Quickemu and Quickgui

Discussion of software apps
Post Reply
wove
Posts: 1189
Joined: Mon May 04, 2020 4:47 pm

Quickemu and Quickgui

Post by wove »

For those who enjoy playing with virtual machines, This is one slick way to go. Quickemu can be fround on github <https://github.com/quickemu-project/quickemu>. Quickemu is command line and Quickgui adds a GUI.

It is written in Python and it will download, configure and install VMs with essentially one click. It create a config for the VM based on resources of your hardware and the general needs of the guest system. It even slip streams the spice stuff into the install. When installing windows, it skips all Windows out of box stuff and setups up Windows on a local accout (user=quickemu). It always downloads the latest iso for install. It uses the iso download for the install and after install, it deletes the iso image and the reboot brings you right into the new system.

It is easiest to install on Ubuntu and derivitaves, but instructions are included for setup on other distros. It is kind of like Boxes on steroids, but at its base it is qemu, so one can edit the config if desired. The project says it is handy for those who just want a quick down and dirty way to look at and try out a different OS to see how they like.
User avatar
dai_trying
Posts: 706
Joined: Sun Jan 14, 2018 7:44 pm
Location: UK
Contact:

Re: Quickemu and Quickgui

Post by dai_trying »

It certainly looks like an interesting project, although being the control freak I am ;) , I prefer to put all the bits together myself so that I will understand how it works a bit better. But for those that just want to get a vm up and running without wanting to know how it's done or anything like that it would be ideal!
wove
Posts: 1189
Joined: Mon May 04, 2020 4:47 pm

Re: Quickemu and Quickgui

Post by wove »

I like being in charge, but thinking I am being in control is something of an delusion. These utilities just try and simplify the setup, in the end it is just qemu. There is excellent documentation. You can forgo the GUI and run quickemu from the terminal and handcraft the VM's config file to your liking. It is very impressive in operation.
User avatar
tlmiller
Posts: 4848
Joined: Tue Jan 16, 2018 12:29 pm
Location: AZ, USA

Re: Quickemu and Quickgui

Post by tlmiller »

Kinda looks neat, I looked up the projects and can see them being useful for some folks. I keep all the ISO's to do an install on my NAS of the most current version (except Debian, which I have the latest full DVD 1 & 2 version iso for 8, 9, 10, and the netinstall of 11, just in case I need to test upgrades from older versions for someone).
wove
Posts: 1189
Joined: Mon May 04, 2020 4:47 pm

Re: Quickemu and Quickgui

Post by wove »

Quickemu works pretty well though I ran into hiccups with it. It uses OpenCore for a boot loader. With the setting you have when the VM is setup essentially become hard coded into the VM. If you make configuration changes in qemu for and existing VM, they will either have no impact or the VM will fail to boot. So it is going to be most useful for taking a quick walk through for a new OS and probably not as useful for using a VM productively over time.
Post Reply