Virtual KVM.md

Run kvm-ok for system support

The base of vm stuff

sudo apt install libvirt-clients libvirt-daemon qemu qemu-kvm

For GUI management interface:

sudo apt install virt-manager

To get ability for briding the vm out and some network benefits

sudo apt install bridge-utils

Folder sharing Via libvirt to windows

https://www.debugpoint.com/kvm-share-folder-windows-guest/

Vagrant

Install Vagrant

wget -O- https://apt.releases.hashicorp.com/gpg | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/hashicorp-archive-keyring.gpg
echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/hashicorp-archive-keyring.gpg] https://apt.releases.hashicorp.com $(lsb_release -cs) main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/hashicorp.list
sudo apt update && sudo apt install vagrant

Setting up Vagrant with libvirt

Vagrant default uses virtual box as backend. We need the vagrant-libvirt plugin for it. https://github.com/vagrant-libvirt/vagrant-libvirt Documentation under https://vagrant-libvirt.github.io/vagrant-libvirt/

Following the document, these packages are needed as well

sudo apt install ebtables libguestfs-tools ruby-fog-libvirt libvirt-dev

ebtables is for adding ethernet rules, like intercept package etc. libguestfs-tools is for access and modifying VM disk images. libvirt-dev is build dependency for vagrant-libvirt plugin.

Also want to make sure the vagrant-libvirt is installed via vagrant

sudo apt-get purge vagrant-libvirt
sudo apt-mark hold vagrant-libvirt

Install the plugin

vagrant plugin install vagrant-libvirt

The default provider is virtualbox. To set libvirt as provider: vagrant up --provider=libvirt or export VAGRANT_DEFAULT_PROVIDER=libvirt

Libvirt Windows

Some tools are needed to be installed to allow seamless cursor transition, and mapping outside folder into windows.

https://serverfault.com/a/457611

https://www.spice-space.org/download.html -> Guest section

I am using this LTSC version of winbox which supports libvirt (but not the latest version. The default config needs slight change to not pinned at latest version) https://portal.cloud.hashicorp.com/vagrant/discover/it-gro/win10-ltsc-eval

Winapp

The Magical app that use RDP to make app inside vm showup like native Linux app.

Libvirt setup:

Require this URI setting.

echo "export LIBVIRT_DEFAULT_URI=\"qemu:///system\"" >> ~/.bashrc

Require qemu-guest-agent package and systemd unit to be running

Add user to group kvm and libvirt so operation on vm can be done without being root.

Virt IO driver

Winapp ask for the install of virt IO driver. This is a common driver that is mentioned in other tutorials.

This link is directly going to the latest version by redhat. https://fedorapeople.org/groups/virt/virtio-win/direct-downloads/latest-virtio/virtio-win.iso

Config the VM for winapp

There are a huge list of configs to go through before actually using the VM.

https://github.com/winapps-org/winapps/blob/main/docs/libvirt.md#creating-a-windows-vm

note:

• Under step 13 of the above linked section, the line <source mode='bind'/> is removed by virt-manager as soon as added and applyed. Will just ignore this small difference for now.

Move Libvirt KVM to another machine

To dump the XML:

virsh dumpxml VMNAME > domxml.xml 

Then also copy over the virtual machine's drive.

To load the xml into a new machine

virsh define domxml.xml

Compress image file of VM

Use virt-sparsify to do so. (require using SUDO for compressing image belong to libvirt vm)

https://man.archlinux.org/man/virt-sparsify.1.en

External Network access

When directly letting VM exposed and accessing external network, use macvtap will work. Need to specify the ethernet jack. Also, host is still able to use the same network port as well.