Best VM hypervisor/manager?

[ariznaf]

I have recently moved to linux mint desktop (after many years of using linux sporadically and in servers and being fed up of MS continues changes of mind and fllowing now the google path of being too inmersive in your privacy).

But I need windows from time to time, and usually want to test other OSes.

So I would like to install am hypervisor an VM manager.

My requisites would be:
- Be easy to use and have an interface to create and magage VMs.
- Be able to run the virtual machine directly from a disk partition instead of a file.
- Be able to configure graphics hard and other hardware as passtrough to let the VM access directly that hardware and use it exclusively.

I have experience using vitualbox in windows (and MS hypervisor).

But I would like to give KVM a try, as it seems the native option in linux.
But would like to have an easy to use interface and I don't know it it complies all the requisites.

Which would be the best option?

Which VMs manager with graphic interface would let me create KVMs ?
Is QEMU needed?

If I understand it well QEMU is needed if you need to emulate a CPU differente from yours (for example if you want to run an ARM OS in an Intel cpu).
But if your guest Oses support your CPU and your CPU has hardware virtualization options (mine does) you don't need it.

I don't know it you need it in order to get access to you graphics card, for example.

[rene]

Only at best minimally helpful since I've not done this, but as to manager you'll want "virt-manager". A link that seems useful is https://www.virtualizationhowto.com/202 ... p-by-step/

The "raw disk" thing makes things immediately a lot harder but as far as I can quickly judge, this seems useful: https://jianmin.dev/2020/jul/19/boot-yo ... using-kvm/

As said, no personal experience doing that, but maybe useful. And, yes, QEMU is for emulation indeed; with KVM you can basically pass through most anything directly, including a second GPU for use by the VM if you have a second one so that it'll even do for "gaming". Maybe enough even to side-step that annoying license thing

[ariznaf]

Thank you, I will need to read it carefully.

I have installed KVM and virt-manager with nested virtualization.

I have tried to install some distro and it worked ok.

Bit what I could now till now is create access to the raw disk, I don't understand how pools and different types of access work.

Your links will help to understand the basics.

Thanks a lot.

[axrusar]

Go bananas and use Proxmox VE

[ariznaf]

I have thought about that solution, but it is not easy to have proxmox working and the main use of the machine will be running Linux mint desktop not a machine for running virtual machines.

The proble is that I could no find how to do it, I have followed several guidances but it does not work the virtual machine does no boot, it seems not possible to use the full disk in KVM when it is used by Linux mint at the same time to run the system and virtualbix has problems with permissions.

[JGT_Phewrry]

Um, do you know which device descriptor file correspond to your windows installation disk?

If that's the case I would specify that file on virt-manager. Make sure to make a backup first in case anything goes wrong

eg: in qemu I would do this:
assuming my windows installation is on /dev/sdb1:

Code: Select all

$ qemu-system-x86_64 -enable-kvm -cpu Skylake-Client-v1 -smp 6 -m 8192 \
-drive format=raw. file=/dev/sdb, index=1 \
-snapshot \                // for testing
...