This post documents my setup and configuration notes for running virtual machines with QEMU and VirtManager on Linux. It covers:

• Shared folder configuration.
• Physical disk passthrough.
• Bridge networking setup.
• Windows guest optimization.

Sharing Folders Between Host and Guest Systems

If you’re using QEMU with SPICE protocol for better integration with linux guest:

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sudo apt install spice-vdagent
sudo systemctl enable --now spice-vdagentd.service

This provides:

• Clipboard sharing
• Better display resizing
• Mouse pointer integration

Working With Physical Disks in Virtual Machines

For advanced users who need to work with physical disks in their VMs:

1. First identify your disks:

   1	sudo fdisk -l

2. Create physical volume (LVM):

   1	sudo pvcreate /dev/sdXX

   (Replace XX with your actual disk identifier)

For a complete tutorial on this process, see: Working with Physical Disks in VMs

• Physical disk passthrough requires proper permissions and can be risky - always back up data first.

Bridge network for QEMU/VirtManager

To create a Bridge network to share with the VM I do this on host:

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sudo pacman -S bridge-utils dnsmasq
nmcli connection add type bridge ifname br0 con-name br0
nmcli connection add type bridge-slave ifname eno1 master br0
sudo nmcli connection modify br0 bridge.stp no
nmcli connection up br0
sudo iptables -I FORWARD -m physdev --physdev-is-bridged -j ACCEPT

(Replace eno1 with your actual physical interface name - find it with ip link)

Add allow br0 on /etc/qemu/bridge.conf

Windows guest

When I install Windows VM on my Linux Host, I do this:

Prerequisites

Before install Windows, you need to download VirtIO drivers, for use VirtIO disks and network.

• Go to VirtIO drivers page and download the ISO.
• Create a new VM on VirtManager and mount the ISO as CD-ROM with SATA protocol.
• Create a new disk for the VM as VirtIO disk.
• Mount Win ISO to install.
• For network use Bridge br0 as source and virtio as device model.
• On Display Spice select Type=Spice Server and Listen type=None.

Installation

• Run the VM with Win ISO as first boot.
• Next, next, next.
• When u have to select the disk to install, nothing will appear, select Load Drivers and select the drivers on disk/viostor/w1x/amd64 and Next.
  • W1x will be W10 or W11.
• Also can load the driver for the network on disk/NetKVM/W1x/amd64 and Next.

Install Windows as usual.

After Windows install, go to the CD Drive and install virtio-win-gt-x64 and virtio-win-guest-tools drivers.

Share folder

On Host

Create the Shared Folder

• On your Linux host, create a folder you wish to share (e.g., ~/share).

Open Virt-Manager and Edit the VM

• Select your Windows VM and click “Open”.
• Click the “Show virtual hardware details” button.
• Select the “Memory” section.
• Check the “Enable shared memory” option and apply the changes

Add the Shared Folder:

• Click “Add Hardware”.
• Select “Filesystem”.
• Set the driver to virtiofs.
• Set the “Source path” to the folder you want to share (e.g., /home/youruser/share).
• Set the “Target path” to a descriptive name (e.g., HostShare). This will appear as the share name in Windows

On Guest

Install WINFSP driver.
Restart.
Open Services app. Find WINFSP or VirtIO-FS Service and start it. Also set it to “Automatic”.

The folder will appear as HostShare on “This PC”.

Extra: VMware (Windows host)

If you’re using VMware and need to set up shared folders between your host and Linux guest systems:

1. First install VMware tools:

   1	sudo apt install open-vm-tools

2. Create a directory for your shared folders:

   1	mkdir /home/$USER/shares

3. Mount the shared folder using:

   1	vmhgfs-fuse .host:/ /home/$USER/shares -o subtype=vmhgfs-fuse,allow_other

The allow_other option allows all users to access the shared folder.