Quickemu
Quickemu

Quickly create and run optimised Windows, macOS and Linux desktop virtual machines.

Quickemu Screenshot

Made with 💝 for

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 22.04
quickemu --vm ubuntu-mate-22.04.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

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

Installing Requirements

For Ubuntu, Arch and nixos systems the ppa, AUR or nix packaging will take care of the dependencies. For other host distributions or operating systems it will be necessary to install the above requirements or their equivalents.

These examples may save a little typing

Debian (and direct derivatives such as MX Linux):

sudo apt install qemu bash coreutils ovmf grep jq lsb-base procps python3 genisoimage usbutils util-linux sed spice-client-gtk libtss2-tcti-swtpm0 wget xdg-user-dirs zsync unzip

Fedora:

sudo dnf install qemu bash coreutils edk2-tools grep jq lsb procps python3 genisoimage usbutils util-linux sed spice-gtk-tools swtpm wget xdg-user-dirs xrandr unzip

MacOS:

This is a work in progress (see issue 248 for other steps and changes that may enable running on MacOS)

brew install qemu bash coreutils grep jq python@3.10 cdrtools gnu-sed spice-gtk wget zsync

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

quickemu quickget X terminal project

From Nov 2023, there is also a multi option desktop integrated text interface, with lots of unique tools and utilities to help you make light work of installations, snapshots and disk management

qqX-vmm

Install Quickemu

Arch

Quickemu is available from the AUR (Arch user repository), and can be installed via any AUR helper. Assuming your AUR helper is yay, Run the following command:

yay -Sy quickemu

Ubuntu

Quickemu is available from a PPA for Ubuntu users. The Quickemu PPA also includes a back port of QEMU 6.0.0 for 20.04 (Focal) and 21.04 (Hirsute). To install Quickemu and all the dependencies run the following in a terminal:

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:flexiondotorg/quickemu
sudo apt update
sudo apt install quickemu

Other Linux

git clone --filter=blob:none https://github.com/wimpysworld/quickemu
cd quickemu

Now install all the Requirements documented above.

Other sources

Repology.org found the following releases have been packaged.

Quickemu

Packaging status

Alt

Quickgui

Packaging status

Ubuntu Guest

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

quickget ubuntu 22.04
quickemu --vm ubuntu-22.04.conf

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.

You can also use quickget with options to:

    # show an OS ISO download URL for {os} {release} [edition] 
    quickget --show-iso-url fedora 38 Silverblue   
    # test if an OS ISO is available for {os} {release} [edition]
    quickget --test-iso-url nixos 23.05 plasma5
    # open an OS distribution homepage in a browser
    quickget --open-distro-homepage  ubuntu-mate
    # Only download image file into current directory, without creating VM
    quickget --download-iso elementary 7.1

The --show-iso-url, --test-iso-url, and --download-iso options are fully functional for all operating systems, including Windows and macOS.

Other Operating Systems

quickget also supports:

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

guest_os="linux"
disk_img="debian-bullseye/disk.qcow2"
iso="debian-bullseye/firmware-11.0.0-amd64-DVD-1.iso"

quickemu --vm debian-bullseye.conf

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, monterey, ventura and sonoma are supported.

sudo trimforce enable

You will be prompted to enter your account’s password to gain the privilege needed. Once you’ve entered your password and pressed in the form of two questions that require you to type response as though you said “no”:

IMPORTANT NOTICE: This tool force-enables TRIM for all relevant attached devices, even though such devices may not have been validated for data integrity while using TRIM. Use of this tool to enable TRIM may result in unintended data loss or data corruption. It should not be used in a commercial operating environment or with important data. Before using this tool, you should back up all of your data and regularly back up data while TRIM is enabled. This tool is provided on an "as is" basis. APPLE MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF NON-INFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, REGARDING THIS TOOL OR ITS USE ALONE OR IN COMBINATION WITH YOUR DEVICES, SYSTEMS, OR SERVICES. BY USING THIS TOOL TO ENABLE TRIM, YOU AGREE THAT, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, USE OF THE TOOL IS AT YOUR SOLE RISK AND THAT THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO SATISFACTORY QUALITY, PERFORMANCE, ACCURACY AND EFFORT IS WITH YOU.
Are you sure you with to proceed (y/N)?

And a second confirmation once you’ve confirmed the previous one:

Your system will immediately reboot when this is complete.
Is this OK (y/N)?

As the last message states, your system will automatically reboot as soon as the command completes.

The default macOS configuration looks like this:

guest_os="macos"
img="macos-catalina/RecoveryImage.img"
disk_img="macos-catalina/disk.qcow2"
macos_release="catalina"

macOS compatibility

There are some considerations when running macOS via Quickemu.

macOS App Store

If you see “Your device or computer could not be verified” when you try to login to the App Store, make sure that your wired ethernet device is en0. Use ifconfig in a terminal to verify this.

If the wired ethernet device is not en0, then then go to System Preferences -> Network, delete all the network devices and apply the changes. Next, open a terminal and run the following:

sudo rm /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/NetworkInterfaces.plist

Now reboot, and the App Store should work.

Windows Guests

quickget can download Windows10 and Windows 11 automatically and create an optimised virtual machine configuration. This configuration also includes the VirtIO drivers for Windows.

Windows 8.1 is also supported but doesn’t feature any automated installation or driver optimisation.

quickget can also download Windows 10 LTSC and Windows Server 2012-r2, 2016, 2019, and 2022. No automated installation is supported for these releases.

quickget windows 11
quickemu --vm windows-11.conf

Regional versions

By default quickget will download the “English International” release (“English (United States)” for server releases), 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/windows-11.iso"
fixed_iso="windows-11/virtio-win.iso"
tpm="on"
secureboot="off"

SPICE

The following features are available while using the SPICE protocol:

To use SPICE add --display spice to the Quickemu invocation, this requires that the spicy client is installed, available from the spice-client-gtk package in Debian/Ubuntu.

quickemu --vm ubuntu-22.04.conf --display spice

To enable copy/paste with a Windows guest, install SPICE Windows guest tools in the guest VM.

Headless

To start a VM with SPICE enabled, but no display attached use --display none. This requires that the spicy client is installed, available from the spice-client-gtk package in Debian/Ubuntu to connect to the running VM

quickemu --vm ubuntu-22.04.conf --display none

You can also use the .ports file in the VM directory to lookup what SSH and SPICE ports the VM is connected to.

cat ubuntu-22.04/ubuntu-22.04.ports

If, for example, the SSH port is set to 22220, and assuming your VM has a started SSH service (details vary by OS), you can typically SSH into it from the host as follows:

ssh -p 22220 your_vm_user@localhost

Accessibility

Qemu provides support for using BrlAPI to display braille output on a real or fake device.

quickemu --vm ubuntu-22.04.conf --braille --display sdl

BIOS and EFI

Since Quickemu 2.1.0 efi is the default boot option. If you want to override this behaviour then add the following line to you VM configuration to enable legacy BIOS.

Tuning CPU cores, RAM & disks

By default, Quickemu will calculate the number of CPUs cores and RAM to allocate to a VM based on the specifications of your host computer. You can override this default behaviour and tune the VM configuration to your liking.

Add additional lines to your virtual machine configuration:

Disk preallocation

Preallocation mode (allowed values: off (default), metadata, falloc, full). An image with preallocated metadata is initially larger but can improve performance when the image needs to grow.

Specify what disk preallocation should be used, if any, when creating the system disk image by adding a line like this to your VM configuration.

CD-ROM disks

If you want to expose an ISO image from the host to guest add the following line to the VM configuration:

Floppy disks

If you’re like Alan Pope you’ll probably want to mount a floppy disk image in the guest. To do so add the following line to the VM configuration:

File Sharing

All File Sharing options will only expose ~/Public (or localised variations) for the current user to the guest VMs.

Samba 🐧 🍏 đŸȘŸ

If smbd is available on the host, Quickemu will automatically enable the built-in QEMU support for exposing a Samba share from the host to the guest.

You can install the minimal Samba components on Ubuntu using:

sudo apt install --no-install-recommends samba

If everything is set up correctly, the smbd address will be printed when the virtual machine is started. For example:

 - smbd:     On guest: smb://10.0.2.4/qemu

If using a Windows guest, right-click on “This PC”, click “Add a network location”, and paste this address, removing smb: and replacing forward slashes with backslashes (in this example \\10.0.2.4\qemu).

SPICE WebDAV 🐧 đŸȘŸ

VirtIO-9P 🐧 🍏

Network port forwarding

Add an additional line to your virtual machine configuration. For example:

In the example above:

Disable networking

To completely disable all network interfaces in a guest VM add this additional line to your virtual machine configuration:

Restricted networking

You can isolate the guest from the host (and broader network) using the restrict option, which will restrict networking to just the guest and any virtual devices.

This can be used to prevent software running inside the guest from phoning home while still providing a network inside the guest. Add this additional line to your virtual machine configuration:

Bridged networking

Connect your virtual machine to a preconfigured network bridge. Add an additional line to your virtual machine configuration:

If you want to have a persistent MAC address for your bridged network interface in the guest VM you can add macaddr to the virtual machine configuration. QEMU requires that the MAC address is in the range: 52:54:00:AB:00:00 - 52:54:00:AB:FF:FF

So you can generate your own MAC addresses with:

USB redirection

Quickemu supports USB redirection via SPICE pass-through and host pass-through.

Using SPICE for USB pass-through is easiest as it doesn’t require any elevated permission, start Quickemu with --display spice and then select Input -> Select USB Device for redirection from the menu to choose which device(s) you want to attach to the guest.

USB host redirection is not recommended, it is provided purely for backwards compatibility to older versions of Quickemu. Using SPICE is preferred, see above.

Add an additional line to your virtual machine configuration. For example:

In the example above:

If the USB devices are not writable, quickemu will display the appropriate commands to modify the USB device(s) access permissions, like this:

 - USB:      Host pass-through requested:
              - Sennheiser Communications EPOS GTW 270 on bus 001 device 005 needs permission changes:
                sudo chown -v root:user /dev/bus/usb/001/005
                ERROR! USB permission changes are required 👆

TPM

Since Quickemu 2.2.0 a software emulated TPM device can be added to guest virtual machines. Just add tpm="on" to your VM configuration. quickget will automatically add this line to Windows 11 virtual machines.

All the options

Here are the usage instructions:


Usage
  quickemu --vm ubuntu.conf

You can also pass optional parameters
  --access                          : Enable remote spice access support. 'local' (default), 'remote', 'clientipaddress'
  --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', 'spice' or 'spice-app'
  --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.
  --screenpct <percent>             : Percent of fullscreen for VM if --fullscreen is not specified.
  --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.
  --viewer <viewer>                 : Choose an alternative viewer. @Options: 'spicy' (default), 'remote-viewer', 'none'
  --ssh-port <port>                 : Set ssh-port manually
  --spice-port <port>               : Set spice-port manually
  --public-dir <path>               : Expose share directory. @Options: '' (default: xdg-user-dir PUBLICSHARE), '<directory>', 'none'
  --monitor <type>                  : Set monitor connection type. @Options: 'socket' (default), 'telnet', 'none'
  --monitor-telnet-host <ip/host>   : Set telnet host for monitor. (default: 'localhost')
  --monitor-telnet-port <port>      : Set telnet port for monitor. (default: '4440')
  --monitor-cmd <cmd>               : Send command to monitor if available. (Example: system_powerdown)
  --serial <type>                   : Set serial connection type. @Options: 'socket' (default), 'telnet', 'none'
  --serial-telnet-host <ip/host>    : Set telnet host for serial. (default: 'localhost')
  --serial-telnet-port <port>       : Set telnet port for serial. (default: '6660')
  --keyboard <type>                 : Set keyboard. @Options: 'usb' (default), 'ps2', 'virtio'
  --keyboard_layout <layout>        : Set keyboard layout.
  --mouse <type>                    : Set mouse. @Options: 'tablet' (default), 'ps2', 'usb', 'virtio'
  --usb-controller <type>           : Set usb-controller. @Options: 'ehci' (default), 'xhci', 'none'
  --sound-card <type>               : Set sound card. @Options: 'intel-hda' (default), 'ac97', 'es1370', 'sb16', 'none'
  --extra_args <arguments>          : Pass additional arguments to qemu
  --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.

``` bash
quickemu --vm ubuntu-22.04-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.

The ‘–screenpct’ is an optional integer value between 25 <= pct < 100 which will override system default screen sizes. The VM size will be ‘pct’ of the chosen screen. If –fullscreen is chosen screen will be fullsize instead of being scaled down by –screenpct value.

References

Useful reference that assisted the development of Quickemu.