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Quickemu: Quickly create and run optimised Windows, macOS and Linux VMs(github.com)
99 points by teekert 3 days ago | 16 comments
mmastrac 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I've been trying to do something similar to set up Windows VMs with developer tools. This would be awesome if there was a way to inject a `ps1` script where we could go through the awkwardness of installing choco and various dev tools.

For anyone interested, the magic incantation in the autoattend.xml is:

    <settings pass="specialize">
    <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Deployment" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS">
        <RunSynchronous>
        <RunSynchronousCommand wcm:action="add">
            <Order>1</Order>
            <Path>cmd /c powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File A:\scripts\setup-dev.ps1 &gt; \\.\COM1</Path>
            <Description>Run dev setup script</Description>
        </RunSynchronousCommand>
        </RunSynchronous>
    </component>
    </settings>
Redirecting to COM1 is a fun hack I discovered that allows you to remotely monitor these from build scripts.

Even better would be figuring out how to slipstream the choco packages into the ISO - it's not super reliable to install these packages in my recent experience.

password4321 2 hours ago | parent [-]

https://boxstarter.org has been working on this for a long time and might have some useful ideas.

dang 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Related. Others?

Quickemu: Quickly run optimised Windows, macOS and Linux virtual machines - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39188432 - Jan 2024 (133 comments)

999900000999 an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I'm a little confused as to why projects like this support macOS since at a minimum it's a TOS violation.

Doing stuff like this, and integrating it into the main project puts the whole thing at risk.

The only real reason to MacOS is it's tight integration with Mac hardware.

Weird flex...

rekttrader 17 minutes ago | parent [-]

It’s for running MacOS on Apple hardware. Apple has their own container tech now, Qemu just makes it easy to run everything else including MacOS

amelius 5 minutes ago | parent [-]

But an emulator should be able to run it on any other hardware where the emulator suite runs, imho.

Otherwise it's not an emulator but some kind of pass-through mechanism.

peter_d_sherman 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Brilliant!

This may just become my next most favorite project on GitHub!

For anyone who would create their own OS, or just experiment with other OS'es, this could be a godsend!

The set of ideas which gives rise to this tool are brilliant, and while I haven't reviewed all of the code for potential security implications (as I would want to if I were deploying it to a production server in a business environment) -- it looks very well thought out at first glance!

Extra kudos for having a flake.nix (for us Nix users!)

(If you're using NixOS or the Nix package manager, you can download it here https://search.nixos.org/packages?channel=25.11&query=quicke... , i.e., "$ nix-shell -p quickemu")

And extra extra kudos for having Alpine, Nix, ReactOS, TinyCore and OpenBSD as downloadable OS choices!

In the future, I'd love to see Windows XP, Windows 2000, and Windows NT too (assuming that Microsoft would permit that!) -- but that would just be the icing on the cake!

Short review: There's potentially something for everyone here! (Well, any OS person! Could Minix 3 be added in the future? :-) )

Long review: Will definitely have to watch this project in the future, to see where it goes!

ryandrake 4 hours ago | parent [-]

My first reaction was: Fuck! Terrible timing!! I just spent the last few days (during some time off from work) manually setting up macOS and Windows qemu VMs on my homelab running Proxmox, just to see if I could do it. And navigating all the janky, old tutorials, forums full of "try this" junk, hitting roadblock after roadblock (ProTip: macOS versions > Monterey will NOT run on Ivy Bridge processors in a virtualized environment) and trying to filter out and dodge AI garbage advice, was a real slog. Why didn't I see this article the first time it made the rounds on HN???

My second reaction was in line with yours. This is awesome. Bookmarked already. +1 for the suggestion of doing more ancient Windows versions.

fraserphysics 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I thought that macOS was proprietary, and that apple only allowed it to be run on apple hardware. Just last month, I used incus to test a software package in 6 Linux distributions. I want to also test the package in macOS. Must I get a license from apple to do that with Quickemu?

mmastrac 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Officially? You can't get a license.

Unofficially? https://github.com/kholia/OSX-KVM

eek2121 an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

hackintoshes have been a thing forever. Apple hopes to kill them off with the transition to arm...SPOILER: they won't.

westurner 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

IOMMU GPU passthrough with device selection would be a helpful feature: https://www.google.com/search?q=gpu+passthrough+qemu

LXD manages qemu VMs and supports snapshotting, live migration, and a number of storage drivers: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45270468

virtio-gpu-rutabaga works with Android VMs on qemu, but does it work with Win/Mac/Lin: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42921315

subscribed 2 days ago | parent [-]

I would love that so much. That's the feature I wanted to play for the longest while, but the shortage of time just doesn't let me.

That would be a jixe step up.

tempodox 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I have to try this. All my previous attempts to get to grips with qemu left me with the impression that it’s strictly for rocket scientists. This might ease the learning curve for me.

binary132 19 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

This type of thing always makes me think about an alternate timeline where Docker never got popular because VM runtimes and tooling did everything Docker can do, better.

clircle 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Is this less buggy than UTM on apple silicon?