QUICKEMU(1)

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

--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 its configuration

--display
    Select display backend. 'gtk' (default), 'sdl', 'cocoa', '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

--kill
    Kill the VM process if it is running

--offline
    Override all network settings and start the VM offline

--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'

--width <width>
    Set VM screen width; requires '--height'

--height <height>
    Set VM screen height; requires '--width'

--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), '', '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: 'en-us' (default)

--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

EXAMPLES

quickemu --vm ubuntu-mate-22.04.conf
    Launches the VM specified in the file ubuntu-mate-22.04.conf

Introduction
Quickemu is a wrapper for the excellent QEMU (https://www.qemu.org/) that automatically "does the right thing" when creating virtual machines. No requirement for exhaustive configuration options. You decide what operating system you want to run and Quickemu takes care of the rest 🤖

•   quickget automatically downloads the upstream OS and creates the configuration 📀

•   quickemu enumerates your hardware and launches the virtual machine with the optimum configuration best suited to your computer ⚡️

The original objective of the project was to enable quick testing of Linux distributions (https://github.com/quickemu-project/quickemu/wiki/02-Create-Linux-virtual-machines) where the virtual machines and their configuration can be stored anywhere (such as external USB storage or your home directory) and no elevated permissions are required to run the virtual machines.

Today, Quickemu includes comprehensive support for macOS (https://github.com/quickemu-project/quickemu/wiki/03-Create-macOS-virtual-machines) , Windows (https://github.com/quickemu-project/quickemu/wiki/04-Create-Windows-virtual-machines) , most of the BSDs, novel non-Linux operating systems such as FreeDOS, Haiku, KolibriOS, OpenIndiana, ReactOS, and more.

Features

•   Host support for Linux and macOS

•   macOS Sequoia, Sonoma, Ventura, Monterey, Big Sur, Catalina & Mojave

•   Windows 10 and 11 including TPM 2.0

•   Windows Server 2022 2019 2016

•   ARM64 guest support for running aarch64 VMs (native on ARM hosts, emulated on x86_64)

•   Ubuntu (https://ubuntu.com/desktop) and all the official Ubuntu flavours (https://ubuntu.com/download/flavours)

•   Nearly 1000 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 (https://wiki.qemu.org/Features/GuestAgent) ; 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

  As featured on
Linux Matters (https://linuxmatters.sh) podcast! The presenters of Linux Matters 🐧🎙️ are the creators of each of the principal Quickemu projects. We discussed Quickemu's 2024 reboot in Episode 30 - Quickemu Rising From the Bashes (https://linuxmatters.sh/30) .

Linux Matters Podcast

When installing from source, you will need to install the following requirements manually:

•   QEMU (https://www.qemu.org/) (6.0.0 or newer) with GTK, SDL, SPICE & VirtFS support

•   bash (https://www.gnu.org/software/bash/) (4.0 or newer)

•   Coreutils (https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/)

•   curl (https://curl.se/)

•   EDK II (https://github.com/tianocore/edk2)

•   gawk (https://www.gnu.org/software/gawk/)

•   grep (https://www.gnu.org/software/grep/)

•   glxinfo (https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/mesa/demos)

•   jq (https://stedolan.github.io/jq/)

•   LSB (https://wiki.linuxfoundation.org/lsb/start)

•   pciutils (https://github.com/pciutils/pciutils)

•   procps (https://gitlab.com/procps-ng/procps)

•   python3 (https://www.python.org/)

•   mkisofs (http://cdrtools.sourceforge.net/private/cdrecord.html)

•   usbutils (https://github.com/gregkh/usbutils)

•   util-linux (https://github.com/karelzak/util-linux) ; including uuidgen

•   sed (https://www.gnu.org/software/sed/)

•   socat (http://www.dest-unreach.org/socat/)

•   spicy (https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/spice/spice-gtk)

•   swtpm (https://github.com/stefanberger/swtpm)

•   xdg-user-dirs (https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/xdg-user-dirs/)

•   xrandr (https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/xorg/app/xrandr)

•   zsync (http://zsync.moria.org.uk/)

•   unzip (http://www.info-zip.org/UnZip.html)

For Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, Arch and NixOS hosts the native packaging or ppa (https://launchpad.net/~flexiondotorg/+archive/ubuntu/quickemu) , AUR (https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/quickemu) or nix (https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/tree/master/pkgs/development/quickemu) 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:

  Install requirements on Debian hosts
These should be handled by dependencies in Trixie and later. For earlier versions (and their derivatives):

        sudo apt-get install bash coreutils curl genisoimage grep jq mesa-utils ovmf pciutils procps python3 qemu sed socat spice-client-gtk swtpm-tools unzip usbutils util-linux xdg-user-dirs xrandr zsync

  Install requirements on Fedora hosts
These are handled natively for Fedora 41 on. For earlier versions:

        sudo dnf install bash coreutils curl edk2-tools genisoimage grep jq mesa-demos pciutils procps python3 qemu sed socat spice-gtk-tools swtpm unzip usbutils util-linux uuidgen-runtime xdg-user-dirs xrandr zsync

  Install requirements on Gentoo
Please note that you may have to use sys-firmware/edk2-ovmf instead of sys-firmware/edk2-ovmf-bin - depending on how your system is configured.

        sudo emerge --ask --noreplace app-emulation/qemu \
         app-shells/bash \
         sys-apps/coreutils \
         net-misc/curl \
         sys-firmware/edk2-ovmf-bin \
         sys-apps/gawk \
         sys-apps/grep \
         x11-apps/mesa-progs \
         app-misc/jq \
         sys-apps/pciutils \
         sys-process/procps \
         app-cdr/cdrtools \
         sys-apps/usbutils \
         sys-apps/util-linux \
         sys-apps/sed \
         net-misc/socat \
         app-emulation/spice \
         app-crypt/swtpm \
         x11-misc/xdg-user-dirs \
         x11-apps/xrandr \
         net-misc/zsync \
         app-arch/unzip

  Install requirements on macOS hosts
Install the Quickemu requirements using brew:

        brew install bash cdrtools coreutils jq python3 qemu usbutils samba socat swtpm zsync

Now clone the project:

        git clone https://github.com/quickemu-project/quickemu
        cd quickemu

Alternative Frontends (https://github.com/quickemu-project/quickemu/wiki/07-Alternative-frontends)

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

•   Quickgui (https://github.com/quickemu-project/quickgui) by Mark Johnson (https://github.com/marxjohnson) and Yannick Mauray (https://github.com/ymauray) .

To install Quickgui on Ubuntu:

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

Many thanks to Luke Wesley-Holley (https://github.com/Lukewh) and Philipp Kiemle (https://github.com/daPhipz) for creating the Quickemu icons (https://github.com/Lukewh/quickemu-icons) 🎨

  Creating Linux guests 🐧

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

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

•   Complete the installation as normal.

•   Post-install:

    •   Install the SPICE agent (spice-vdagent) in the guest to enable copy/paste and USB redirection

        •   sudo apt install spice-vdagent

    •   Install the SPICE WebDAV agent (spice-webdavd) in the guest to enable file sharing.

        •   sudo apt install spice-webdavd

  Ubuntu daily-live images
quickget can also download/refresh daily-live images via zsync for Ubuntu developers and testers.

        quickget ubuntu daily-live
        quickemu --vm ubuntu-daily-live.conf

You can run quickget ubuntu daily-live 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.

The project wiki (https://github.com/quickemu-project/quickemu/wiki/02-Create-Linux-virtual-machines) may have further information.

•   edubuntu (Edubuntu)

•   kubuntu (Kubuntu)

•   lubuntu (Lubuntu)

•   ubuntu-budgie (Ubuntu Budgie)

•   ubuntucinnamon (Ubuntu Cinnamon)

•   ubuntukylin (Ubuntu Kylin)

•   ubuntu-mate (Ubuntu MATE)

•   ubuntu-server (Ubuntu Server)

•   ubuntustudio (Ubuntu Studio)

•   ubuntu (Ubuntu)

•   ubuntu-unity (Ubuntu Unity)

•   xubuntu (Xubuntu)

You can also use quickget with advanced options :

           --arch           <arch>                    : Set architecture (arm64, aarch64, amd64, x86_64)
           --download       <os> <release> [edition]  : Download image; no VM configuration
           --create-config  <os> [path/url] [flags]   : Create VM config for an OS image
           --open-homepage  <os>                      : Open homepage for the OS
           --show           [os]                      : Show OS information
           --version                                  : Show version
           --help                                     : Show this help message
        ------------------------------------ Flags -------------------------------------
        --create-config:
          --disable-unattended                        : Force quickget not to set up an unattended installation
        -------------------------- For testing & development ---------------------------
           --url            [os] [release] [edition]  : Show image URL(s)
           --check          [os] [release] [edition]  : Check image URL(s)
           --check-all-arch [os] [release] [edition]  : Check downloads for all architectures (amd64 and arm64)
           --list                                     : List all supported systems
           --list-csv                                 : List everything in csv format
           --list-json                                : List everything in json format

Here are some typical uses

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

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

Further information is available from the project wiki (https://github.com/quickemu-project/quickemu/wiki/06-Advanced-quickget-features)

  Other Operating Systems
quickget also supports:

•   alma (AlmaLinux)

•   alpine (Alpine Linux)

•   android (Android x86)

•   antix (Antix)

•   archcraft (Archcraft)

•   archlinux (Arch Linux)

•   artixlinux (Artix Linux)

•   azurelinux (Azure Linux)

•   batocera (Batocera)

•   bazzite (Bazzite)

•   biglinux (BigLinux)

•   blendos (BlendOS)

•   bodhi (Bodhi)

•   bunsenlabs (BunsenLabs)

•   cachyos (CachyOS)

•   centos-stream (CentOS Stream)

•   chimeralinux (Chimera Linux)

•   crunchbang++ (Crunchbangplusplus)

•   debian (Debian)

•   deepin (Deepin)

•   devuan (Devuan)

•   dragonflybsd (DragonFlyBSD)

•   easyos (EasyOS)

•   elementary (elementary OS)

•   endeavouros (EndeavourOS)

•   endless (Endless OS)

•   fedora (Fedora)

•   freebsd (FreeBSD)

•   freedos (FreeDOS)

•   garuda (Garuda Linux)

•   gentoo (Gentoo)

•   ghostbsd (GhostBSD)

•   gnomeos (GNOME OS)

•   guix (Guix)

•   haiku (Haiku)

•   kali (Kali)

•   kdeneon (KDE Neon)

•   kolibrios (KolibriOS)

•   linuxlite (Linux Lite)

•   linuxmint (Linux Mint)

•   lmde (Linux Mint Debian Edition)

•   maboxlinux (Mabox Linux)

•   mageia (Mageia)

•   manjaro (Manjaro)

•   mxlinux (MX Linux)

•   netboot (netboot.xyz)

•   netbsd (NetBSD)

•   nitrux (Nitrux)

•   nixos (NixOS)

•   nwg-shell (nwg-shell)

•   openbsd (OpenBSD)

•   openindiana (OpenIndiana)

•   opensuse (openSUSE)

•   oraclelinux (Oracle Linux)

•   parrotsec (Parrot Security)

•   pclinuxos (PCLinuxOS)

•   peppermint (PeppermintOS)

•   popos (Pop!_OS)

•   porteus (Porteus)

•   primtux (PrimTux)

•   proxmox-ve (Proxmox VE)

•   pureos (PureOS)

•   reactos (ReactOS)

•   rebornos (RebornOS)

•   rockylinux (Rocky Linux)

•   siduction (Siduction)

•   slackware (Slackware)

•   slax (Slax)

•   slint (Slint)

•   slitaz (SliTaz)

•   solus (Solus)

•   sparkylinux (SparkyLinux)

•   spirallinux (SpiralLinux)

•   tails (Tails)

•   tinycore (Tiny Core Linux)

•   trisquel (Trisquel)

•   tuxedo-os (Tuxedo OS)

•   vanillaos (Vanilla OS)

•   void (Void Linux)

•   zorin (Zorin OS)

Custom Linux guests (https://github.com/quickemu-project/quickemu/wiki/02-Create-Linux-virtual-machines#manually-create-linux-guests) 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) in the guest to enable copy/paste and USB redirection.

    •   Install the SPICE WebDAV agent (spice-webdavd) in the guest to enable file sharing.

  Supporting old Linux distros
If you want to run an old Linux , from 2016 or earlier, change the guest_os to linux_old. This will enable the vmware-svga graphics driver which is better supported on older distros.

Creating macOS Guests (https://github.com/quickemu-project/quickemu/wiki/03-Create-macOS-virtual-machines#automatically-create-macos-guests) 🍏 Installing macOS in a VM can be a bit finicky, if you encounter problems, check the Discussions (https://github.com/quickemu-project/quickemu/discussions) for solutions or ask for help there 🛟

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

Note: Some VPN users may need to turn off their VPN (https://github.com/quickemu-project/quickemu/issues/1391#issuecomment-3506845235) in order to download a recovery image. Some other users may find using a VPN (https://github.com/quickemu-project/quickemu/issues/1391#issuecomment-2429146013) necessary in order to download a recovery image.

        quickget macos big-sur
        quickemu --vm macos-big-sur.conf

macOS mojave, catalina, big-sur, monterey, ventura and sonoma are supported.

•   Use cursor keys and enter key to select the macOS Base System

•   From macOS Utilities

    •   Click Disk Utility and Continue

        •   Select QEMU HARDDISK Media (~103.08GB) from the list (on Big Sur and above use Apple Inc. VirtIO Block Device) and click Erase.

        •   Enter a Name: for the disk

        •   If you are installing macOS Mojave or later (Catalina, Big Sur, Monterey, Ventura and Sonoma), choose any of the APFS options as the filesystem. MacOS Extended may not work.

    •   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

•   Once you have finished installing macOS you will be presented with an the out-of-the-box first-start wizard to configure various options and set up your username and password

•   OPTIONAL: After you have concluded the out-of-the-box wizard, you may want to enable the TRIM feature that the computer industry created for SSD disks. This feature in our macOS installation will allow QuickEmu to compact (shrink) your macOS disk image whenever you delete files inside the Virtual Machine. Without this step your macOS disk image will only ever get larger and will not shrink even when you delete lots of data inside macOS.

    •   To enable TRIM, open the Terminal application and type the following command followed by pressing enter to tell macos to use the TRIM command on the hard disk when files are deleted:

        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 enter the command will request confirmation in the form of two questions that require you to type y (for a "yes" response) followed by enter to confirm.

If you press enter without first typing y the system will consider that a negative 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-big-sur/RecoveryImage.img"
        disk_img="macos-big-sur/disk.qcow2"
        macos_release="big-sur"

•   guest_os="macos" instructs Quickemu to optimise for macOS.

•   macos_release="big-sur" 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:

    •   Mojave

    •   Catalina

    •   Big Sur

    •   Monterey

    •   Ventura

    •   Sonoma

•   quickemu will automatically download the required OpenCore (https://github.com/acidanthera/OpenCorePkg) bootloader and OVMF firmware from OSX-KVM (https://github.com/kholia/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 (https://www.kraxel.org/blog/2019/06/macos-qemu-guest/) is used for the system disk where supported.

    •   VirtIO usb-tablet (http://philjordan.eu/osx-virt/) is used for the mouse.

    •   VirtIO Network (virtio-net) is supported and enabled on macOS Big Sur and newer, but earlier 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 be changed via quickemu using --width and --height command line arguments.

•   Full Duplex audio requires VoodooHDA OC (https://github.com/chris1111/VoodooHDA-OC) or pass-through a USB audio-device to the macOS guest VM.

    •   NOTE! Gatekeeper (https://disable-gatekeeper.github.io/) and System Integrity Protection (SIP) (https://developer.apple.com/documentation/security/disabling_and_enabling_system_integrity_protection) need to be disabled to install VoodooHDA OC

•   File sharing between guest and host is available via virtio-9p (https://wiki.qemu.org/Documentation/9psetup) and SPICE webdavd (https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/phodav/-/merge_requests/24) .

•   Copy/paste via SPICE agent is not available on macOS.

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.

There may be further advice and information about macOS guests in the project wiki (https://github.com/quickemu-project/quickemu/wiki/03-Create-macOS-virtual-machines#automatically-create-macos-guests) .

Creating Windows guests (https://github.com/quickemu-project/quickemu/wiki/04-Create-Windows-virtual-machines) 🪟 quickget can download Windows 10 (https://www.microsoft.com/software-download/windows10) and Windows 11 (https://www.microsoft.com/software-download/windows11) automatically and create an optimised virtual machine configuration. This configuration also includes the VirtIO drivers for Windows (https://fedorapeople.org/groups/virt/virtio-win/direct-downloads/) .

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

quickget can also download Windows 10 LTSC (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/download-windows-10-enterprise) and Windows Server 2012-r2 (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/download-windows-server-2012-r2) , 2016 (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/download-windows-server-2016) , 2019 (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/download-windows-server-2019) , and 2022 (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/download-windows-server-2022) . No automated installation is supported for these releases.

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

•   Complete the installation as you normally would.

•   All relevant drivers and services should be installed automatically.

•   A local administrator user account is automatically created, with these credentials:

    •   Username: Quickemu

    •   Password: quickemu

Further information is available from the project wiki (https://github.com/quickemu-project/quickemu/wiki/04-Create-Windows-virtual-machines)

  Configuration
Here are the usage instructions:

        Usage
          quickemu --vm ubuntu.conf <arguments>

        Arguments
          --access                          : Enable remote spice access support. 'local' (default), 'remote', 'clientipaddress'
          --braille                         : Enable braille support. Requires SDL.
          --cpu-pinning                     : Choose which host cores correspond to which guest cores.
          --delete-disk                     : Delete the disk image and EFI variables
          --delete-vm                       : Delete the entire VM and its configuration
          --display                         : Select display backend. 'gtk' (default), 'sdl', 'cocoa', '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
          --ignore-tsc-warning              : Skip TSC stability warning for macOS VMs on AMD
          --kill                            : Kill the VM process if it is running
          --offline                         : Override all network settings and start the VM offline
          --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'
          --width <width>                   : Set VM screen width; requires '--height'
          --height <height>                 : Set VM screen height; requires '--width'
          --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: 'en-us' (default)
          --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', 'usb-audio', 'virtio-sound-pci', 'none'
          --sound-duplex <type>             : Set sound card duplex. @Options: 'hda-micro' (default: speaker/mic), 'hda-duplex' (line-in/line-out), 'hda-output' (output-only)
          --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.

        quickemu --vm ubuntu-22.04-desktop.conf --shortcut

  References
Useful reference that assisted the development of Quickemu.

•   General

    •   QEMU's documentation! (https://qemu.readthedocs.io/en/latest/)

    •   https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Qemu/KVM_Virtual_Machines

    •   https://www.kraxel.org/blog/2020/01/qemu-sound-audiodev/

•   macOS

    •   https://www.nicksherlock.com/2020/06/installing-macos-big-sur-on-proxmox/

    •   https://passthroughpo.st/mac-os-adds-early-support-for-virtio-qemu/

    •   https://github.com/kholia/OSX-KVM

    •   https://github.com/thenickdude/KVM-Opencore

    •   https://gist.github.com/MCJack123/943eaca762730ca4b7ae460b731b68e7

    •   https://github.com/acidanthera/OpenCorePkg/tree/master/Utilities/macrecovery

    •   https://www.kraxel.org/blog/2017/09/running-macos-as-guest-in-kvm/

    •   https://www.nicksherlock.com/2017/10/passthrough-of-advanced-cpu-features-for-macos-high-sierra-guests/

    •   http://philjordan.eu/osx-virt/

    •   https://github.com/Dids/clover-builder

    •   OpenCore Configurator (https://mackie100projects.altervista.org)

•   Windows

    •   https://www.heiko-sieger.info/running-windows-10-on-linux-using-kvm-with-vga-passthrough/

    •   https://leduccc.medium.com/improving-the-performance-of-a-windows-10-guest-on-qemu-a5b3f54d9cf5

    •   https://frontpagelinux.com/tutorials/how-to-use-linux-kvm-to-optimize-your-windows-10-virtual-machine/

    •   https://turlucode.com/qemu-command-line-args/

    •   https://github.com/pbatard/Fido

    •   https://www.catapultsystems.com/blogs/create-zero-touch-windows-10-iso/

•   TPM

    •   https://qemu-project.gitlab.io/qemu/specs/tpm.html

    •   https://www.tecklyfe.com/how-to-create-a-windows-11-virtual-machine-in-qemu/

•   9p & virtiofs

    •   https://wiki.qemu.org/Documentation/9p

    •   https://wiki.qemu.org/Documentation/9psetup

    •   https://www.kraxel.org/blog/2019/06/macos-qemu-guest/

    •   https://superuser.com/questions/628169/how-to-share-a-directory-with-the-host-without-networking-in-qemu

    •   https://virtio-fs.gitlab.io/

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(5), quickget(1), quickgui(1)

AUTHORS
Martin Wimpress.