QEMU - Windows unable to boot in UEFI mode

Packer
1

I’m trying to build qcow2 format image for Windows server 2025 and when asking Packer to use UEFI mode, it’s unable to boot from ISO and it just drops me in EFI Shell where I see the content of the ISO is FS1: not in FS0:

Screenshot 2025-08-29 at 4.20.07 PM
Screenshot 2025-08-29 at 4.20.07 PM1299×805 8.48 KB

I’m able to boot form ISO in BIOS mode but want to build image in UEFI mode.

here is my packer script

packer {
  required_version = ">= 1.11.0"
  required_plugins {
    qemu = {
      version = ">= 1.1.1"
      source  = "github.com/hashicorp/qemu"
    }
  }
}

source "qemu" "windows" {
  vm_name                = "panw-cisl1-windows-2025"
# Windows 2025  - Internet
  # iso_url                = "https://artifactory.paloaltonetworks.com:443/artifactory/openshift-images-local/26100.1742.240906-0331.ge_release_svc_refresh_SERVER_EVAL_x64FRE_en-us.iso"
  # iso_checksum           = "d0ef4502e350e3c6c53c15b1b3020d38a5ded011bf04998e950720ac8579b23d"
# Windows 2025 - Thomas image
  iso_url                = "https://artifactory.paloaltonetworks.com/artifactory/openshift-images-local/SW_DVD9_Win_Server_STD_CORE_2025_24H2.9_64Bit_English_DC_STD_MLF_X24-08243.ISO"
  iso_checksum           = "2509618770af72a6335f975beb9f3caacfecbd60c448cafa37959aabccb0d12d"
# Windows 2025 with autounattended

  format                 = "qcow2"
  output_directory       = "build"
  machine_type           = "q35"
  accelerator            = "kvm"
  cpus                   = "4"
  memory                 = "14096"
  disk_size              = "40960M"
  headless               = "true"


qemuargs = [
  ["-drive", "file=/home/jenkins-agent/.cache/packer/45173890bb9e0fc063f71cfb6d5ec40a0210e2d9.iso,media=cdrom,index=4"],
  ["-drive", "if=pflash,format=raw,readonly=on,file=/usr/share/OVMF/OVMF_CODE.fd"],
  ["-drive", "if=pflash,format=raw,file=/home/jenkins-agent/ovmf/OVMF_VARS.fd"],
  ["-boot", "order=d"]
]
  communicator           = "winrm"
  winrm_username         = "Administrator"
  winrm_password         = "WindowsPassword"

  net_device = "e1000"
  disk_interface         = "ide"
  floppy_files = ["../answer-files/autounattend.xml", "../answer-files/winrm-config.ps1"]
  boot_command = ["<spacebar><spacebar>"]

any idea why ?

2

Can you test with different values of the disk_interface

3

trying scsi, virtio, and virtio-scsi didn’t help