Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.
Did you miss your activation email?

Author Topic: [EN] KVM/QUEMO questions  (Read 1611 times)

Offline vilde

  • User
  • Posts: 708
[EN] KVM/QUEMO questions
« on: 2020/09/07, 11:19:12 »
I do need some windowz applications for my genealogy work, it's mostly some small register applications coming on cd/dvd:s.  I use VB now.

Maybe I shall try KVM/QUEMO instead of VB? I have some questions:
  • Will I be able to use/convert my existing W10 installation from VB? .vdi-file?
  • Is it possible to copy and paste between the host and guest systems?
  • Is it possible to connect virtual cd/dvds, .iso-files to KVM/QUEMO?
  • I don't want the guest system to be connected to internet, mostly because windowz update is just a PIA and I don't need it. Is that possible?

Offline dibl

  • siduction community member
  • Global Moderator
  • User
  • *****
  • Posts: 2.342
    • Land of the Buckeye
Re: KVM/QUEMO questions
« Reply #1 on: 2020/09/07, 18:55:03 »
Hi Vilde,

I switched from Vmware to Qemu/KVM, probably 6 or 7 years ago now. The libvirt documentation (or maybe qemu documentation) said I could convert my vmware .vdk file to a qemu image, but I could not make it work, and simply reinstalled Win 8 to the virtual scsi disk with Virt Manager. I later bought a Win 10 license and installed that on the virtual drive.

AFAIK, you CANNOT copy and paste directly between the host and guest (If anyone knows how to do that, I want to see how to do it). But the host has an "Attach/Rlease" USB device menu item, so you can copy data to a thumb drive, then eject it from the linux host, plug it into a different USB port, and connect it to the VM and Windows will see it.

Yes, virtual optical drive can be connected to the guest.

I haven't tried to run the guest with no network, but I do not know why that would not be possible. Just don't install the virtual network device, and there will be no network (I assume).

Hope this helps.

NOTE:  You'll want the Virtio Windows drivers as per this:  https://www.linux-kvm.org/page/WindowsGuestDrivers/Download_Drivers

EDIT: I think you might be able to set up the host and guest on a samba network and do file sharing that way.  Too much pain for me to think about ....   ;D
« Last Edit: 2020/09/07, 19:13:42 by dibl »
System76 Oryx Pro, Intel Core i7-11800H, SSD 970 EVO Plus;  Asus ROG STRIX X299-E, Core i7-7740X, Nvidia GTX-1060, dual monitors, SSD 860 EVO

Offline vilde

  • User
  • Posts: 708
Re: KVM/QUEMO questions
« Reply #2 on: 2020/09/07, 19:19:39 »
Thanks dibl.
Copy and paste between the guest and host that's the thing I mostly do, a lot and it has to be easy and fast so if that's not possible or is to awkward  i will stay on VB

Offline dibl

  • siduction community member
  • Global Moderator
  • User
  • *****
  • Posts: 2.342
    • Land of the Buckeye
Re: KVM/QUEMO questions
« Reply #3 on: 2020/09/07, 19:51:06 »
Vilde, you can copy data from a running package on the Linux host, and paste into a running Windows app, or vice versa. I do that all the time for my genealogy work, too.  What you cannot do is open a file manager on either the host or the guest, and see the files on the other filesystem.

System76 Oryx Pro, Intel Core i7-11800H, SSD 970 EVO Plus;  Asus ROG STRIX X299-E, Core i7-7740X, Nvidia GTX-1060, dual monitors, SSD 860 EVO

Offline unklarer

  • User
  • Posts: 811
Re: KVM/QUEMO questions
« Reply #4 on: 2020/09/07, 20:00:38 »
Quote from: dibl
AFAIK, you CANNOT copy and paste directly between the host and guest (If anyone knows how to do that, I want to see how to do it). But the host has an "Attach/Rlease" USB device menu item, so you can copy data to a thumb drive, then eject it from the linux host, plug it into a different USB port, and connect it to the VM and Windows will see it.

^Yes, it is possible. (under Linux)   ;D

I have always done this in QEMU, guest MX-Linux and host siduction/kde.

The solution is sftp. (I'm writing this from memory now, because I won't be back home at the corresponding machine until after September 13th)

Code: [Select]
sftp://user@IP of the host or guest
First the ssh-connection must be established in the terminal! Later I added this sftp-command to the file manager (Thunar; Dolphin; Konqueror etc.)

Required are the packages:
ssh/sftp
openssh-client
openssh-server
gvfs
gvfs-backends

Offline dibl

  • siduction community member
  • Global Moderator
  • User
  • *****
  • Posts: 2.342
    • Land of the Buckeye
Re: KVM/QUEMO questions
« Reply #5 on: 2020/09/07, 20:09:13 »
Quote from: unklarer
^Yes, it is possible. (under Linux)

Wow, I am so glad to see this -- thank you!  Yes, I use KDE and Dolphin, so this should work on my setup. Once in awhile it would be very helpful just to copy a file over from Linux to Windows, do the needed edits with special tools like Adobe Acrobat, and then copy it back to Linux.

Thank you very much!
System76 Oryx Pro, Intel Core i7-11800H, SSD 970 EVO Plus;  Asus ROG STRIX X299-E, Core i7-7740X, Nvidia GTX-1060, dual monitors, SSD 860 EVO

Offline vilde

  • User
  • Posts: 708
Re: KVM/QUEMO questions
« Reply #6 on: 2020/09/07, 20:23:14 »
Vilde, you can copy data from a running package on the Linux host, and paste into a running Windows app, or vice versa. I do that all the time for my genealogy work, too.  What you cannot do is open a file manager on either the host or the guest, and see the files on the other filesystem.


That would be good for me, i probably try  one day when I have time and feel for it. :)

Offline dibl

  • siduction community member
  • Global Moderator
  • User
  • *****
  • Posts: 2.342
    • Land of the Buckeye
Re: KVM/QUEMO questions
« Reply #7 on: 2020/09/07, 21:53:28 »
Quote from: unklarer
The solution is sftp. (I'm writing this from memory now, because I won't be back home at the corresponding machine until after September 13th)

Code: [Select]
sftp://user@IP of the host or guest

First the ssh-connection must be established in the terminal! Later I added this sftp-command to the file manager (Thunar; Dolphin; Konqueror etc.)

YES -- this works!  I just set it up on my siduction desktop system and it works perfectly.  Thanks again, @unklarer!

@vilde, this tutorial will help you set up the Windows ssh server, which is not installed or running by default: https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/hpc/How-To-Use-SSH-Client-and-Server-on-Windows-10-1470/
« Last Edit: 2020/09/08, 10:48:31 by dibl »
System76 Oryx Pro, Intel Core i7-11800H, SSD 970 EVO Plus;  Asus ROG STRIX X299-E, Core i7-7740X, Nvidia GTX-1060, dual monitors, SSD 860 EVO

Offline unklarer

  • User
  • Posts: 811
Re: KVM/QUEMO questions
« Reply #8 on: 2020/09/08, 10:21:07 »
Quote from: dibl
Wow, I am so glad to see this -- thank you!

^^I am glad that I could help you   :)