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QEMU-KVM on Arch Linux

Sources:

Checking CPU support for KVM

LC_ALL=C.UTF-8 lscpu | grep Virtualization

or

grep -E --color=auto 'vmx|svm|0xc0f' /proc/cpuinfo

If nothing is displayed, your CPU does not support hardware virtualization, so KVM will not work.

Checking Kernel support

zgrep CONFIG_KVM= /proc/config.gz

The KVM module is available only if it is set to y or m.

lsmod | grep kvm

If no output is shown, the module may need to be loaded manually. See https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Kernel_module#Manual_module_handling.

Installation

sudo pacman -S qemu-full libvirt virt-manager virt-viewer dnsmasq virt-install edk2-ovmf swtpm guestfs-tools libosinfo libosinfo-db bridge-utils openbsd-netcat

Packages explanation:

  • qemu-full – QEMU emulator for full system virtualization and user-mode emulation
  • libvirt – Daemon and tools to manage virtualization platforms (KVM/QEMU)
  • virt-manager – GUI for managing virtual machines
  • virt-viewer – Lightweight GUI viewer for virtual machines
  • dnsmasq – Provides DNS, DHCP, and TFTP services (used by libvirt networking)
  • virt-install – CLI tool to create virtual machines
  • edk2-ovmf – UEFI firmware for virtual machines
  • swtpm – Software TPM (Trusted Platform Module) emulator
  • guestfs-tools – Tools for accessing and modifying VM disk images
  • libosinfo – Provides OS metadata for automatic configuration
  • libosinfo-db – Database of operating systems for libosinfo
  • bridge-utils – Tools to configure network bridges (optional if using bridged networking)
  • openbsd-netcat – Networking utility used in some VM network setups

If you encounter installation errors, it may be due to outdated mirrors. Update the package database with sudo pacman -Syy and try again.

Starting and enabling libvirt

sudo systemctl enable --now libvirtd.service

Check status:

systemctl status libvirtd

Enabling default network autostart in libvirt

To enable autostart for the default network:

sudo virsh net-autostart default

After a reboot, you may encounter an error like:

Error starting domain: Requested operation is not valid: network 'default' is not active Traceback (most recent call last): File "/usr/share/virt-manager/virtManager/asyncjob.py", line 67, in cb_wrapper callback(asyncjob, *args, **kwargs) ~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ File "/usr/share/virt-manager/virtManager/asyncjob.py", line 101, in tmpcb callback(*args, **kwargs) ~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ File "/usr/share/virt-manager/virtManager/object/libvirtobject.py", line 57, in newfn ret = fn(self, *args, **kwargs) File "/usr/share/virt-manager/virtManager/object/domain.py", line 1446, in startup self._backend.create() ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^ File "/usr/lib/python3.13/site-packages/libvirt.py", line 1390, in create raise libvirtError('virDomainCreate() failed') libvirt.libvirtError: Requested operation is not valid: network 'default' is not active

If the network is not running, start it:

sudo virsh net-start default

Note: If Docker is installed, there may be NAT conflicts. Removing Docker often resolves internet connectivity issues for VMs.

Adding your user to the libvirt group

sudo usermod -aG libvirt $USER

After adding the user, log out and log back in, or restart your session.

Check groups:

groups