QUICKGET(1)

NAME
quickget - download and prepare materials for building a quickemu VM

SYNOPSIS
quickget [os] [release] [edition] | [OPTION]*

DESCRIPTION
quickget will download the requisite materials and prepare a configuration for quickemu to use to build and run

OPTIONS

[OS] [Release] [Edition]
    specify the OS and release (and optional edition) if insufficient input is provided a list of missing options will be reported and the script will exit. Editions may not apply and will be defaulted if not provided.

--download   [edition]
    Download image; no VM configuration

--create-config  [path/url]
    Create VM config for a OS image

--open-homepage
    Open homepage for the OS

--show [os]
    Show OS information

--url [os] [release] [edition]
    Show image URL(s)

--check [os] [release] [edition]
    Check image URL(s)

--list
    List all supported systems

--list-csv
    List everything in csv format

--list-json
    List everything in json format

--version
    Show version

--help
    Show this help message

NOTES

  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.

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

The project wiki (https://github.com/quickemu-project/quickemu/wiki/02-Create-Linux-virtual-machines) 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 :

          --download      <os> <release> [edition] : Download image; no VM configuration
          --create-config <os> [path/url]          : Create VM config for a OS image
          --open-homepage <os>                     : Open homepage for the OS
          --show          [os]                     : Show OS information
          --version                                : Show version
          --help                                   : Show this help message
          --url           [os] [release] [edition] : Show image URL(s)
          --check         [os] [release] [edition] : Check image URL(s)
          --list                                   : List all supported systems
          --list-csv                               : List everything in csv format
          --list-json                              : List everything in json format

Here are some typical uses

            # 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.

Further information is available from the project wiki (https://github.com/quickemu-project/quickemu/wiki/06-Advanced-quickget-features)

  Other Operating Systems
quickget also supports:

•   alma (AlmaLinux)

•   alpine (Alpine Linux)

•   android (Android x86)

•   antix (Antix)

•   archcraft (Archcraft)

•   archlinux (Arch Linux)

•   arcolinux (Arco Linux)

•   artixlinux (Artix Linux)

•   athenaos (Athena OS)

•   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)

•   holoiso (HoloISO)

•   kali (Kali)

•   kdeneon (KDE Neon)

•   kolibrios (KolibriOS)

•   linuxlite (Linux Lite)

•   linuxmint (Linux Mint)

•   lmde (Linux Mint Debian Edition)

•   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)

•   peppermint (PeppermintOS)

•   popos (Pop!_OS)

•   porteus (Porteus)

•   primtux (PrimTux)

•   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-)

•   truenas-core (TrueNAS Core)

•   truenas-scale (TrueNAS Scale)

•   tuxedo-os (Tuxedo OS)

•   vanillaos (Vanilla OS)

•   void (Void Linux)

•   vxlinux (VX Linux)

•   zorin (Zorin OS)

Custom Linux guests (https://github.com/quickemu-project/quickemu/wiki/02-Create-Linux-virtual-machines#manually-create-linux-guests) Or you can download a Linux image and manually create a VM configuration.

•   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 want to run an old Linux , from 2016 or earlier, change the guest_os to linux_old. This will enable the vmware-svga graphics driver which is better supported on older distros.

Creating macOS Guests (https://github.com/quickemu-project/quickemu/wiki/03-Create-macOS-virtual-machines#automatically-create-macos-guests) 🍏 Installing macOS in a VM can be a bit finicky, if you encounter problems, check the Discussions (https://github.com/quickemu-project/quickemu/discussions) for solutions or ask for help there 🛟

quickget automatically downloads a macOS recovery image and creates a virtual machine configuration.

        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 an 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.

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
There are some considerations when running macOS via Quickemu.

•   Supported macOS releases:

    •   Mojave

    •   Catalina

    •   Big Sur

    •   Monterey

    •   Ventura

    •   Sonoma

•   quickemu will automatically download the required OpenCore (https://github.com/acidanthera/OpenCorePkg) bootloader and OVMF firmware from OSX-KVM (https://github.com/kholia/OSX-KVM) .

•   Optimised by default, but no GPU acceleration is available.

    •   Host CPU vendor is detected and guest CPU is optimised accordingly.

    •   VirtIO Block Media (https://www.kraxel.org/blog/2019/06/macos-qemu-guest/) is used for the system disk where supported.

    •   VirtIO usb-tablet (http://philjordan.eu/osx-virt/) 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 (https://github.com/chris1111/VoodooHDA-OC) or pass-through a USB audio-device to the macOS guest VM.

    •   NOTE! Gatekeeper (https://disable-gatekeeper.github.io/) and System Integrity Protection (SIP) (https://developer.apple.com/documentation/security/disabling_and_enabling_system_integrity_protection) need to be disabled to install VoodooHDA OC

•   File sharing between guest and host is available via virtio-9p (https://wiki.qemu.org/Documentation/9psetup) and SPICE webdavd (https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/phodav/-/merge_requests/24) .

•   Copy/paste via SPICE agent is not available on macOS.

macOS App Store
If you see "Your device or computer could not be verified" when you try to login to the App Store, 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 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.

There may be further advice and information about macOS guests in the project wiki (https://github.com/quickemu-project/quickemu/wiki/03-Create-macOS-virtual-machines#automatically-create-macos-guests) .

Creating Windows guests (https://github.com/quickemu-project/quickemu/wiki/04-Create-Windows-virtual-machines) 🪟 quickget can download Windows 10 (https://www.microsoft.com/software-download/windows10) and Windows 11 (https://www.microsoft.com/software-download/windows11) automatically and create an optimised virtual machine configuration. This configuration also includes the VirtIO drivers for Windows (https://fedorapeople.org/groups/virt/virtio-win/direct-downloads/) .

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

quickget can also download Windows 10 LTSC (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/download-windows-10-enterprise) and Windows Server 2012-r2 (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/download-windows-server-2012-r2) , 2016 (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/download-windows-server-2016) , 2019 (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/download-windows-server-2019) , and 2022 (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/download-windows-server-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 (https://github.com/quickemu-project/quickemu/wiki/04-Create-Windows-virtual-machines)

AUTHORS
Written by Martin Wimpress.

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

SEE ALSO
Full sources at: https://github.com/quickemu-project/quickemu

quickemu(1), quickemu_conf(1), quickgui(1)

AUTHORS
Martin Wimpress.