QEMU with KVM #

Prerequisites #

Check if CPU supports virtualization extensions:

LC_ALL=C lscpu | grep Virtualization

Install needed packages for virtualization:

pacman -S qemu virt-manager libvirt iptables-nft dnsmasq swtpm

Installation might give an error about replacing iptables with iptables-nft. Continue and replace the package as proposed by pacman.

Give user access to virtualization software:

usermod -aG libvirt $USERNAME

Start the needed virtualization services.

systemctl enable --now libvirtd

Firewall change #

Open and change file /etc/firewalld/firewalld.conf. Change FirewallBackend=nftables to:

FirewallBackend=iptables

Restart firewalld:

systemctl restart firewalld

Open virt-manager. Go to Edit -> Connection Details -> Virtual Networks. Open Default network. Enable Autostart to start the default network with libvirt. Don’t forget to click on Apply.

Ryzen specific #

Windows virtual machines might fail to boot on Ryzen platforms. Execute the following command to fix the instant VM crash:

echo 'options kvm ignore_msrs=1' | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/kvm.conf