Simple shell script to "manage" Qemu virtual machines.
Quickemu is a very simple script to "manage" Qemu virtual machines. Each virtual machine configuration is broadly the same requiring minimal setup. The main objective of the project is to enable quick testing of desktop Linux distributions where the virtual machines can be stored anywhere, such as external USB storage.
Quickemu is opinionated and will attempt to "do the right thing" rather than expose rich configuration options. Quickemu is a frontend to the fully accelerated qemu-virgil. See the video where I explain some of my motivations for creating this script.
We have a Discord for this project:
Clone this repository:
git clone https://github.com/wimpysworld/quickemu.git
Install the qemu-virgil
snap. You can find details about how to install snapd
and qemu-virgil
on the Snap Store page for qemu-virgil
snap install qemu-virgil --edge
snap connect qemu-virgil:audio-record
snap connect qemu-virgil:kvm
snap connect qemu-virgil:raw-usb
snap connect qemu-virgil:removable-media
- Download a .iso image of a Linux distribution
- Create a VM configuration file; for example
ubuntu.conf
- The default
guest_os
islinux
, so this is optional for Linux VM configs. - The
boot
option enables Legacy BIOS (legacy
) or EFI (efi
) booting.legacy
is the default.
- The default
boot="legacy"
guest_os="linux"
iso="/media/$USER/Quickemu/ubuntu/focal-desktop-amd64.iso"
disk_img="/media/$USER/Quickemu/ubuntu/focal-desktop-amd64.qcow2"
disk=128G
port_forwards=("8123:8123" "8888:80")
usb_devices=("046d:082d" "046d:085e")
- Use
quickemu
to start the virtual machine:
./quickemu --vm ubuntu-focal-desktop.conf
Which will output something like this:
Starting /media/martin/Quickemu/ubuntu-focal-desktop.conf
- QEMU: /snap/bin/qemu-virgil v4.2.0
- Guest: Linux optimised
- BIOS: Legacy BIOS
- Disk: /media/martin/Quickemu/ubuntu/focal-desktop-amd64.qcow2 (64G)
- ISO: /media/martin/Quickemu/ubuntu/focal-desktop-amd64.iso
- CPU: 4 Core(s)
- RAM: 4G
- Screen: 1664x936
- Video: virtio-vga
- GL: ON
- Virgil3D: ON
- Display: SDL
- smbd: /home/martin will be exported to the guest via smb://10.0.2.4/qemu
- ssh: 22221/tcp is connected. Login via 'ssh user@localhost -p 22221'
- PORTS: Port forwards requested:
- 8123 => 8123
- 8888 => 80
- USB: Device pass-through requested:
- Logitech, Inc. HD Pro Webcam C920
- Logitech, Inc. Logitech BRIO
Requested USB device(s) are accessible.
-
Complete the installation as normal.
-
A Desktop shortcut can be created (in ~/.local/share/applications):
./quickemu --shortcut --vm ubuntu-focal-desktop.conf
You can use quickemu
to run a Windows 10 virtual machine.
- Download Windows 10
- Download VirtIO drivers for Windows
- Create a VM configuration file; for example
windows10.conf
- The
boot
option enables Legacy BIOS (legacy
) or EFI (efi
) booting.legacy
is the default. - The
guest_os="windows"
line instructsquickemu
to use optimise for Windows.
- The
boot="legacy"
guest_os="windows"
iso="/media/$USER/Quickemu/windows10/Win10_1909_English_x64.iso"
driver_iso="/media/$USER/Quickemu/windows10/virtio-win-0.1.173.iso"
disk_img="/media/$USER/Quickemu/windows10/windows10.qcow2"
disk=128G
port_forwards=("8123:8123" "8888:80")
usb_devices=("046d:082d" "046d:085e")
- Use
quickemu
to start the virtual machine:
./quickemu --vm windows10.conf
Which will output something like this:
Starting /media/martin/Quickemu/windows10.conf
- QEMU: /snap/bin/qemu-virgil v4.2.0
- Guest: Windows optimised
- BIOS: Legacy BIOS
- Disk: /media/martin/Quickemu/windows10/windows10.qcow2 (64G)
Just created, booting from /media/martin/Quickemu/windows10/Win10_1909_English_x64.iso
- Boot: /media/martin/Quickemu/windows10/Win10_1909_English_x64.iso
- Drivers: /media/martin/Quickemu/windows10/virtio-win-0.1.173.iso
- CPU: 4 Core(s)
- RAM: 4G
- Screen: 1664x936
- Video: qxl-vga
- GL: ON
- Virgil3D: OFF
- Display: SDL
- smbd: /home/martin will be exported to the guest via smb://10.0.2.4/qemu
- ssh: 22221/tcp is connected. Login via 'ssh user@localhost -p 22221'
- PORTS: Port forwards requested:
- 8123 => 8123
- 8888 => 80
- USB: Device pass-through requested:
- Logitech, Inc. HD Pro Webcam C920
- Logitech, Inc. Logitech BRIO
Requested USB device(s) are accessible.
- During the Windows 10 install you will be asked "Where do you want to install Windows?"
- Click Load driver and OK the the dialogue box that pops up.
- Select
VirtIO SCSI controller (E:\amd64\w10\viostor.inf)
from the list and click Next. - The disk will now be available for partitioning and formatting.
- Complete the installation as you normally would.
- Post-install you should run the VirtIO installer from the CD-ROM: drive.
If you want to run macOS then quickemu
requires some additional utilities.
rot13
from bsdgames
is used to "decrypt" the OSK key.
sudo apt install bsdgames wget
There are some considerations when running macOS via Quickemu.
quickemu
will automatically download the required Clover EFI bootloader and OVMF firmware from the macOS-Simple-KVM project.- macOS 10.14.3 or newer is supported:
- VirtIO block devices QEMU standard VGA are supported since macOS 10.14.3 (Mohave).
- VirtIO
usb-tablet
devices are supported since macOS 10.11 (El Capitan). - vmxnet3 network devices are supported since macOS 10.11 (El Capitan).
- Running macOS on QEMU required the guest CPU is set to
Penryn
. - This is a very old architecture, so to unlock higher CPU performance; AVX, AES-NI, SSE et al are enabled.
- UHCI USB (USB 2.0) is the fastest supported.
- USB pass-through has not been tested.
You can use quickemu
to run a macOS virtual machine.
- Download macOS using
fetch-macos.py
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/foxlet/macOS-Simple-KVM/master/tools/FetchMacOS/fetch-macos.py -O fetch-macos.py
chmod +x fetch-macos.py
./fetch-macos.py
qemu-virgil.qemu-img convert BaseSystem/BaseSystem.dmg -O raw BaseSystem.img
- Create a VM configuration file; for example
macos.conf
- The
guest_os="macos"
line instructsquickemu
to use optimise for macOS. - The
img=
sets the boot disk that you downloaded withfetch-macos.py
- The
guest_os="macos"
img="/media/$USER/Quickemu/macos/BaseSystem.img"
disk_img="/media/$USER/Quickemu/macos/macos.qcow2"
disk=128G
port_forwards=("8123:8123" "8888:80")
usb_devices=("046d:082d" "046d:085e")
- Use
quickemu
to start the virtual machine:
./quickemu --vm macos.conf
Which will output something like this:
Starting macos.conf
- QEMU: /snap/bin/qemu-virgil v4.2.0
- BOOT: EFI
- Guest: Macos optimised
- Disk: /media/martin/Quickemu/macos/macos.qcow2 (64G)
Just created, booting from /media/martin/Quickemu/macos/BaseSystem.img
- CPU: 4 Core(s)
- RAM: 4G
- Screen: 1664x936
- Video: VGA
- GL: ON
- Virgil3D: OFF
- Display: SDL
- smbd: /home/martin will be exported to the guest via smb://10.0.2.4/qemu
- ssh: 22223/tcp is connected. Login via 'ssh user@localhost -p 22223'
- PORTS: Port forwards requested:
- 8123 => 8123
- 8888 => 80
- Boot from the BaseSystem
- Click Disk Utility and Continue
- Select
Apple Inc. VirtIO Block Media
that is ~68GB from the list and click Erase. - Enter a
Name:
for the disk and click Erase. - Click Done.
- Close Disk Utility
- Click Reinstall macOS and Continue
- Complete the installation as you normally would.
Here are the full usage instructions:
Usage
quickemu --vm ubuntu.conf
You can also pass optional parameters
--delete : Delete the disk image.
--shortcut : Create a desktop shortcut
--snapshot apply <tag> : Apply/restore a snapshot.
--snapshot create <tag> : Create a snapshot.
--snapshot delete <tag> : Delete a snapshot.
--snapshot info : Show disk/snapshot info.
--status-quo : Do not commit any changes to disk/snapshot.
--fullscreen : Starts VM in full screen mode (Ctl+Alt+f to exit)"
- Create desktop launcher for a VM
- Improve disk management
- Add USB pass-through support
- Fix Virgil 3D on EFI boot
- Add Windows support
- Get QEMU
-audiodev
working for audio input - Make display configuration more robust
- Improve snapshot management
- Improve stdout presentation
- Make disk image size configurable
- [Add Faux OEM](# https://code.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-installer/ubiquity/+git/ubiquity/+merge/379899)