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quickemu/docs/quickemu.1.md

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Martin Wimpress February 20, 2022 quickemu Quickemu User Manual 1 QUICKEMU

NAME

quickemu - A quick VM builder and manager

SYNOPSIS

quickemu [OPTION]...

DESCRIPTION

quickemu will create and run highly optimised desktop virtual machines for Linux, macOS and Windows

OPTIONS

--vm
vm configuration file

You can also pass optional parameters

--braille
Enable braille support. Requires SDL.
--delete
Delete the disk image.
--display
Select display backend. 'sdl' (default), 'gtk', 'none' or 'spice'
--fullscreen
Starts VM in full screen mode (Ctl+Alt+f to exit)
--ignore-msrs-always
Configure KVM to always ignore unhandled machine-specific registers
--screen <screen>
Use specified screen to determine the window size.
--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.
--version
Print version

EXAMPLES

quickemu --vm ubuntu-mate-21.10-.conf
Launches the VM specified in the file ubuntu-mate-21.10-.conf

Introduction

Quickly create and run highly optimised desktop virtual machines for Linux, macOS and Windows; with just two commands. You decide what operating system you want to run and Quickemu will figure out the best way to do it for you. For example:

quickget ubuntu-mate 21.10
quickemu --vm ubuntu-mate-21.10-.conf

The original objective of the project was to enable quick testing of Linux distributions where the virtual machine configurations can be stored anywhere, such as external USB storage or your home directory, and no elevated permissions are required to run the virtual machines. Quickemu now also includes comprehensive support for macOS and Windows.

Features

  • macOS Monterey, Big Sur, Catalina, Mojave & High Sierra
  • Windows 8.1, 10 and 11 including TPM 2.0
  • Ubuntu and all the official Ubuntu flavours
  • Over 360 operating system editions are supported!
  • Full SPICE support including host/guest clipboard sharing
  • VirtIO-webdavd file sharing for Linux and Windows guests
  • VirtIO-9p file sharing for Linux and macOS guests
  • QEMU Guest Agent support; provides access to a system-level agent via standard QMP commands
  • Samba file sharing for Linux, macOS and Windows guests (if smbd is installed on the host)
  • VirGL acceleration
  • USB device pass-through
  • Smartcard pass-through
  • Automatic SSH port forwarding to guests
  • Network port forwarding
  • Full duplex audio
  • Braille support
  • EFI (with or without SecureBoot) and Legacy BIOS boot
  • Graphical user interfaces available

Quickemu is a wrapper for the excellent QEMU that attempts to automatically "do the right thing", rather than expose exhaustive configuration options.

We have a Discord for this project: Discord

See this (old) video where I explain some of my motivations for creating Quickemu.

Replace VirtualBox with Bash &QEMU

Requirements

Usage

Graphical User Interfaces

While quickemu and quickget are designed for the terminal, a graphical user interface is also available:

Many thanks to Luke Wesley-Holley and Philipp Kiemle for creating the Quickemu icons 🎨

Quickgui for Ubuntu

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:yannick-mauray/quickgui
sudo apt update
sudo apt install quickgui

Ubuntu Guest

quickget will automatically download an Ubuntu release and create the virtual machine configuration.

quickget ubuntu 20.04
quickemu --vm ubuntu-20.04.conf
  • Complete the installation as normal.
  • Post-install:
    • Install the SPICE agent (spice-vdagent) to enable copy/paste and USB redirection
      • sudo apt install spice-vdagent
    • Install the SPICE WebDAV agent (spice-webdavd) to enable file sharing.
      • sudo apt install spice-webdavd

Ubuntu devel (daily-live) images

quickget can also download/refresh devel images via zsync for Ubuntu developers and testers.

quickget ubuntu devel
quickemu --vm ubuntu-devel.conf

You can run quickget ubuntu devel to refresh your daily development image as often as you like, it will even automatically switch to a new series.

Ubuntu Flavours

All the official Ubuntu flavours are supported, just replace ubuntu with your preferred flavour.

  • kubuntu (Kubuntu)
  • lubuntu (Lubuntu)
  • ubuntu-budgie (Ubuntu Budgie)
  • ubuntukylin (Ubuntu Kylin)
  • ubuntu-mate (Ubuntu MATE)
  • ubuntustudio (Ubuntu Studio)
  • ubuntu (Ubuntu)
  • xubuntu (Xubuntu)

Other Operating Systems

quickget also supports:

  • alma (Alma Linux)
  • alpine (Alpine Linux)
  • android (Android x86)
  • archlinux (Arch Linux)
  • arcolinux (Arco Linux)
  • cachyos (CachyOS)
  • debian (Debian)
  • devuan (Devuan)
  • dragonflybsd (DragonFlyBSD)
  • elementary (elementary OS)
  • fedora (Fedora)
  • freebsd (FreeBSD)
  • garuda (Garuda Linux)
  • gentoo (Gentoo)
  • ghostbsd (GhostBSD)
  • haiku (Haiku)
  • kali (Kali)
  • kdeneon (KDE Neon)
  • kolibrios (KolibriOS)
  • linuxmint (Linux Mint)
  • manjaro (Manjaro)
  • mxlinux (MX Linux)
  • netboot (netboot.xyz)
  • netbsd (NetBSD)
  • nixos (NixOS)
  • openbsd (OpenBSD)
  • opensuse (openSUSE)
  • oraclelinux (Oracle Linux)
  • popos (Pop!_OS)
  • regolith (Regolith Linux)
  • rockylinux (Rocky Linux)
  • slackware (Slackware)
  • solus (Solus)
  • tails (Tails)
  • void (Void Linux)
  • zorin (Zorin OS)

Or you can download a Linux image and manually create a VM configuration.

  • Download a .iso image of a Linux distribution
  • Create a VM configuration file; for example debian-bullseye.conf
guest_os="linux"
disk_img="debian-bullseye/disk.qcow2"
iso="debian-bullseye/firmware-11.0.0-amd64-DVD-1.iso"
  • Use quickemu to start the virtual machine:
quickemu --vm debian-bullseye.conf
  • Complete the installation as normal.
  • Post-install:
    • Install the SPICE agent (spice-vdagent) to enable copy/paste and USB redirection.
    • Install the SPICE WebDAV agent (spice-webdavd) to enable file sharing.

macOS Guest

quickget automatically downloads a macOS recovery image and creates a virtual machine configuration.

quickget macos catalina
quickemu --vm macos-catalina.conf

macOS high-sierra, mojave, catalina, big-sur and monterey are supported.

  • Use cursor keys and enter key to select the macOS Base System
  • From macOS Utilities
    • Click Disk Utility and Continue
      • On macOS Catalina, Big Sur & Monterey
        • Select Apple Inc. VirtIO Block Media from the list and click Erase.
      • On macOS Mojave and High Sierra
        • Select QEMU HARDDISK Media (~103.08GB) from the list and click Erase.
    • Enter a Name: for the disk and click Erase.
    • Click Done.
    • Close Disk Utility
  • From macOS Utilities
    • Click Reinstall macOS and Continue
  • Complete the installation as you normally would.
    • On the first reboot use cursor keys and enter key to select macOS Installer
    • On the subsequent reboots use cursor keys and enter key to select the disk you named

The default macOS configuration looks like this:

guest_os="macos"
img="macos-catalina/RecoveryImage.img"
disk_img="macos-catalina/disk.qcow2"
macos_release="catalina"
  • guest_os="macos" instructs Quickemu to optimise for macOS.
  • macos_release="catalina" instructs Quickemu to optimise for a particular macOS release.
    • For example VirtIO Network and Memory Ballooning are available in Big Sur and newer, but not previous releases.
    • And VirtIO Block Media (disks) are supported/stable in Catalina and newer.

macOS compatibility

There are some considerations when running macOS via Quickemu.

  • Supported macOS releases:
    • High Sierra
    • Mojave
    • Catalina (Recommended)
    • Big Sur
    • Monterey
  • quickemu will automatically download the required OpenCore bootloader and OVMF firmware from OSX-KVM.
  • Optimised by default, but no GPU acceleration is available.
    • Host CPU vendor is detected and guest CPU is optimised accordingly.
    • VirtIO Block Media is used for the system disk where supported.
    • VirtIO usb-tablet is used for the mouse.
    • VirtIO Network (virtio-net) is supported and enabled on macOS Big Sur and newer but previous releases use vmxnet3.
    • VirtIO Memory Ballooning is supported and enabled on macOS Big Sur and newer but disabled for other support macOS releases.
  • USB host and SPICE pass-through is:
    • UHCI (USB 2.0) on macOS Catalina and earlier.
    • XHCI (USB 3.0) on macOS Big Sur and newer.
  • Display resolution can only be changed via macOS System Preferences.
  • Full Duplex audio works on macOS High Sierra, Mojave and Catalina.
    • macOS Big Sur and Monterey have no audio at all.
  • File sharing between guest and host is available via virtio-9p and SPICE webdavd.
  • Copy/paste via SPICE agent is not available on macOS.

Windows 8.1, 10 & 11 Guests

quickget can automatically download Windows 8.1, Windows 10 and Windows 11 along with the VirtIO drivers for Windows and creates a virtual machine configuration.

quickget windows 11
quickemu --vm windows-11.conf
  • Complete the installation as you normally would.
  • All relevant drivers and services should be installed automatically.

Regional versions

By default quickget will download the "English International" release, but you can optionally specify one of the supported languages: For example:

quickget windows 11 "Chinese (Traditional)"

The default Windows 11 configuration looks like this:

guest_os="windows"
disk_img="windows-11/disk.qcow2"
iso="windows-11/Win11_EnglishInternational_x64.iso"
fixed_iso="windows-11/virtio-win.iso"
tpm="on"
  • guest_os="windows" instructs quickemu to optimise for Windows.
  • fixed_iso= specifies the ISO image that provides VirtIO drivers.
  • tpm="on" instructs quickemu to create a software emulated TPM device using swtpm.

All the options

Here are the usage instructions:


Usage
  quickemu --vm ubuntu.conf

You can also pass optional parameters
  --braille               : Enable braille support. Requires SDL.
  --delete-disk           : Delete the disk image and EFI variables
  --delete-vm             : Delete the entire VM and it's configuration
  --display               : Select display backend. 'sdl' (default), 'gtk', 'none', or 'spice'
  --fullscreen            : Starts VM in full screen mode (Ctl+Alt+f to exit)
  --ignore-msrs-always    : Configure KVM to always ignore unhandled machine-specific registers
  --screen <screen>       : Use specified screen to determine the window size.
  --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.
  --version               : Print version

Desktop shortcuts

Desktop shortcuts can be created for a VM, the shortcuts are saved in ~/.local/share/applications. Here is an example of how to create a shortcut.

quickemu --vm ubuntu-20.04-desktop.conf --shortcut

Screen and window size (Linux guests only)

qemu will always default to the primary monitor to display the VM's window.

Without the --screen option, quickemu will look for the size of the smallest monitor, and use a size that fits on said monitor.

The --screen option forces quickemu to use the size of the given monitor to compute the size of the window. It won't use that monitor to display the VM's window if it's not the primary monitor. This is useful if the primary monitor if not the smallest one, and if the VM's window doesn't need to be moved around.

The --screen option is also useful with the --fullscreen option, again because qemu will always use the primary monitor. In order for the fullscreen mode to work properly, the resolution of the VM's window must match the resolution of the screen.

To know which screen to use, type:

xrandr --listmonitors | grep -v Monitors

The command will output something like this:

 0: +*HDMI-0 2560/597x1440/336+1920+0  HDMI-0
 1: +DVI-D-0 1920/527x1080/296+0+0  DVI-D-0

The first number is what needs to be passed to the --screen option.

For example:

quickemu --vm vm.conf --screen 0

The above uses the 2560x1440 screen to compute the size of the window, which Quickemu sizes to 2048x1152. Without the --screen option, Quickemu would have used the 1920x1080 monitor which results in a window size of 1664x936.

References

Useful reference that assisted the development of Quickemu.

AUTHORS

Written by Martin Wimpress.

BUGS

Submit bug reports online at: https://github.com/quickemu-project/quickemu/issues

SEE ALSO

Full sources at: https://github.com/quickemu-project/quickemu

quickemu_conf(1), quickget(1), quickgui(1)