RomanNum3ral
/
quickemu
mirror of https://github.com/quickemu-project/quickemu.git
1
0
Fork 0
Code Issues Packages Projects Releases Wiki Activity
Quickly create and run optimised Windows, macOS and Linux virtual machines
2,268 Commits 2 Branches 45 Tags 18 MiB
Shell 95.9%
Nix 2.6%
Python 1.5%
Go to file
Martin Wimpress dead42dc25 fix(nix): avoid CI stack overflow by using builtins.split 
- Replace builtins.match with builtins.split for version extraction
- Previous regex with .* patterns caused catastrophic backtracking on large files (~2800 lines)
- builtins.split avoids full-string regex matching and is more efficient

Fixes: Nix build CI failure
 		2026-01-25 14:52:52 +00:00
.github feat(quickget): add --check-all-arch to test amd64 and arm64 2026-01-25 00:54:57 +00:00
build-docs@c5907eae9c docs: update to reflect currently supported OSes 2026-01-23 07:34:47 +00:00
debian build(packaging): sync Nix flakes, devshell and Debian packaging 2026-01-25 01:51:53 +00:00
docs Update docs/quickget.1 2026-01-23 07:34:47 +00:00
.editorconfig Update .editorconfig with correct spacing for quickget (4) and quickemu (2) 2022-02-23 11:50:31 +00:00
.envrc feat: add flake.nix to assist local development 2024-04-16 16:57:06 +01:00
.gitignore chore: update .gitignore 2024-05-14 11:15:29 +01:00
.gitmodules chore: use https for git submodules to use CA PKI instead of SSH TOFU (#1553) 2025-02-01 14:45:33 +00:00
AGENTS.md docs: update documentation 2026-01-25 02:22:38 +00:00
CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md chore: correct a spelling mistake (#1495) 2024-11-05 12:30:07 +00:00
CONTRIBUTING.md docs: add CONTRIBUTING.md 2024-06-29 23:25:20 +01:00
LICENSE Initial commit 2020-03-15 23:11:48 +00:00
README.md docs: update documentation 2026-01-25 02:22:38 +00:00
SECURITY.md docs: update SECURITY.md 2024-06-30 00:12:20 +01:00
chunkcheck fix: add #! to chunkcheck and correct skipVerification for macOS 2024-04-17 03:54:38 +01:00
devshell.nix build(packaging): sync Nix flakes, devshell and Debian packaging 2026-01-25 01:51:53 +00:00
flake.lock build(flake): update nixpkgs to nixos-unstable 2026-01-25 14:52:52 +00:00
flake.nix build(flake): update nixpkgs to nixos-unstable 2026-01-25 14:52:52 +00:00
package.nix fix(nix): avoid CI stack overflow by using builtins.split 2026-01-25 14:52:52 +00:00
quickemu fix(quickemu): enable xhci when braille devices used 2026-01-25 13:26:02 +00:00
quickget fix: adjust rockylinux 10.0 dvd 2026-01-25 14:52:12 +00:00
quickreport fix: running quickemu and quickreport in zsh. close #1268 2024-06-24 09:02:43 +01:00

README.md

Quickemu

Quickemu

Quickly create and run optimised Windows, macOS and Linux virtual machines:

Made with 💝 for Tux (Linux) & Apple (macOS)

 Discord   Mastodon   Twitter   LinkedIn 

Introduction

Quickemu is a wrapper for the excellent QEMU that automatically "does the right thing" when creating virtual machines. No requirement for exhaustive configuration options. You decide what operating system you want to run and Quickemu takes care of the rest 🤖

  • quickget automatically downloads the upstream OS and creates the configuration 📀
  • quickemu enumerates your hardware and launches the virtual machine with the optimum configuration best suited to your computer ⚡️

The original objective of the project was to enable quick testing of Linux distributions where the virtual machines and their configuration can be stored anywhere (such as external USB storage or your home directory) and no elevated permissions are required to run the virtual machines.

Today, Quickemu includes comprehensive support for macOS, Windows, most of the BSDs, novel non-Linux operating systems such as FreeDOS, Haiku, KolibriOS, OpenIndiana, ReactOS, and more.

Features

  • Host support for Linux and macOS
  • macOS Sequoia, Sonoma, Ventura, Monterey, Big Sur, Catalina & Mojave
  • Windows 10 and 11 including TPM 2.0
  • Windows Server 2022 2019 2016
  • ARM64 guest support for running aarch64 VMs (native on ARM hosts, emulated on x86_64)
  • Ubuntu and all the official Ubuntu flavours
  • Nearly 1000 operating system editions are supported!
  • Full SPICE support including host/guest clipboard sharing
  • VirtIO-webdavd file sharing for Linux and Windows guests
  • VirtIO-9p file sharing for Linux and macOS guests
  • QEMU Guest Agent support; provides access to a system-level agent via standard QMP commands
  • Samba file sharing for Linux, macOS and Windows guests (if smbd is installed on the host)
  • VirGL acceleration
  • USB device pass-through
  • Smartcard pass-through
  • Automatic SSH port forwarding to guests
  • Network port forwarding
  • Full duplex audio
  • Braille support
  • EFI (with or without SecureBoot) and Legacy BIOS boot

As featured on Linux Matters podcast!

The presenters of Linux Matters 🐧🎙️ are the creators of each of the principal Quickemu projects. We discussed Quickemu's 2024 reboot in Episode 30 - Quickemu Rising From the Bashes.

Linux Matters Podcast
Linux Matters Podcast

Quick start

Once Quickemu is installed, there are two simple steps to create and run a virtual machine:

  • quickget automatically downloads the ISO image for the operating system you want to run and creates a configuration file for the virtual machine.
quickget nixos unstable minimal
  • quickemu starts the virtual machine using the configuration file created by quickget.
quickemu --vm nixos-unstable-minimal.conf

Execute quickget (with no arguments) to see a list of all the supported operating systems.

Demo

Documentation

The wiki describes how to get up and running with Quickemu and also covers more advanced configuration and usage.