Beginner’s guide to setup VMs on Linux, without the pain of VirtualBox

Why?

• Virtualbox’s installation is more tiresome
• Virutalbox’s CLI looks more complex. Check it here

Resort: libvirt + virt-install

• They are open-source and free
• There is also a GUI based on it, called virt-manager
• Unlike virtualbox, you can find installation guides easily from major distro’s official site:
  • Ubuntu
  • Fedora
  • Arch

How do I create a new VM in terminal?

• install an OS iso, and in command line

# here we use ubuntu 22.04.3 as an example
virt-install \
  --connect qemu:///system \
  --name $YOUR_VM_NAME \
  --os-variant ubuntu22.04 \
  --vcpus 2 \
  --ram 2048 \
  --disk size=20 \
  --location /tmp/ubuntu-22.04.3-live-server-amd64.iso,kernel=casper/vmlinuz,initrd=casper/initrd \
  --network network:default \
  --nographics \
  --extra-args "console=ttyS0"

• you can check the manual of virt-install for the meaning of each flag

How do I create a new VM with GUI?

• virt-manager is straightforward. If you have previous experience with VMWare Fusion, Parallel Desktop, VirtualBOx, it’s easy to start with.
• Here is a redhat blog for how to use it: the blog

VM management

# list all the VMs (their names) created by virt-install
virsh list --all # this will only show the VMs created by the current user

# turn on a VM which in `shut off` state
virsh start <VM_name>

# gracefully shutdown a VM
virsh shutdown <VM_name>

# forcefully shutdown a VM
virsh destroy <VM_name>

# remove a vm when it's off
virsh undefine <name>

• you can find more here