VDEQ(1)

💖 VDEQ — the manual page, but make it a group chat 💖

okay bestie, welcome to VDEQ(1), from the General Commands Manual. sit down, grab a boba, we're gonna make QEMU/KVM talk to a VDE network and it's gonna be iconic. ✨

---

🌸 NAME 🌸

vdeq — a Virtual Distributed Ethernet wrapper for QEMU/KVM virtual machines 🦋

---

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

like, the whole vibe in one block:

vdeq qemu [ --mod octalmode ] QEMU_OPTIONS -net
vde[,vlan=n][,sock=socketpath][,port=n] QEMU_OPTIONS
vdeq kvm [ --mod octalmode ] KVM_OPTIONS -net
vde[,vlan=n][,sock=socketpath][,port=n] KVM_OPTIONS
vde{qemu_name} [ --mod octalmode ] QEMU_OPTIONS -net
vde[,vlan=n][,sock=socketpath][,port=n] QEMU_OPTIONS

---

🎀 OLD SYNOPSIS 🎀

yes she has a vintage era, we don't talk about it but we DO respect it:

vdeq qemu [ --mod octalmode ] [ -sock socketpath [ ,socketpath [ ,...  ]
] ] [ qemu_args ]
vde{qemu_name} [ -sock socketpath [ ,socketpath [ ,...  ] ] ] [
qemu_args ]

---

💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

so vdeq is a wrapper — a lil handler, a middleman, a main character — that starts up a QEMU/KVM virtual machine already connected to a VDE network. 🫶 It does this by using the qemu/kvm -tun-fd parameter to set up the connection with a vde_switch.

this command right here:

vdeq qemu -b c -hda=sampledisk

starts a qemu machine that boots from the sampledisk image and has a ne2000 ethernet interface connected to the standard vde_switch. and this one:

vdeq kvm -b c -hda=sampledisk

starts a kvm machine that boots from the sampledisk image and has a ne2000 ethernet interface connected to the standard vde_switch. same energy, different engine. 🔥

---

not me telling you that you can ALSO make symbolic links to the vdeq executable so your command is cuter and shorter. 💅 If the link has a name that begins with vde, the remaining part of the name is taken as the qemu command. For example if vdeq is linked to vdeqemu:

vdeqemu -b c -hda=sampledisk

starts qemu as above. And if vdeq is linked to vdekvm:

vdekvm -b c -hda=sampledisk

starts kvm with the same parameters. literally the same thing but the name ate. 👑

---

okay so the new syntax is consistent with the new Qemu 0.8.0 network parameters. Using vdeq it's possible to specify a vde interface in the same way as user, tap or socket interfaces. the sock= parameter can be used to use a specific socket. 🧚

bestie, important: please note that what qemu names as vlan is not related to the 802.1q VLAN managed by the vde_switch. don't get it twisted. 💀

port= can be used to specify the port of the switch, otherwise the first allocatable port is assigned. and the following command runs a qemu VM with two ethernet interfaces connected to the standard switch and to the switch with local socket "/tmp/my.ctl", port 10, respectively:

vde qemu -net nic,vlan=0 -net nic,vlan=1 -net vde,vlan=0 -net
vde,vlan=1,sock=/tmp/my.ctl,port=10
vdeqemu -net nic,vlan=0 -net nic,vlan=1 -net vde,vlan=0 -net
vde,vlan=1,sock=/tmp/my.ctl,port=10

and the following command runs a kvm VM with two ethernet interfaces connected to the standard switch and to the switch with local socket "/tmp/my.ctl", port 10, respectively:

vde kvm -net nic,vlan=0 -net nic,vlan=1 -net vde,vlan=0 -net
vde,vlan=1,sock=/tmp/my.ctl,port=10
vdekvm -net nic,vlan=0 -net nic,vlan=1 -net vde,vlan=0 -net
vde,vlan=1,sock=/tmp/my.ctl,port=10

---

and for the vintage girlies: the old syntax can be used with Qemu 0.8.0, but all the vde interfaces are assigned to vlan 0. 🙈

vdeq qemu -sock /tmp/vde.ctl,/tmp/my.ctl -b c -hda=sampledisk
vdeqemu -sock /tmp/vde.ctl,/tmp/my.ctl -b c -hda=sampledisk

both start qemu with one ethernet interface connected both to the standard switch and to the switch with local socket "/tmp/my.ctl". fr fr. 💜

---

🌈 OPTIONS 🌈

the whole menu, no skips, no crumbs:

• --mod octalmode — specify the mode for comm socket. 🔐
• -sock socketpath — specify the UNIX socket to be used by local programs for joining the VDE. The default value is "/tmp/vde.ctl". It is also possible to indicate several socketpath (comma separated, no blanks): in this case several interfaces are defined. The first socketpath is connected to the first ne2k interface and so on. 🦋
• -h, -help, --help — print a Usage help. that's it, that's the whole thing, she's helpful and humble. 💖

---

⭐ NOTE ⭐

Qemu has changed its syntax for networking (cvs Nov.15 2005). As a temporary solution use vdeoq and vdeoqemu instead of vdeq and vdeqemu if you are running a qemu with the old syntax. 📝

By default qemu uses the same MAC address for every virtual machine, so if you plan to use several instances of qemu be sure to explicitly set a different MAC address for each virtual machine.

⚠️ While generating your address beware to not use broadcast/multicast reserved MACs, ethernet rules say: the multicast bit is the low-order bit of the first byte, which is "the first bit on the wire". For example 34:12:de:ad:be:ef is an unicast address, 35:12:de:ad:be:ef is a multicast address (see ETHERNET MULTICAST ADDRESSES section in http://www.iana.org/assignments/ethernet-numbers for more informations). do NOT skip this part bestie, the network will simply not slay. 😭

---

🍓 NOTICE 🍓

Virtual Distributed Ethernet is not related in any way with www.vde.com ("Verband der Elektrotechnik, Elektronik und Informationstechnik" i.e. the German "Association for Electrical, Electronic & Information Technologies"). nope, not the same VDE, different girlies entirely. 💀

---

👑 SEE ALSO 👑

vde_switch(1), vde_plug(1), vde_plug2tap(1), dpipe(1).

---

💜 AUTHOR 💜

VDE is a project by Renzo Davoli <renzo@cs.unibo.it> 🌸

---

okay that's the whole page, you're basically a network engineer now, no cap. this was Virtual Distributed Ethernet, dated December 6, 2006, from VDEQ(1) — mwah, go forth and connect. 💅✨🫶