QUICKEMU(1)

📦

version 4.9.9 · 4 versions

4.9.9 · fedora 43, fedora 44, nixos 26.05, nixpkgs unstable (latest)
4.9.9 · ubuntu stonking
4.9.7 · fedora 43
4.9.7 · debian trixie, ubuntu questing, ubuntu resolute

, in fedora 43, fedora 44, nixos 26.05, nixpkgs unstable

🦋 QUICKEMU(1) 🦋 — the Quickemu User Manual

okay bestie, sit down, grab a snack, we're doing the whole thing 🫶

🌸 NAME 🌸

quickemu — a quick VM builder and manager. that's the whole job description. 💅

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

quickemu [OPTION]...

🎀 DESCRIPTION 🎀

quickemu will create and run highly optimised desktop virtual machines for Linux, macOS and Windows. three OS families, one little script, no chaos (okay, a tiny bit of chaos, it's fine). 🌈

💖 OPTIONS 💖

--vm — vm configuration file

and yes, you can also pass optional parameters, because of course you can:

--access — Enable remote spice access support. 'local' (default), 'remote', 'clientipaddress'
--braille — Enable braille support. Requires SDL.
--delete-disk — Delete the disk image and EFI variables
--delete-vm — Delete the entire VM and its configuration
--display — Select display backend. 'gtk' (default), 'sdl', 'cocoa', 'none', 'spice' or 'spice-app'
--fullscreen — Starts VM in full screen mode (Ctl+Alt+f to exit)
--ignore-msrs-always — Configure KVM to always ignore unhandled machine-specific registers
--kill — Kill the VM process if it is running
--offline — Override all network settings and start the VM offline
--shortcut — Create a desktop shortcut
--snapshot apply <tag> — Apply/restore a snapshot.
--snapshot create <tag> — Create a snapshot.
--snapshot delete <tag> — Delete a snapshot.
--snapshot info — Show disk/snapshot info.
--status-quo — Do not commit any changes to disk/snapshot.
--viewer <viewer> — Choose an alternative viewer. @Options: 'spicy' (default), 'remote-viewer', 'none'
--width <width> — Set VM screen width; requires '--height'
--height <height> — Set VM screen height; requires '--width'
--ssh-port <port> — Set SSH port manually
--spice-port <port> — Set SPICE port manually
--public-dir <path> — Expose share directory. @Options: '' (default: xdg-user-dir PUBLICSHARE), '', 'none'
--monitor <type> — Set monitor connection type. @Options: 'socket' (default), 'telnet', 'none'
--monitor-telnet-host <ip/host> — Set telnet host for monitor. (default: 'localhost')
--monitor-telnet-port <port> — Set telnet port for monitor. (default: '4440')
--monitor-cmd <cmd> — Send command to monitor if available. (Example: system_powerdown)
--serial <type> — Set serial connection type. @Options: 'socket' (default), 'telnet', 'none'
--serial-telnet-host <ip/host> — Set telnet host for serial. (default: 'localhost')
--serial-telnet-port <port> — Set telnet port for serial. (default: '6660')
--keyboard <type> — Set keyboard. @Options: 'usb' (default), 'ps2', 'virtio'
--keyboard_layout <layout> — Set keyboard layout: 'en-us' (default)
--mouse <type> — Set mouse. @Options: 'tablet' (default), 'ps2', 'usb', 'virtio'
--usb-controller <type> — Set usb-controller. @Options: 'ehci' (default), 'xhci', 'none'
--sound-card <type> — Set sound card. @Options: 'intel-hda' (default), 'ac97', 'es1370', 'sb16', 'none'
--extra_args <arguments> — Pass additional arguments to qemu
--version — Print version

🎬 EXAMPLES 🎬

quickemu --vm ubuntu-mate-22.04.conf

Launches the VM specified in the file ubuntu-mate-22.04.conf. that's it, that's the example, and honestly it's iconic 👑

👑 Introduction

Quickemu is a wrapper for the excellent QEMU that automatically "does the right thing" when creating virtual machines. No requirement for exhaustive configuration options. You decide what operating system you want to run and Quickemu takes care of the rest 🤖

quickget automatically downloads the upstream OS and creates the configuration 📀
quickemu enumerates your hardware and launches the virtual machine with the optimum configuration best suited to your computer ⚡️

The original objective of the project was to enable quick testing of Linux distributions where the virtual machines and their configuration can be stored anywhere (such as external USB storage or your home directory) and no elevated permissions are required to run the virtual machines.

Today, Quickemu includes comprehensive support for macOS, Windows, most of the BSDs, novel non-Linux operating systems such as FreeDOS, Haiku, KolibriOS, OpenIndiana, ReactOS, and more. the range?? unmatched fr fr 😭💜

🌈 Features

Host support for Linux and macOS
macOS Sequoia, Sonoma, Ventura, Monterey, Big Sur, Catalina & Mojave
Windows 10 and 11 including TPM 2.0
Windows Server 2022 2019 2016
ARM64 guest support for running aarch64 VMs (native on ARM hosts, emulated on x86_64)
Ubuntu and all the official Ubuntu flavours
Nearly 1000 operating system editions are supported!
Full SPICE support including host/guest clipboard sharing
VirtIO-webdavd file sharing for Linux and Windows guests
VirtIO-9p file sharing for Linux and macOS guests
QEMU Guest Agent support; provides access to a system-level agent via standard QMP commands
Samba file sharing for Linux, macOS and Windows guests (if smbd is installed on the host)
VirGL acceleration
USB device pass-through
Smartcard pass-through
Automatic SSH port forwarding to guests
Network port forwarding
Full duplex audio
Braille support
EFI (with or without SecureBoot) and Legacy BIOS boot

As featured on

Linux Matters podcast! The presenters of Linux Matters 🐧🎙️ are the creators of each of the principal Quickemu projects. We discussed Quickemu's 2024 reboot in Episode 30 - Quickemu Rising From the Bashes.

Linux Matters Podcast

When installing from source, you will need to install the following requirements manually:

QEMU (6.0.0 or newer) with GTK, SDL, SPICE & VirtFS support
bash (4.0 or newer)
Coreutils
curl
EDK II
gawk
grep
glxinfo
jq
LSB
pciutils
procps
python3
mkisofs
usbutils
util-linux; including uuidgen
sed
socat
spicy
swtpm
xdg-user-dirs
xrandr
zsync
unzip

For Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, Arch and NixOS hosts the native packaging or ppa, AUR or nix packaging will take care of the dependencies. For other host distributions or operating systems it will be necessary to install the above requirements or their equivalents.

These examples may save a little typing:

Install requirements on Debian hosts

These should be handled by dependencies in Trixie and later. For earlier versions (and their derivatives):

sudo apt-get install bash coreutils curl genisoimage grep jq mesa-utils ovmf pciutils procps python3 qemu sed socat spice-client-gtk swtpm-tools unzip usbutils util-linux xdg-user-dirs xrandr zsync

Install requirements on Fedora hosts

These are handled natively for Fedora 41 on. For earlier versions:

sudo dnf install bash coreutils curl edk2-tools genisoimage grep jq mesa-demos pciutils procps python3 qemu sed socat spice-gtk-tools swtpm unzip usbutils util-linux uuidgen-runtime xdg-user-dirs xrandr zsync

Install requirements on Gentoo

Please note that you may have to use sys-firmware/edk2-ovmf instead of sys-firmware/edk2-ovmf-bin - depending on how your system is configured.

sudo emerge --ask --noreplace app-emulation/qemu \
 app-shells/bash \
 sys-apps/coreutils \
 net-misc/curl \
 sys-firmware/edk2-ovmf-bin \
 sys-apps/gawk \
 sys-apps/grep \
 x11-apps/mesa-progs \
 app-misc/jq \
 sys-apps/pciutils \
 sys-process/procps \
 app-cdr/cdrtools \
 sys-apps/usbutils \
 sys-apps/util-linux \
 sys-apps/sed \
 net-misc/socat \
 app-emulation/spice \
 app-crypt/swtpm \
 x11-misc/xdg-user-dirs \
 x11-apps/xrandr \
 net-misc/zsync \
 app-arch/unzip

Install requirements on macOS hosts

Install the Quickemu requirements using brew:

brew install bash cdrtools coreutils jq python3 qemu usbutils samba socat swtpm zsync

Now clone the project:

git clone https://github.com/quickemu-project/quickemu
cd quickemu

🧚 Alternative Frontends

Quickgui

While quickemu and quickget are designed for the terminal, a graphical user interface is also available:

Quickgui by Mark Johnson and Yannick Mauray.

To install Quickgui on Ubuntu:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:yannick-mauray/quickgui
sudo apt update
sudo apt install quickgui

Many thanks to Luke Wesley-Holley and Philipp Kiemle for creating the Quickemu icons 🎨

🐧 Creating Linux guests 🐧

Ubuntu

quickget will automatically download an Ubuntu release and create the virtual machine configuration.

quickget ubuntu 22.04
quickemu --vm ubuntu-22.04.conf

Complete the installation as normal.
Post-install:
- Install the SPICE agent (spice-vdagent) in the guest to enable copy/paste and USB redirection
  - sudo apt install spice-vdagent
- Install the SPICE WebDAV agent (spice-webdavd) in the guest to enable file sharing.
  - sudo apt install spice-webdavd

Ubuntu daily-live images

quickget can also download/refresh daily-live images via zsync for Ubuntu developers and testers.

quickget ubuntu daily-live
quickemu --vm ubuntu-daily-live.conf

You can run quickget ubuntu daily-live to refresh your daily development image as often as you like, it will even automatically switch to a new series. obsessed honestly 🌸

Ubuntu Flavours

All the official Ubuntu flavours are supported, just replace ubuntu with your preferred flavour.

The project wiki may have further information.

edubuntu (Edubuntu)
kubuntu (Kubuntu)
lubuntu (Lubuntu)
ubuntu-budgie (Ubuntu Budgie)
ubuntucinnamon (Ubuntu Cinnamon)
ubuntukylin (Ubuntu Kylin)
ubuntu-mate (Ubuntu MATE)
ubuntu-server (Ubuntu Server)
ubuntustudio (Ubuntu Studio)
ubuntu (Ubuntu)
ubuntu-unity (Ubuntu Unity)
xubuntu (Xubuntu)

You can also use quickget with advanced options :

                 --arch           <arch>                    : Set architecture (arm64, aarch64, amd64, x86_64)
                 --download       <os> <release> [edition]  : Download image; no VM configuration
                 --create-config  <os> [path/url] [flags]   : Create VM config for an OS image
                 --open-homepage  <os>                      : Open homepage for the OS
                 --show           [os]                      : Show OS information
                 --version                                  : Show version
                 --help                                     : Show this help message
              ------------------------------------ Flags -------------------------------------
              --create-config:
                --disable-unattended                        : Force quickget not to set up an unattended installation
              -------------------------- For testing & development ---------------------------
                 --url            [os] [release] [edition]  : Show image URL(s)
                 --check          [os] [release] [edition]  : Check image URL(s)
                 --check-all-arch [os] [release] [edition]  : Check downloads for all architectures (amd64 and arm64)
                 --list                                     : List all supported systems
                 --list-csv                                 : List everything in csv format
                 --list-json                                : List everything in json format

okay bestie, and here are some typical uses — like, the actual real-life receipts 💅

# show an OS ISO download URL for {os} {release} [edition]
quickget --url fedora 38 Silverblue
# test if an OS ISO is available for {os} {release} [edition]
quickget --check nixos unstable plasma5
# open an OS distribution homepage in a browser
quickget --open-homepage  ubuntu-mate
# Only download image file into current directory, without creating VM
quickget --download elementary 7.1

The --url, --check, and --download options are fully functional for all operating systems, including Windows and macOS. no gatekeeping here ✨

Further information is available from the project wiki.

🌈 Other Operating Systems 🌈

quickget also supports these absolute icons 👑:

alma — AlmaLinux
alpine — Alpine Linux 🏔️
android — Android x86
antix — Antix
archcraft — Archcraft
archlinux — Arch Linux, btw 🐧
artixlinux — Artix Linux
azurelinux — Azure Linux
batocera — Batocera 🎮
bazzite — Bazzite
biglinux — BigLinux
blendos — BlendOS
bodhi — Bodhi
bunsenlabs — BunsenLabs
cachyos — CachyOS
centos-stream — CentOS Stream
chimeralinux — Chimera Linux
crunchbang++ — Crunchbangplusplus
debian — Debian 💖
deepin — Deepin
devuan — Devuan
dragonflybsd — DragonFlyBSD 🐉
easyos — EasyOS
elementary — elementary OS
endeavouros — EndeavourOS
endless — Endless OS
fedora — Fedora 🎩
freebsd — FreeBSD 😈
freedos — FreeDOS
garuda — Garuda Linux 🦅
gentoo — Gentoo 🧊
ghostbsd — GhostBSD 👻
gnomeos — GNOME OS
guix — Guix
haiku — Haiku 🍃
kali — Kali 🔥
kdeneon — KDE Neon
kolibrios — KolibriOS
linuxlite — Linux Lite
linuxmint — Linux Mint 🌿
lmde — Linux Mint Debian Edition
maboxlinux — Mabox Linux
mageia — Mageia
manjaro — Manjaro
mxlinux — MX Linux
netboot — netboot.xyz
netbsd — NetBSD
nitrux — Nitrux
nixos — NixOS ❄️
nwg-shell — nwg-shell
openbsd — OpenBSD 🐡
openindiana — OpenIndiana
opensuse — openSUSE 🦎
oraclelinux — Oracle Linux
parrotsec — Parrot Security 🦜
pclinuxos — PCLinuxOS
peppermint — PeppermintOS
popos — Pop!_OS 🚀
porteus — Porteus
primtux — PrimTux
proxmox-ve — Proxmox VE 🖥️
pureos — PureOS
reactos — ReactOS
rebornos — RebornOS
rockylinux — Rocky Linux 🪨
siduction — Siduction
slackware — Slackware
slax — Slax
slint — Slint
slitaz — SliTaz
solus — Solus ☀️
sparkylinux — SparkyLinux
spirallinux — SpiralLinux
tails — Tails 🕵️
tinycore — Tiny Core Linux
trisquel — Trisquel
tuxedo-os — Tuxedo OS
vanillaos — Vanilla OS 🍦
void — Void Linux 🌌
zorin — Zorin OS 💫

🧚 Custom Linux guests 🧚

Orrr you can download a Linux image and manually create a VM configuration yourself, main character style 💅

Download a .iso image of a Linux distribution
Create a VM configuration file; for example debian-bullseye.conf

guest_os="linux"
disk_img="debian-bullseye/disk.qcow2"
iso="debian-bullseye/firmware-11.0.0-amd64-DVD-1.iso"

Use quickemu to start the virtual machine:

quickemu --vm debian-bullseye.conf

Complete the installation as normal.
Post-install:
- Install the SPICE agent (spice-vdagent) in the guest to enable copy/paste and USB redirection.
- Install the SPICE WebDAV agent (spice-webdavd) in the guest to enable file sharing.

💜 Supporting old Linux distros 💜

If you wanna run an old Linux, like from 2016 or earlier, change the guest_os to linux_old. That flips on the vmware-svga graphics driver, which is way better supported on older distros. nostalgic queen energy ✨

🍏 Creating macOS Guests 🍏

Installing macOS in a VM can be a bit finicky, so if you hit problems, check the Discussions for solutions or ask for help there 🛟

quickget automatically downloads a macOS recovery image and creates a virtual machine configuration for you. obsessed, honestly.

Note: Some VPN users may need to turn off their VPN in order to download a recovery image. Some other users may find using a VPN necessary in order to download a recovery image.

quickget macos big-sur
quickemu --vm macos-big-sur.conf

macOS mojave, catalina, big-sur, monterey, ventura and sonoma are supported. 🎀

Use cursor keys and enter key to select the macOS Base System
From macOS Utilities
- Click Disk Utility and Continue
  - Select QEMU HARDDISK Media (~103.08GB) from the list (on Big Sur and above use Apple Inc. VirtIO Block Device) and click Erase.
  - Enter a Name: for the disk
  - If you are installing macOS Mojave or later (Catalina, Big Sur, Monterey, Ventura and Sonoma), choose any of the APFS options as the filesystem. MacOS Extended may not work.
- Click Erase.
- Click Done.
- Close Disk Utility
From macOS Utilities
- Click Reinstall macOS and Continue
Complete the installation as you normally would.
- On the first reboot use cursor keys and enter key to select macOS Installer
- On the subsequent reboots use cursor keys and enter key to select the disk you named
Once you have finished installing macOS you will be presented with the out-of-the-box first-start wizard to configure various options and set up your username and password
OPTIONAL: After you have concluded the out-of-the-box wizard, you may want to enable the TRIM feature that the computer industry created for SSD disks. This feature in our macOS installation will allow QuickEmu to compact (shrink) your macOS disk image whenever you delete files inside the Virtual Machine. Without this step your macOS disk image will only ever get larger and will not shrink even when you delete lots of data inside macOS.
- To enable TRIM, open the Terminal application and type the following command followed by pressing enter to tell macos to use the TRIM command on the hard disk when files are deleted:

sudo trimforce enable

You will be prompted to enter your account's password to gain the privilege needed. Once you've entered your password and pressed enter the command will request confirmation in the form of two questions that require you to type y (for a "yes" response) followed by enter to confirm.

If you press enter without first typing y the system will consider that a negative response as though you said "no":

IMPORTANT NOTICE: This tool force-enables TRIM for all relevant attached devices, even though such devices may not have been validated for data integrity while using TRIM. Use of this tool to enable TRIM may result in unintended data loss or data corruption. It should not be used in a commercial operating environment or with important data. Before using this tool, you should back up all of your data and regularly back up data while TRIM is enabled. This tool is provided on an "as is" basis. APPLE MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF NON-INFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, REGARDING THIS TOOL OR ITS USE ALONE OR IN COMBINATION WITH YOUR DEVICES, SYSTEMS, OR SERVICES. BY USING THIS TOOL TO ENABLE TRIM, YOU AGREE THAT, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, USE OF THE TOOL IS AT YOUR SOLE RISK AND THAT THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO SATISFACTORY QUALITY, PERFORMANCE, ACCURACY AND EFFORT IS WITH YOU.
Are you sure you with to proceed (y/N)?

And a second confirmation once you've confirmed the previous one:

Your system will immediately reboot when this is complete.
Is this OK (y/N)?

As the last message states, your system will automatically reboot as soon as the command completes. like, immediately. do not be surprised 😭

The default macOS configuration looks like this:

guest_os="macos"
img="macos-big-sur/RecoveryImage.img"
disk_img="macos-big-sur/disk.qcow2"
macos_release="big-sur"

guest_os="macos" instructs Quickemu to optimise for macOS.
macos_release="big-sur" instructs Quickemu to optimise for a particular macOS release.
- For example VirtIO Network and Memory Ballooning are available in Big Sur and newer, but not previous releases.
- And VirtIO Block Media (disks) are supported/stable in Catalina and newer.

🍎 macOS compatibility

Okay bestie, running macOS through Quickemu has a couple of ~considerations~ you gotta know about. Not scary, just ✨specific✨.

Supported macOS releases:
- Mojave
- Catalina
- Big Sur
- Monterey
- Ventura
- Sonoma
quickemu will automatically download the required OpenCore bootloader and OVMF firmware from OSX-KVM. No manual hunting, she handles it 💅
Optimised by default, but no GPU acceleration is available. 🫠
- Host CPU vendor is detected and guest CPU is optimised accordingly.
- VirtIO Block Media is used for the system disk where supported.
- VirtIO usb-tablet is used for the mouse.
- VirtIO Network (virtio-net) is supported and enabled on macOS Big Sur and newer, but earlier releases use vmxnet3.
- VirtIO Memory Ballooning is supported and enabled on macOS Big Sur and newer but disabled for other support macOS releases.
USB host and SPICE pass-through is:
- UHCI (USB 2.0) on macOS Catalina and earlier.
- XHCI (USB 3.0) on macOS Big Sur and newer.
Display resolution can be changed via quickemu using --width and --height command line arguments.
Full Duplex audio requires VoodooHDA OC or pass-through a USB audio-device to the macOS guest VM.
- NOTE! Gatekeeper and System Integrity Protection (SIP) need to be disabled to install VoodooHDA OC
File sharing between guest and host is available via virtio-9p and SPICE webdavd.
Copy/paste via SPICE agent is not available on macOS. 😭

🛍️ macOS App Store

So if you're staring at "Your device or computer could not be verified" when you try to log in to the App Store, don't spiral bestie — it's a network interface naming thing. Make sure that your wired ethernet device is en0. Use ifconfig in a terminal to verify this.

If the wired ethernet device is not en0, then go to System Preferences -> Network, delete all the network devices and apply the changes. Next, open a terminal and run the following:

sudo rm /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/NetworkInterfaces.plist

Now reboot, and the App Store should work. Iconic. ✨

There may be further advice and information about macOS guests in the project wiki.

🪟 Creating Windows guests

quickget can download Windows 10 and Windows 11 automatically and create an optimised virtual machine configuration. This configuration also includes the VirtIO drivers for Windows. 🔥

Windows 8.1 is also supported but doesn't feature any automated installation or driver optimisation.

quickget can also download Windows 10 LTSC and Windows Server 2012-r2, 2016, 2019, and 2022. No automated installation is supported for these releases.

quickget windows 11
quickemu --vm windows-11.conf

Complete the installation as you normally would.
All relevant drivers and services should be installed automatically.
A local administrator user account is automatically created, with these credentials:
- Username: Quickemu
- Password: quickemu

Further information is available from the project wiki

⚙️ Configuration

Here are the usage instructions, and yes, we're pasting the whole thing because you deserve the full tea 🫖:

Usage
  quickemu --vm ubuntu.conf <arguments>

Arguments
  --access                          : Enable remote spice access support. 'local' (default), 'remote', 'clientipaddress'
  --braille                         : Enable braille support. Requires SDL.
  --cpu-pinning                     : Choose which host cores correspond to which guest cores.
  --delete-disk                     : Delete the disk image and EFI variables
  --delete-vm                       : Delete the entire VM and its configuration
  --display                         : Select display backend. 'gtk' (default), 'sdl', 'cocoa', 'none', 'spice' or 'spice-app'
  --fullscreen                      : Starts VM in full screen mode (Ctl+Alt+f to exit)
  --ignore-msrs-always              : Configure KVM to always ignore unhandled machine-specific registers
  --ignore-tsc-warning              : Skip TSC stability warning for macOS VMs on AMD
  --kill                            : Kill the VM process if it is running
  --offline                         : Override all network settings and start the VM offline
  --shortcut                        : Create a desktop shortcut
  --snapshot apply <tag>            : Apply/restore a snapshot.
  --snapshot create <tag>           : Create a snapshot.
  --snapshot delete <tag>           : Delete a snapshot.
  --snapshot info                   : Show disk/snapshot info.
  --status-quo                      : Do not commit any changes to disk/snapshot.
  --viewer <viewer>                 : Choose an alternative viewer. @Options: 'spicy' (default), 'remote-viewer', 'none'
  --width <width>                   : Set VM screen width; requires '--height'
  --height <height>                 : Set VM screen height; requires '--width'
  --ssh-port <port>                 : Set SSH port manually
  --spice-port <port>               : Set SPICE port manually
  --public-dir <path>               : Expose share directory. @Options: '' (default: xdg-user-dir PUBLICSHARE), '<directory>', 'none'
  --monitor <type>                  : Set monitor connection type. @Options: 'socket' (default), 'telnet', 'none'
  --monitor-telnet-host <ip/host>   : Set telnet host for monitor. (default: 'localhost')
  --monitor-telnet-port <port>      : Set telnet port for monitor. (default: '4440')
  --monitor-cmd <cmd>               : Send command to monitor if available. (Example: system_powerdown)
  --serial <type>                   : Set serial connection type. @Options: 'socket' (default), 'telnet', 'none'
  --serial-telnet-host <ip/host>    : Set telnet host for serial. (default: 'localhost')
  --serial-telnet-port <port>       : Set telnet port for serial. (default: '6660')
  --keyboard <type>                 : Set keyboard. @Options: 'usb' (default), 'ps2', 'virtio'
  --keyboard_layout <layout>        : Set keyboard layout: 'en-us' (default)
  --mouse <type>                    : Set mouse. @Options: 'tablet' (default), 'ps2', 'usb', 'virtio'
  --usb-controller <type>           : Set usb-controller. @Options: 'ehci' (default), 'xhci', 'none'
  --sound-card <type>               : Set sound card. @Options: 'intel-hda' (default), 'ac97', 'es1370', 'sb16', 'usb-audio', 'virtio-sound-pci', 'none'
  --sound-duplex <type>             : Set sound card duplex. @Options: 'hda-micro' (default: speaker/mic), 'hda-duplex' (line-in/line-out), 'hda-output' (output-only)
  --extra_args <arguments>          : Pass additional arguments to qemu
  --version                         : Print version

🎀 Desktop shortcuts

Desktop shortcuts can be created for a VM, and the shortcuts are saved in ~/.local/share/applications. Here's an example of how to create a shortcut — it's giving one-line slay:

quickemu --vm ubuntu-22.04-desktop.conf --shortcut

📚 References

Useful reference that assisted the development of Quickemu. Shoutout to everyone who wrote the lore 🙏

👑 AUTHORS

Written by Martin Wimpress.

💀 BUGS

Submit bug reports online at: https://github.com/quickemu-project/quickemu/issues

quickemu_conf(5), quickget(1), quickgui(1)

👑 AUTHORS

Martin Wimpress.

And that's a wrap on the whole page, bestie 💖 This manual is for quickemu, dated February 2, 2026, and it signs off as QUICKEMU(1). Go build something cute in a VM, no cap. 🦋

📦 where this page comes from

fedora 43: quickemu 4.9.9-1.fc43 · MIT
fedora 44: quickemu 4.9.9-1.fc44 · MIT
nixos 26.05: quickemu 4.9.9
nixpkgs unstable: quickemu 4.9.9
💖 girlified by deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash on 2026-10-18: a language model's rewrite of the original, under its terms

QUICKEMU(1)

🦋 QUICKEMU(1) 🦋 — the Quickemu User Manual

🌸 NAME 🌸

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

🎀 DESCRIPTION 🎀

💖 OPTIONS 💖

🎬 EXAMPLES 🎬

👑 Introduction

🌈 Features

As featured on

Install requirements on Debian hosts

Install requirements on Fedora hosts

Install requirements on Gentoo

Install requirements on macOS hosts

🧚 Alternative Frontends

Quickgui

🐧 Creating Linux guests 🐧

Ubuntu

Ubuntu daily-live images

Ubuntu Flavours

🌈 Other Operating Systems 🌈

🧚 Custom Linux guests 🧚

💜 Supporting old Linux distros 💜

🍏 Creating macOS Guests 🍏

🍎 macOS compatibility

🛍️ macOS App Store

🪟 Creating Windows guests

⚙️ Configuration

🎀 Desktop shortcuts

📚 References

👑 AUTHORS

💀 BUGS

🌈 SEE ALSO

👑 AUTHORS