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 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.