Virtualization on Linux#

QEMU with KVM (recommended)#

QEMU with KVM gives near-native performance on Linux hosts and is the primary tested environment.

Install#

sudo apt install qemu-system-x86 qemu-kvm virt-manager

Check that KVM is available:

kvm-ok

If KVM is not available, QEMU will still work but will run slower without hardware acceleration.

Boot a raw image#

qemu-system-x86_64 \
  -enable-kvm \
  -m 4096 \
  -smp 4 \
  -drive file=vitruvian.img,format=raw,if=virtio \
  -vga virtio \
  -display sdl \
  -net nic,model=virtio \
  -net user \
  -rtc base=localtime

Adjust -m (RAM in MB) and -smp (CPU cores) to your host. Remove -enable-kvm if KVM is unavailable.

Boot an ISO#

qemu-system-x86_64 \
  -enable-kvm \
  -m 4096 \
  -smp 4 \
  -cdrom vitruvian.iso \
  -boot d \
  -vga virtio \
  -display sdl \
  -net nic,model=virtio \
  -net user

Useful flags#

Flag	Purpose
`-display gtk`	Use a GTK window instead of SDL
`-display spice-app`	Use SPICE for better clipboard and display integration
`-cpu host`	Expose host CPU features to the guest (better compatibility)
`-snapshot`	Run without writing changes back to the image
`-serial stdio`	Print serial output to the terminal

GNOME Boxes#

GNOME Boxes provides a simple GUI over QEMU/KVM. It works but offers less control over VM parameters. Useful for quick tests.

VirtualBox#

Install from virtualbox.org or your distribution’s package manager. Create a new VM with:

Type: Linux, version Linux 2.6 / 3.x / 4.x (64-bit)
RAM: 4 GB or more
Display: VMSVGA, 3D acceleration off
Storage: attach the raw or ISO image

VirtualBox is slower than QEMU/KVM on Linux and is less well-tested with Vitruvian.