KVM (for Kernel-based Virtual Machine) is a full virtualization solution for Linux on x86 hardware containing virtualization extensions (Intel VT or AMD-V). It consists of a loadable kernel module, kvm.ko, that provides the core virtualization infrastructure and a processor specific module, kvm-intel.ko or kvm-amd.ko. KVM also requires a modified ["QEMU"] although work is underway to get the required changes upstream.

Installation

As root type the following:

# aptitude install kvm libvirt-bin virt-manager 

Edit /etc/default/libvirt-bin and change "start_libvirtd" to "yes". Once done start/re-start libvirtd.

# /etc/init.d/libvirt-bin restart 

You will also need to load the appropriate kernel modules for your architecture.

Intel users:

# modprobe kvm kvm-intel 

AMD users:

# modprobe kvm kvm-amd 

Troubleshooting

No network bridge available:

virt-manager uses a virtual network for its guests, by default this is routed to 192.168.122.0/24 and you should see this by typing route as root.

If this route is not present in the kernel routing table then the guests will fail to connect and you will not be able to complete a guest creation.

Fixing this is simple, open up virt-manager and go to "Edit" -> "Host details" -> "Virtual networks" tab. From there you may create a virtual network of your own or attempt to fix the default one. Usually the problem exists where the default network is not started.

See Also