Using VMs in KDE Linux

DiscoStew · October 12, 2025, 4:27pm

I am trying KDE Linux and like it as far as I could test.

One thing I am missing is the possibility to use VMs in KDE Linux. Will there be a way to use libvirt with virt-manager?

Thanks a lot.

hedge-sparrow · October 12, 2025, 7:40pm

I’ve been using libvirt and virt-manager through distrobox and it works well enough.

github.com/89luca89/distrobox

docs/posts/run_libvirt_in_distrobox.md

main

- [Distrobox](../README.md)
  - [Run Libvirt using distrobox](run_libvirt_in_distrobox.md)
    - [Prepare the container](#prepare-the-container)
    - [Launch from the container](#launch-from-the-container)
    - [Connect via SSH](#connect-via-ssh)

# Using an immutable distribution

If you are on an immutable distribution (Silverblue/Kionite, Aeon/Kalpa) chances are that
installing lots and lots of packages on the base system is not advisable.

One way is to use a distrobox for them.

## Prepare the container

To run libvirt/qemu/kvm we need a systemd container and we need a **rootful** container
to be able to use it, see [this tip](../useful_tips.md#using-init-system-inside-a-distrobox)
to have a list of compatible images.
We will use in this example OpenSUSE's dedicated distrobox image:

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ngraham · October 12, 2025, 9:23pm

The Flatpak version of virt-manager works well using the libvirt library pre-installed on the system, but you have to do a tiny bit of manual work to get it all wired up.

I’ve written some documentation for this at KDE Linux/Create and use virtual machines - KDE Community Wiki .

DiscoStew · October 13, 2025, 12:45pm

Thanks a lot. This works great. I already had virt-manager installed, but I did not know there is a way to use user-sessions with flatpak. (I never used user sessions before at all).

I just hat a short problem with the “_”.

org.virt_manager.virt-manager org.virt_manager.virt_manager.Extension.Qemu

The first is “virt-manager”, the second is “virt_manager”

ngraham · October 14, 2025, 4:29am

Thanks! Can you edit KDE Linux/Create and use virtual machines - KDE Community Wiki and correct it? It’s a wiki, after all.

DiscoStew · October 14, 2025, 9:02am

No, sorry! It’s correct in the Wiki. I just was so stupid to not copy it, but type it by hand. So with the different dashes is ironically right.