Documentation
Debian Based Distros
VMs

VMs

Why Virtualization?

  • Save Resources: Virtualization helps use computer servers more efficiently. Instead of having one computer server for each task, you can have multiple tasks running on one server. This saves money on buying lots of servers and uses less electricity.

  • Stay Safe: Virtualization makes it safer to run different programs or tasks on the same computer. If one program has a problem, it won’t affect the others. This is important for keeping your computer secure.

  • Be Flexible: Virtualization allows you to change your computer setup quickly. You can add new programs or make your computer bigger or smaller without buying new physical parts. It’s like rearranging furniture in a room to fit your needs.

How to Virtualize?

We can run an OS inside our main OS from Windows, mac or Linux. This guide will show you how to do it from a Debian distro as main OS.

Pre-Requisites

Do we have Hardware Virtualization Available?

egrep -c '(vmx|svm)' /proc/cpuinfo #if >0 we have hardware virtualization

Can KVM acceleration be used in our hardware?

apt install cpu-checker
kvm-ok

You might need to enable it in the BIOS. Enter to it with:

systemctl reboot --firmware-setup

Installing QEMU-KVM

You are right, we are not going to use VirtualBox nor VMWare, but QEMU.

QEMU-KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) is a virtualization technology for Linux-based systems that allows you to run virtual machines on a host system. It combines the QEMU emulator with the KVM kernel module to provide efficient and high-performance virtualization capabilities.

#apt install quemu
sudo apt install qemu-kvm libvirt-clients libvirt-daemon-system bridge-utils virtinst libvirt-daemon
#sudo systemctl status libvirtd
sudo systemctl enable --now libvirtd

A GUI for our VMs 

#sudo systemctl status libvirtd
sudo apt install virt-manager
ℹ️
You can always get out of the VM by using: CTRL+ALT+G

Using QEMU

You will need to create a Virtual Disk if you want to store data in the VM - By default it will be at: /var/lib/libvirt/images/the_name_you_want.qcow2

qemu-system-x86_64 -m 2G -smp 2 --enable-kvm -name 'Your_test_VM' -boot d -cdrom /home/Downloads/Linux_Images

FAQ

I heard it is possible to run MacOS in Linux, is it True?

Yes, you can quickly try MacOS thanks to:

sudo snap install sosumi
#sosumi

#CTRL+ALT+G #to get out of the VM
#sudo snap remove sosumi
  1. Boot macOS install from macOS Base System
  2. Format Virtual Hard Drive

How to run Mac Apps on Linux?

Use DarlingHQ - https://docs.darlinghq.org/build-instructions.html

sudo apt-get install cmake clang bison flex xz-utils libfuse-dev libudev-dev pkg-config libc6-dev-i386 linux-headers-generic gcc-multilib libcap2-bin libcairo2-dev libgl1-mesa-dev libtiff-dev libfreetype6-dev libxml2-dev libegl1-mesa-dev libfontconfig1-dev libbsd-dev

git clone --recursive https://github.com/darlinghq/darling.git

sudo apt install clang-11
sudo bash -c "$(wget -O - https://apt.llvm.org/llvm.sh)"
sudo apt install clang-11 lldb-11 lld-11
sudo apt install clang-11 lldb-11 lld-11

sudo apt-get install libgif-dev
sudo apt-get install libxkbfile-dev
sudo apt-get install libpulse-dev

sudo apt-get install libglu1-mesa-dev


cd darling
mkdir build
cd build
#cmake ..
cmake .. -DCMAKE_C_COMPILER=/usr/bin/clang-11 -DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER=/usr/bin/clang++-11

make

sudo make install

Setup a macOS VM in QEMU

https://github.com/foxlet/macOS-Simple-KVM

How to do GPU PassThrough?

Debian Based Distros