtual machine under Virtual Machine Box.

Step 9 – Hyper-V Manager- Virtual Machine Settings

After the virtual machine is created, you will see the name of the virtual machine listed under Virtual Machines.

Right click on the name of the virtual manager and click on settings to change Virtual machine Options. You will also see settings option on the right hand side, as shown in the screenshot below.

You can change the following most common virtual machine startup settings such as memory, network, CPU and so on…

1. Change Allocated Memory

   here you can specify the memory with which the Virtual machine will start or boot. I normally choose 2048 MB(2 GB) and always check Enable Dynamic Memory.

   

   Hyper V – Virtual Machine – Memory Settings

2. Change the number of Virtual processor

   Here you can specify the number of Virtual processors. Normally I set it to 2. It depends on the actual CPU your system has. Since I have i7 CPU (Which has 8 cores), I Normally allocate 2 core to the Virtual Machine.

   

   Hyper V Manager – Specify Processors for Virtual machine

3. Secure Boot

   Since we are using Generation 2 VM, you will have to enable Secure boot. You will see Secure Boot option only if you have created Generation 2.

   Select the Template as “Microsoft UEFI Certificate Authority”
   

   

   Hyper-V Settings – Secure Boot

4. IDE Controller

   Here you can create virtual Hard drives and DVD drives. By default, one Hard Disk and one DVD drive is created. If you want additional ones, you can create it here.

   

   Hyper V Manager – Virtual Machine Settings – IDE Controller

5. Network Adapter

   Here you can specify the network adapter to use for the Virtual machine.

   

   Hyper V Manager – Virtual machine Network Adapter settings

6. Floppy Drive

   Here you can specify the floppy drive. Floppy drives and things of the the past and almost extinct. You can leave it as default which is none.

   

   Hyper V Manager – Virtual machine Floppy Drive settings

7. Enable RemoteFX 3D Video Adapter

   Enabling RemoteFX 3D Video Adapter give you access to rich graphics such as enabling full screen mode. This step is optional, but recommended.
   Go to settings and click on Add hardware. You will see RemoveFX 3D Video Adapter. Click on that and click Add.

   

   Hyper-V Settings – Add hardware

   Make your selection from the drop down boxes and click OK.

   

   Hyper-V settings – RemoteFX 3D Video Adapter settings

8. Change Virtual machine name

   If you wish to change the name of the virtual machine, you can do it here.

   

   Hyper V manager – Virtual machine Name

Step 10 – Connect to virtual machine

Now lets get started with the installation process. Click on the Virtual machine name you have created and click on start. This will start the Fedora VM. If you don’t see a new window popup, select click on connect. You will see the Virtual Machine window.

You will see the below screen if you click on connect.

Once the VM starts, you will see the Fedora option. Hit enter to “Start Fedora-Workstation-Live 29”

You will see Fedora Startup process begin

Step 11 – Login to Fedora Live

You will see the Live Fedora Boot up

Click on the screen or hit enter, now you will see the Live System User login screen.

Click on LiveSystem User to login. You will see two options, Try Fedora and Install to Hard Disk. Click on Install to Hard Disk to start the installation process.

Step 12 – Select Language

In this screen you will be asked to enter your preferred language. I choose English and United States. You can use the arrow keys to make your preferred language selection. Click on Continue.

Step 13 – Installation Summary

In Installation summary, you will be asked to specify the Keyboard, Date and time and Installation destination.

• Keyboard Layout-

I always choose US – English Keyboard type. If you want to change it, click on Keyboard and you will see the keyboard options based on your selection of language earlier. Since I choose English, I can see English Keyboard Layout only here.

If you see multiple keyboard options, use the arrow key to make your selection and click on Done to go back to the Installation Summary screen.




Fedora Workstation 29 – Installation summary – Keyboard Setup

• Date/Time Setup

To change the Date/Time zone, click on Data/Time. You will see the world map. You can either select the time zone from the drop down list or by clinking on the map. Click on Done to make your selection and go back to the Installation summery



Fedora Workstation 29 – Installation Summary – Date/Time setup

• Installation Destination

Here you will have to select the disk to use for installation. Click on Installation Destination and select the default disk listed under Local Standard Disk and click on done to go back to Installation summary.



Fedora Workstation 29 Installation Summary – Installation Destination

Step 14 – Installation Summary – Begin Installation

Once you have specified the installation destination, you will can click on the Begin Installation button to start the installation process.

You will see that the installation process will begin. Wait for it to complete.

Step 15 – Installation Complete

Once installation is complete, you will be asked to Reboot the system. Click on Quit.

After you click on quit, you will return to the Fedora Desktop.

Before restarting make sure that installation ISO has not been ejected. Go to Media -> DVD Drive -> Make sure that Fedora Workstation DVD is present. Do not eject.

Step 15 – Reboot

Now that you are in Fedora Desktop, Go ahead and reboot the system. In my case, it did not reboot automatically. So I had to reboot it manually by going to Action->Shut down and again Start.

You will see this screen. Wait till you see the Fedora Screen.

You will see Fedora Boot loader as before, login as Live System User and Click on Try Fedora. This will take to you the live Fedora Session.

Step 16 – Open Terminal

Now open the terminal and run the following commands one after the other.

1. Login as root – Enter sudo su or simply su and hit enter
2. Scan for Logical Volumes – lvscan and hit enter. You will see something “CTIVE ‘/dev/fedora/root’ [50.00 GiB] inherit”
3. Mount the volume is a two command process – To mount the /dev/fedora/root volume,
   enter mkdir /media/hd, hit enter and again enter
   mount /dev/fedora/root /media/hd and hit enter.

4. Edit the file /media/hd/etc/gdm/custom.conf – To edit the file enter vi /media/hd/etc/gdm/custom.conf and hit enter
   
   

   Fedora Workstation 29 – Terminal

   You will see the vi editor. Uncomment the line WaylandEnable=false by removing the # symbol as shown below.

   

   Fedora Workstation 29 – Terminal

   Enter :wq to save and exit.

5. Unmount the drive by entering the following commands
   cd
umount /media/hd
rmdir /media/hd

6. Remove the ISO image from the drive – Before we restart, remove the ISO image from the VM by going to Media -> DVD Drive Eject
7. Reboot – Reboot the VM as we did earlier

Step 17 – Installation Complete – create user

That’s it. After the VM restarts, you should see the Fedora Desktop.

On the first restart, after installation, you well see a welcome screen. Its self explanatory, click on next to continue to the next screen. After couple of screens, you will be asked to create user and password.

Complete the process and you will have your Fedora desktop for use.

Thanks for visiting my blog.