How to Setup QEMU with Virt-Manager on Debian Based Systems

Check if Virtualization is Enabled #

Run this command to make sure you’ve enabled virtualization. It should be above zero.

egrep -c '(vmx|svm)' /proc/cpuinfo

• If the output is zero, then go to your BIOS and enable VT-x (Intel) or AMD-V (AMD)

Install QEMU and Virt-Manager #

Install the following

sudo apt install qemu-kvm qemu-system qemu-utils python3 python3-pip libvirt-clients libvirt-daemon-system bridge-utils virtinst libvirt-daemon virt-manager

Verify that the libvirtd service is started. It should be active (running)

sudo systemctl status libvirtd.service

Start Default Network for Networking #

VIRSH is a command to directly interact with our VMs from terminal. We use it to list networks, vm-status and various other tools when we need to make tweaks. Here is how we start the default and make it auto-start after reboot.

sudo virsh net-start default

Network default started

sudo virsh net-autostart default

Check the status with

sudo virsh net-list --all

• It should look something like this

  Name      State      Autostart   Persistent
  ----------------------------------------------
  default   active       yes          yes
  

Add $USER to libvirt to Allow Access to VMs #

sudo usermod -aG libvirt $USER
sudo usermod -aG libvirt-qemu $USER
sudo usermod -aG kvm $USER
sudo usermod -aG input $USER
sudo usermod -aG disk $USER

Reboot and you’re done! :D