virt-manager VS QEMU

Compare virt-manager vs QEMU and see what are their differences.

virt-manager

Desktop tool for managing virtual machines via libvirt (by virt-manager)

QEMU

Official QEMU mirror. Please see https://www.qemu.org/contribute/ for how to submit changes to QEMU. Pull Requests are ignored. Please only use release tarballs from the QEMU website. (by qemu)
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virt-manager QEMU
114 189
2,134 9,236
3.2% 2.4%
8.6 10.0
8 days ago 5 days ago
Python C
GNU General Public License v3.0 only GNU General Public License v3.0 or later
The number of mentions indicates the total number of mentions that we've tracked plus the number of user suggested alternatives.
Stars - the number of stars that a project has on GitHub. Growth - month over month growth in stars.
Activity is a relative number indicating how actively a project is being developed. Recent commits have higher weight than older ones.
For example, an activity of 9.0 indicates that a project is amongst the top 10% of the most actively developed projects that we are tracking.

virt-manager

Posts with mentions or reviews of virt-manager. We have used some of these posts to build our list of alternatives and similar projects. The last one was on 2024-04-16.
  • Reproducing the printer hack of Windows 95
    3 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 16 Apr 2024
    It's still being updated. I don't see anything on the virt-manager homepage or GitHub that would suggest it is deprecated.

    https://virt-manager.org/

    https://github.com/virt-manager/virt-manager

    It can't do literally everything Qemu/libvirt can do using only the UI, but given that it has escape hatches to directly edit libvirt configurations, and libvirt has escape hatches to directly pass arguments to Qemu, there's very little you can't do with it.

  • Proxmox VE: Import Wizard for Migrating VMware ESXi VMs
    4 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 27 Mar 2024
    I would love to see a serious comparison (features & performance) between VMWare ESXi, Proxmox VE and let's say a more stock RHEL or Ubuntu. And maybe even include FreeBSD/bhyve.

    Because yes, in terms of core functionality it should be in the same ballpark. And in terms of UI, Virtual Machine Manager [0] was not that bad.

    [0] https://virt-manager.org/

  • Manage virtual machines with virt-manager
    1 project | news.ycombinator.com | 30 Jan 2024
  • Quickemu: Quickly run optimised Windows, macOS and Linux virtual machines
    5 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 30 Jan 2024
    Shout out to https://virt-manager.org/ - works much better for me, supports running qemu on remote systems via ssh. I used to use this all the time for managing bunches of disparate vm hosts and local vms.
  • Oracle data base
    2 projects | /r/Fedora | 10 Dec 2023
    If not, I would just run a CentOS Stream 8 virtual machine using either GNOME Boxes or virt-manager, and set up networking and ssh so you can access the database from the host.
  • Can i run fortnite on Linux??
    1 project | /r/linux_gaming | 6 Dec 2023
    https://virt-manager.org/ <- Recommend this as Front-end
  • Cockpit: Web-based graphical interface for servers
    4 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 15 Oct 2023
    I'd say it is half-baked webmin. You can only use it with NetworkManager, and if you have an even remotely complex network setup for VMs, NetworkManager usually must be turned off, which makes Cockpit practically unusable. virt-manager [1] is way more powerful for those who like managing VMs with GUI.

    [1] https://virt-manager.org/

  • Failed to acquire pid file : /var/local/run/libvirt/qemu/driver.pid
    2 projects | /r/kvm | 28 Aug 2023
    $ apt build-dep libvirt $ git clone https://github.com/libvirt/libvirt.git Cloning into 'libvirt'... $ cd libvirt $ meson setup build $ ninja -C build $ ninja -C build install $ which virsh /usr/local/bin/virsh $ which libvirtd /usr/local/sbin/libvirtd $ apt install libgtk-3-dev libpulse-dev libgbm-dev libspice-protocol-dev \ libspice-server-dev libusb-1.0-0-dev libepoxy-dev libfdt-dev $ git clone -b v5.1.0 http://git.qemu.org/qemu.git $ cd qemu-v5.1.0 $ git submodule add -f https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/utils/dtc/dtc.git dtc $ ./configure --disable-werror --target-list=arm-softmmu \ --enable-opengl --enable-gtk --enable-kvm --enable-guest-agent \ --enable-spice --audio-drv-list="oss pa" --enable-libusb \ --enable-trace-backend=simple --enable-debug $ make $ make install $ git clone https://github.com/virt-manager/virt-manager.git $ apt install gobject-introspection libosinfo-1.0-0 libosinfo-1.0-dev \ gir1.2-libosinfo-1.0 libvirt-glib-1.0-dev $ cd virt-manager $ ./setup.py configure --prefix=/usr/local $ sudo ./setup.py install $ sudo usermod -a -G libvirt root $ sudo usermod -a -G libvirtd root $ sudo usermod -a -G libvirt-qemu libvirt-qemu $ sudo usermod -a -G libvirt marietto $ sudo adduser libvirt-qemu $ sudo groupadd --system libvirt $ sudo groupadd --system libvirt-qemu $ sudo newgrp libvirt-qemu $ newgrp libvirt $ /usr/local/sbin# libvirtd & [1] 2875 $ /usr/local/sbin# virtqemud & info : libvirt version: 9.7.0 info : hostname: chromarietto error : virPidFileAcquirePathFull:409 Failed to acquire pid file : /var/local/run/libvirt/qemu/driver.pid Resource temporarily unavailable error : virStateInitialize:672 : Initialization of QEMU state driver failed Failed to acquire pid file : /var/local/run/libvirt/qemu/driver.pid Resource temporarily unavailable error : daemonRunStateInit:617 : Driver state initialization failed $ /usr/local/sbin# ps ax | grep libvirt 2875 pts/0 Sl 0:00 libvirtd $ /usr/local/sbin# ps ax | grep virtqemu nothing If I do the opposite way : $ /usr/local/sbin# virtqemud & $ /usr/local/sbin# ps ax | grep virtqemu 3041 pts/0 Sl 0:00 virtqemud $ /usr/local/sbin# libvirtd & info : libvirt version: 9.7.0 info : hostname: chromarietto error : virPidFileAcquirePathFull:409 Failed to acquire pid file : /var/local/run/libvirt/qemu/driver.pid Resource temporarily unavailable virStateInitialize:672 : Initialization of QEMU state driver failed Failed to acquire pid file : /var/local/run/libvirt/qemu/driver.pid Resource temporarily unavailable daemon RunStateInit:617 : Driver state initialization failed $ /usr/local/sbin# ps ax | grep virtqemu 3041 pts/0 Sl 0:00 virtqemud $ /usr/local/sbin# ps ax | grep libvirt nothing
  • Issue Testing hyperland in virt-manger
    1 project | /r/NixOS | 14 Aug 2023
    I want to test Hyprland with NixOS in a VM using Virt-Manager (https://virt-manager.org/) on Arch Linux host before installing it on my machine.
  • We Replaced Firecracker with QEMU
    5 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 10 Jul 2023

QEMU

Posts with mentions or reviews of QEMU. We have used some of these posts to build our list of alternatives and similar projects. The last one was on 2024-04-03.
  • Autoconf makes me think we stopped evolving too soon
    8 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 3 Apr 2024
    A better solution is just to write a plain ass shell script that tests if various C snippets compile.

    https://github.com/oilshell/oil/blob/master/configure

    https://github.com/oilshell/oil/blob/master/build/detect-pwe...

    Not an unholy mix of m4, shell, and C, all in the same file.

    ---

    These are the same style as a the configure scripts that Fabrice Bellard wrote for tcc and QEMU.

    They are plain ass shell scripts, because he actually understands the code he writes.

    https://github.com/qemu/qemu/blob/master/configure

    https://github.com/TinyCC/tinycc/blob/mob/configure

    OCaml’s configure script is also “normal”.

    You don’t have to copy and paste thousands of lines of GNU stuff that you don’t understand.

    (copy of lobste.rs comment)

  • WASM Instructions
    13 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 18 Feb 2024
    Related:

    A fast Pascal (Delphi) WebAssembly interpreter:

    https://github.com/marat1961/wasm

    WASM-4:

    https://github.com/aduros/wasm4

    Curated list of awesome things regarding WebAssembly (wasm) ecosystem:

    https://github.com/mbasso/awesome-wasm

    Also, it would be nice if there was a WASM (soft) CPU for QEMU, which (if it existed!) would go here:

    https://github.com/qemu/qemu/tree/master/target

  • Revng translates (i386, x86-64, MIPS, ARM, AArch64, s390x) binaries to LLVM IR
    7 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 12 Jan 2024
    > architectural registers are always updated

    In tiny code, the guest registers (global TCG variables) are stored in the host's registers until you either call an helper which can access the CPU state or you return (`git grep la_global_sync`). This is the reason why QEMU is not so terribly slow.

    But after a check, this also happens when you access the guest memory address space! https://github.com/qemu/qemu/blob/master/include/tcg/tcg-opc... (TCG_OPF_SIDE_EFFECTS is what matters)

    But still, in the end, it's the same problem. What QEMU does, can be done in LLVM too. You could probably be more efficient in LLVM by using the exception handling mechanism (invoke and friends) to only serialize back to memory when there's an actual exception, at the cost of higher register pressure. More or less what we do here: https://rev.ng/downloads/bar-2019-paper.pdf

  • State of x86-64 emulation of non-MacOS binaries
    1 project | /r/MacOS | 7 Dec 2023
    Um, in case you don't know, UTM (based on QEMU) is out for quite a while.
  • Multipass: Ubuntu Virtual Machines Made Easy
    3 projects | dev.to | 15 Nov 2023
    Some of these tools include Oracle VM VirtualBox (that I've used since before the acquisition of Sun Microsystems by Oracle), VMWare Workstation Player, and QEMU, but last year, I found out about Multipass.
  • Libsodium: A modern, portable, easy to use crypto library
    9 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 14 Sep 2023
    For C/C++ projects that use meson as the build system, there is an excellent way to manage dependencies:

    https://mesonbuild.com/Wrapdb-projects.html

    https://mesonbuild.com/Wrap-dependency-system-manual.html

    meson will download and build the libraries automatically and give you a variable which you pass as a regular dependency into the built target:

    https://github.com/qemu/qemu/tree/005ad32358f12fe9313a4a0191...

    https://github.com/harfbuzz/harfbuzz/tree/main/subprojects

    https://github.com/harfbuzz/harfbuzz/blob/37457412b3212463c5...

    Or, if you're using proper operating systems, they're managed by the usual package manager, just like everything else.

  • Top 6 Virtual Machine Software in 2023
    1 project | dev.to | 10 Aug 2023
    For all the users of the Linux platform, QEMU is the VM that you should go for. This software comes without any price tag and works as an emulator of various machines with utmost ease and completion; the software uses dynamic translations to emulate hardware peripherals and enhances its overall performance. If you are using QEMU as a virtualizer, then it will function exactly like the host system (provided you have the right set of hardware).
  • Show HN: I'm 17 and wrote this guide on how CPUs run programs
    5 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 9 Aug 2023
  • UTM for Developers
    2 projects | dev.to | 17 Jul 2023
    In this tutorial, we set up macOS and Windows virtual machines on UTM, a macOS application that provides a GUI wrapper for QEMU, a powerful open-source emulator and virtualizer. UTM allows you to easily manage and run virtual machines without memorizing complex commands. It also has special handling for macOS, making it simpler to install compared to other virtual machine software.
  • Where to get a full version of QEMU?
    1 project | /r/VFIO | 3 Jul 2023
    I think you will need to build it yourself which you can do so by: Checkout the qemu repo and its submodules using the steps here: https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/QEMU/Installing_QEMU in 'Building from Source' except for step 1 use the 'git clone https://github.com/qemu/qemu.git' Step 9 is where you enable the features, the build system does this by checking if you have the dev and or lib packages for the feature installed i.e. spice development packages will enable spice functionality, use the output from configure to help you with this then continue to step 10

What are some alternatives?

When comparing virt-manager and QEMU you can also consider the following projects:

quickemu - Quickly create and run optimised Windows, macOS and Linux desktop virtual machines.

UTM - Virtual machines for iOS and macOS

docker-libvirtd

TermuxArch - Experience the pleasure of the Linux command prompt in Android, Chromebook, Fire OS and Windows on smartphone, smartTV, tablet and wearable https://termuxarch.github.io/TermuxArch/

sway - i3-compatible Wayland compositor

Unicorn Engine - Unicorn CPU emulator framework (ARM, AArch64, M68K, Mips, Sparc, PowerPC, RiscV, S390x, TriCore, X86)

cloud-hypervisor - A Virtual Machine Monitor for modern Cloud workloads. Features include CPU, memory and device hotplug, support for running Windows and Linux guests, device offload with vhost-user and a minimal compact footprint. Written in Rust with a strong focus on security.

Vagrant - Vagrant is a tool for building and distributing development environments.

lutris - Lutris desktop client

xemu - Original Xbox Emulator for Windows, macOS, and Linux (Active Development)

flatpaks

em-dosbox - An Emscripten port of DOSBox