/qemu-run

Manage your virtual machines directly on the terminal without bash scripts or memorizing command line arguments.

Primary LanguageCGNU General Public License v3.0GPL-3.0

qemu-run

Quickly launch QEMU virtual machines from your terminal. Without scripts, or bloated UI programs.

How to install: Unix-like systems

For doing this, simple clone this repo, and build it, you will need tools like git, a compiler and make.

git clone https://github.com/lucie-cupcakes/qemu-run.git
cd qemu-run
make
sudo mv qemu-run.bin /usr/bin/qemu-run

How to use: Making your first VM

First be sure to have QEMU installed, after that we need to setup a directory where you are gonna save all your virtual machines. This are gonna be stored into an environment variable. For doing this we simple edit our bashrc to add this directories:

echo "export QEMURUN_VM_PATH=\"$HOME/VM\"" >> $HOME/.bashrc

You can also specify multiple directories, by separating them by ":" , for example:

echo "export QEMURUN_VM_PATH="$HOME/VM:/media/volume/VM" >> $HOME/.bashrc

For this simple example, let's stick with $HOME/VM Now, grab yourself an ISO of any operative system you want to emulate. For this example, we are gonna download one of the smallest GNU/Linux distros: TinyCore.

cd $HOME/VM
mkdir TinyCore
cd TinyCore
echo "sys=x32" > config # Initialize the VM config file.
curl http://www.tinycorelinux.net/12.x/x86/release/TinyCore-current.iso > TinyCore.iso
ln -s TinyCore.iso cdrom # This is how the VM detects the optical media attached to it.
qemu-run TinyCore

You should be see Tiny Core Linux booting up 😃

If you need a hard drive (for example, you are installing a GNU/Linux like Debian)

qemu-img create -f qcow2 disk 64G # Replace the size as you like.

Warning: Beta software!

This piece of software is barely tested, don't use it on mission critical systems.

Free (as in freedom) software

This software is subject to the GPLv3 or Later LICENSE, check LICENSE file for more information, Or go visit GNU Project - GPLv3 Page