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Qemu and Virt-manager in macOS (Intel-based)

· 4 min read
Adekabang
Adekabang
Tukang Ngoprek

So, I found this old iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2017) lying around with pretty decent specs. I'm thinking of turning it into my dedicated x86 playground since my main machine is an M1 MacBook. First thing's first: getting Qemu and Virt-manager up and running for some virtual machine action. Yeah, I know there are other VM solutions like VMware or VirtualBox, but I want to stay familiar with what's common in enterprise environments (even if nobody's running macOS in production, haha!).

Specification​

iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2017)

  • Processor: 4.2 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7
  • Memory: 16 GB 2400 MHz DDR4
  • OS Version: Ventura 13.7.4 (22H420)

Step by Step: Qemu​

  1. First, we need Homebrew to install everything.

    Get it here: https://brew.sh/

    /bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL <https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh>)"

  2. Now, let's install Qemu itself.

    Check it out here: https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/qemu

    brew install qemu

  3. Verify the installation by checking the Qemu version.

    qemu-system-x86_64 --version

    Check qemu version

  4. Let's get Ubuntu running with Qemu.

    1. Before we dive in, grab the Ubuntu ISO. I'm going with the desktop version from here: https://releases.ubuntu.com/24.04/. I'll use the desktop version (https://releases.ubuntu.com/24.04/ubuntu-24.04.2-desktop-amd64.iso).

    2. Create a disk image using qemu-img. I'm making a 20GB image in the qcow2 format.

      qemu-img create -f qcow2 ubuntu-24.04.2-desktop-amd64.qcow2 20G

    3. Fire up the VM, booting from the ISO we just downloaded (mounted as a CD drive) and attaching the virtual disk we created.

      qemu-system-x86_64 \\
          -machine type=q35,accel=hvf \\
          -smp 2 \\
          -hda ubuntu-24.04.2-desktop-amd64.qcow2 \\
          -cdrom ./ubuntu-24.04.2-desktop-amd64.iso \\
          -m 4G \\
          -vga virtio \\
          -usb \\
          -device usb-tablet \\
          -display default,show-cursor=on

      Here's a breakdown of what those flags actually mean:

      • qemu-system-x86_64: Tells QEMU we want to emulate a 64-bit Intel/AMD system.
      • machine type=q35,accel=hvf
        • type=q35: Sets the machine chipset to Q35, emulating a modern PC with PCI Express.
        • accel=hvf: Uses the Hypervisor Framework (HVF) for hardware acceleration on macOS. This makes things much faster!
      • smp 2: Gives the VM 2 CPU cores.
      • hda ubuntu-24.04.2-desktop-amd64.qcow2: Specifies the QCOW2 disk image as the primary hard drive.
      • cdrom ./ubuntu-24.04.2-desktop-amd64.iso: Mounts the ISO as a virtual CD-ROM for booting/installing.
      • m 4G: Allocates 4GB of RAM to the VM.
      • vga virtio: Uses a Virtio-based video card for better performance.
      • usb: Enables USB support.
      • device usb-tablet: Adds a virtual USB tablet for smoother mouse input.
      • display default,show-cursor=on: Makes sure the mouse cursor is visible.

    4. The VM should boot up from the ISO. Go ahead and install the OS to the virtual disk we created earlier.

    5. Once the installation is done, you can boot the VM without the ISO.

      qemu-system-x86_64 \\
          -machine type=q35,accel=hvf \\
          -smp 2 \\
          -hda ubuntu-24.04.2-desktop-amd64.qcow2 \\
          -m 4G \\
          -vga virtio \\
          -usb \\
          -device usb-tablet \\
          -display default,show-cursor=on

      Ubuntu Desktop VM in qemu

    6. To shut down the VM, do it cleanly from within the OS, or, if you're feeling lazy, just hit Ctrl+C in the terminal (but I wouldn't recommend it!).

Step by Step: Libvirt and Virt-manager​

  1. Install libvirt.

    libvirt is a toolkit for managing virtualization platforms like Qemu, KVM, Xen, etc.

    Check it out here: https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/libvirt

    brew install libvirt

  2. Start the libvirt service.

    brew services start libvirt

  3. Install virt-manager. To make managing VMs easier, we'll use virt-manager as a GUI.

    Check it out here: https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/virt-manager

    brew install virt-manager

  4. Start a virt-manager session.

    virt-manager -c "qemu:///session" --no-fork

  5. Once the window pops up, you can install Ubuntu VMs and mess around.

    virt-manager window

Conclusion​

So there you have it! Qemu, libvirt, and virt-manager all set up on macOS. It wasn't too bad, right? Now you can spin up VMs to your heart's content. This setup is pretty handy for testing different operating systems, playing around with software, or just generally tinkering without messing up your main system. Plus, getting familiar with these tools can be a real boost if you ever find yourself working with virtualization in a more "serious" environment. Happy virtualizing!

Reference​

https://www.arthurkoziel.com/qemu-ubuntu-20-04/

https://www.arthurkoziel.com/running-virt-manager-and-libvirt-on-macos/