Quickemu

Simple shell script to "manage" Qemu virtual machines.

Made with 💝 for

Introduction

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.

Installation

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:kvm
snap connect qemu-virgil:raw-usb
snap connect qemu-virgil:removable-media

Usage

Linux

• Download a .iso image of a Linux distribution
• Create a VM configuration file; for example ubuntu.conf
  • The default guest_os is linux, so this is optional for Linux VM configs.
  • The boot option enables Legacy BIOS (legacy) or EFI (efi) booting. legacy is 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
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'
 - 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

Windows 10

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 instructs quickemu to use optimise for Windows.

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
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'
 - 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.

All the options

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.

TODO

• 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