Guide to Setting up QEMU in Debian Linux

Setup Qemu in Debian Linux

To check if virtualization is enabled on your Debian Linux system, you can use the following command:

egrep -c '(vmx|svm)' /proc/cpuinfo

If the output is greater than 0, it means that virtualization is enabled on your system. This command checks for the presence of the Intel VT-x or AMD-V extensions, which are required for running virtual machines with QEMU.

Install QEMU and Virtual Machine Manager

 bash
sudo apt install qemu-kvm qemu-system qemu-utils python3 python3-pip libvirt-clients libvirt-daemon-system bridge-utils virtinst libvirt-daemon virt-manager -y

Verify that Libvirtd service is started

sudo systemctl status libvirtd.service

Start Default Network for Networking

Using virsh, the command-line interface tool for managing virtual machines, you can also interact with networks. Here's how you can start the default network and make it auto-start after a system reboot:

Start the Default Network:

 bash
   sudo virsh net-start default

Enable auto-start:
To make the default network auto-start after a system reboot, use the net-autostart command followed by the network name:

 bash
   sudo virsh net-autostart default

These commands will start the default network and configure it to start automatically when the host system boots up.

Check status with:

sudo virsh net-list --all

 Name      State      Autostart   Persistent
----------------------------------------------
 default   active       yes          yes

Add the user to the libvirt group, which allows the user to access and manage virtual machines using libvirt:

sudo usermod -aG libvirt $USER
sudo usermod -aG libvirt-qemu $USER
sudo usermod -aG kvm $USER
sudo usermod -aG input $USER
sudo usermod -aG disk $USER

Reboot to complete the process.