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In my blog, I delve into the world of programming web technologies, Linux, Unix-like, and graphic design using free tools on Linux.

Wednesday, July 31, 2024

QEMU and Windows 8

QEMU, which stands for Quick Emulator, is a versatile open-source emulation and virtualization tool that allows running different operating systems and software on a home system. It provides a wide range of features, including full system emulation, user mode emulation, and support for hardware virtualization. Developed by the QEMU project, this software is widely used by developers, testers and researchers to create, manage and experiment with virtual environments.

Why Windows 8? Because we need to run applications on a less demanding operating system. By "less demanding," I mean an OS that uses less memory and CPU. For example, I run old applications that are no longer supported in trial mode, and I do this to create a snapshot so that I can return the trial to the beginning.

Install

First we will update the system:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

Then we install the packages:

sudo apt install qemu-kvm libvirt-clients libvirt-daemon-system bridge-utils virtinst libvirt-daemon

We also need a service:

sudo systemctl enable --now libvirtd

Now, there is a GUI tool with which we can do this, but why use Linux and not use bash scripts? QEMU uses a virtual hard disk that we have to create with the command:

qemu-img create -f qcow2 ./40gb_windows8.qcow2 40G

Next we need an installation script. The script serves us only with the installation of Windows 8. We create the script with:

touch start_windows8_installation.sh
chmod +x start_windows8_installation.sh

And the content is:

#!/bin/bash
VIRTUAL_DISK="./40gb_windows8.qcow2"
WINDOWS_ISO="./Windows_8.1_Pro_X64.iso"
RESOLUTION="800x600"
SOCKET_PATH="/tmp/qemu_vnc_socket"

qemu-system-x86_64 -m 2G \
 -boot d \
 -drive file="$VIRTUAL_DISK",format=qcow2 \
 -cdrom "$WINDOWS_ISO" \
 -vga std \
 -rtc base=localtime \
 -usb \
 -device usb-tablet \
 -vnc unix:"$SOCKET_PATH" \
 - k hr ;

Of course, we also need the Window 8 iso file. Why Windows 8? Well, because it is "lighter" than Windows 10. Let's run the script:

./start_windows8_installation.sh

VNC (Virtual Network Connection) is a technology that enables remote access and control of a computer via the Internet or a local network. The main purpose of VNC is to display a remote screen and allow interaction as if you were in front of a computer. This is useful for technical support, workspace sharing and managing remote computers without physical presence. We will use the VNC protocol for display, for which we need packets:

sudo apt-get install ssvnc tigervnc-viewer

To avoid all kinds of security problems, we use a file socket, that is, a file that serves us for VNC transmission instead of the Internet port. And finally the command that gives us the view:

vncviewer /tmp/qemu_vnc_socket

posted by damirs @ July 31, 2024