kvm

KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) is a Linux hypervisor built into the kernel. This guide covers installing and verifying KVM on Ubuntu 22.04.

Step 1 — Verify CPU Virtualisation Support

egrep -c '(vmx|svm)' /proc/cpuinfo
# Result > 0 means virtualisation is supported

sudo kvm-ok
# Should output: KVM acceleration can be used

Step 2 — Install KVM and Management Tools

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y qemu-kvm libvirt-daemon-system libvirt-clients \
    bridge-utils virtinst virt-manager

Step 3 — Add Your User to the Groups

sudo usermod -aG kvm $USER
sudo usermod -aG libvirt $USER
# Log out and back in for this to take effect

Step 4 — Enable and Start libvirtd

sudo systemctl enable libvirtd
sudo systemctl start libvirtd
sudo systemctl status libvirtd

Step 5 — Verify Installation

virsh list --all
# Should show an empty VM list (no VMs yet)

virt-host-validate
# Should show all PASS

Create a VM (CLI)

sudo virt-install \
  --name ubuntu22 \
  --ram 2048 \
  --vcpus 2 \
  --disk path=/var/lib/libvirt/images/ubuntu22.qcow2,size=20 \
  --os-variant ubuntu22.04 \
  --network bridge=virbr0 \
  --cdrom /path/to/ubuntu-22.04.iso \
  --graphics vnc