VirtManager setup - help me replace VirtualBox

milkytwix · April 17, 2025, 11:31am

TLDR:

How to get rid of the WARN in virt-host-validate qemu
How to activate C&P from Host to VM

Long Version:

So, after many months in which I merely tolerated my use of VirtualBox it is finally time to switch over to VirtManager. This will be my fourth time that I try this, but my first time with the help of the allmighty EOS forum.
So, basic information: AMD Zen 4 CPU, current EOS, Linux as kernel, boots with grub.

What I did so far:

RTFM
- [Tutorial] How to install Virt-Manager Correctly on EOS/Arch base systems
- https://gist.github.com/tatumroaquin/c6464e1ccaef40fd098a4f31db61ab22
- Virt-Manager Tutorial
- https://wiki.manjaro.org/index.php?title=Virt-manager
  The Manjaro Link is from earlier “endevours” (bad fun intended) which failed…
Installed the stack:

lscpu | grep -i Virtualization
zgrep CONFIG_KVM /proc/config.gz
sudo pacman -S qemu-full qemu-img libvirt virt-install virt-manager virt-viewer edk2-ovmf dnsmasq swtpm guestfs-tools libosinfo tuned libguestfs
sudo systemctl enable libvirtd.service
sudo virsh net-autostart default

Checked the success:

sudo virt-host-validate qemu
 QEMU: Checking for hardware virtualization                                 : PASS
 QEMU: Checking if device '/dev/kvm' exists                                 : PASS
 QEMU: Checking if device '/dev/kvm' is accessible                          : PASS
 QEMU: Checking if device '/dev/vhost-net' exists                           : PASS
 QEMU: Checking if device '/dev/net/tun' exists                             : PASS
 QEMU: Checking for cgroup 'cpu' controller support                         : PASS
 QEMU: Checking for cgroup 'cpuacct' controller support                     : PASS
 QEMU: Checking for cgroup 'cpuset' controller support                      : PASS
 QEMU: Checking for cgroup 'memory' controller support                      : PASS
 QEMU: Checking for cgroup 'devices' controller support                     : PASS
 QEMU: Checking for cgroup 'blkio' controller support                       : PASS
 QEMU: Checking for device assignment IOMMU support                         : PASS
 QEMU: Checking if IOMMU is enabled by kernel                               : PASS
 QEMU: Checking for secure guest support                                    : WARN (Unknown if this platform has Secure Guest support)

Tried (and failed) to get rid of the WARN:

Read this: https://libvirt.org/kbase/launch_security_sev.html
And this: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1850351#c5
Modifed kernel parameters and regenerated grub.config:
# GRUB boot loader configuration GRUB_DEFAULT='0' GRUB_TIMEOUT='5' GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR='EndeavourOS' GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT='nowatchdog nvme_load=YES loglevel=3 zswap.enabled=0 amd-pstate=active' GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="mem_encrypt=on kvm_amd.sev=1"
sudo grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
Checked result:
cat /proc/cmdline BOOT_IMAGE=/@/boot/vmlinuz-linux root=UUID=178ba18b-3faa-4b38-b7e5-5b0f5d2f285c rw rootflags=subvol=@ mem_encrypt=on kvm_amd.sev=1 nowatchdog nvme_load=YES loglevel=3 zswap.enabled=0 amd-pstate=active
Added sev conf and rebooted:
echo "options kvm_amd sev=1" | sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/amd-sev.conf
echo "options kvm_amd sev=1" | sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/sev.conf

checked outcome:
cat /sys/module/kvm_amd/parameters/sev N

sudo virt-host-validate qemu
QEMU: Checking for hardware virtualization                                 : PASS
QEMU: Checking if device '/dev/kvm' exists                                 : PASS
QEMU: Checking if device '/dev/kvm' is accessible                          : PASS
QEMU: Checking if device '/dev/vhost-net' exists                           : PASS
QEMU: Checking if device '/dev/net/tun' exists                             : PASS
QEMU: Checking for cgroup 'cpu' controller support                         : PASS
QEMU: Checking for cgroup 'cpuacct' controller support                     : PASS
QEMU: Checking for cgroup 'cpuset' controller support                      : PASS
QEMU: Checking for cgroup 'memory' controller support                      : PASS
QEMU: Checking for cgroup 'devices' controller support                     : PASS
QEMU: Checking for cgroup 'blkio' controller support                       : PASS
QEMU: Checking for device assignment IOMMU support                         : PASS
QEMU: Checking if IOMMU is enabled by kernel                               : PASS
QEMU: Checking for secure guest support                                    : WARN (Unknown if this platform has Secure Guest support)```

At this point I got a bit frustrated and needed a break. And after a meal I decided "screw the warning, let’s go Arch!
So I started with the installation of an Arch VM - so far so good, used the “lazy” way arch-install and was greeted with the login of the Arch shell - GREAT, success. But then the next source of frustration hit me: Copy-Paste from the Host to the VM does not work. Very annoying! This is a functionality that - imho - should be either on by default or easily configured, but this seems not to be the case.
So I read a bit about it and installed spice-vdagentd on both the host and the VM and ensured it uses SPICE, but still can’t C&P…
Got even more frustrated and started to give up. Had a good night sleep, woke up and found my willpower again. Asking NOW for help is the way to go!

More information:

sudo inxi -zF
System:
  Kernel: 6.14.2-arch1-1 arch: x86_64 bits: 64
  Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 6.3.4 Distro: EndeavourOS
Machine:
  Type: Desktop Mobo: Micro-Star model: MAG X570 TOMAHAWK WIFI (MS-7C84)
    v: 1.0 serial: <filter> UEFI: American Megatrends LLC. v: 1.F0
    date: 10/12/2023
CPU:
  Info: 16-core model: AMD Ryzen 9 5950X bits: 64 type: MT MCP cache:
    L2: 8 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 3596 min/max: 550/5086 cores: 1: 3596 2: 3596 3: 3596
    4: 3596 5: 3596 6: 3596 7: 3596 8: 3596 9: 3596 10: 3596 11: 3596 12: 3596
    13: 3596 14: 3596 15: 3596 16: 3596 17: 3596 18: 3596 19: 3596 20: 3596
    21: 3596 22: 3596 23: 3596 24: 3596 25: 3596 26: 3596 27: 3596 28: 3596
    29: 3596 30: 3596 31: 3596 32: 3596
Graphics:
  Device-1: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Navi 21 [Radeon RX 6800/6800 XT
    / 6900 XT] driver: amdgpu v: kernel
  Display: unspecified server: X.Org v: 21.1.16 with: Xwayland v: 24.1.6
    driver: X: loaded: amdgpu unloaded: modesetting,radeon dri: radeonsi
    gpu: amdgpu resolution: 1: N/A 2: N/A
  API: EGL v: 1.5 drivers: radeonsi,swrast
    platforms: gbm,x11,surfaceless,device
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6 compat-v: 4.5 vendor: amd mesa v: 25.0.3-arch1.1
    renderer: AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT (radeonsi navi21 LLVM 19.1.7 DRM 3.61
    6.14.2-arch1-1)
  API: Vulkan v: 1.4.309 drivers: N/A surfaces: xcb,xlib
  Info: Tools: api: clinfo, eglinfo, glxinfo, vulkaninfo
    de: kscreen-console,kscreen-doctor gpu: lact wl: wayland-info
    x11: xdpyinfo, xprop, xrandr
Audio:
  Device-1: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Navi 21/23 HDMI/DP Audio
    driver: snd_hda_intel
  Device-2: Thesycon System & Consulting GmbH DX3 Pro+ driver: snd-usb-audio
    type: USB
  API: ALSA v: k6.14.2-arch1-1 status: kernel-api
Network:
  Device-1: Mellanox MT27500 Family [ConnectX-3] driver: mlx4_core
  IF: enp36s0 state: up speed: 10000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
  Device-2: Realtek RTL8125 2.5GbE driver: r8169
  IF: enp38s0 state: down mac: <filter>
  Device-3: Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX200 driver: iwlwifi
  IF: wlan0 state: down mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-1: virbr0 state: down mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Intel AX200 Bluetooth driver: btusb type: USB
  Report: btmgmt ID: hci0 rfk-id: 2 state: down bt-service: enabled,running
    rfk-block: hardware: no software: yes address: <filter> bt-v: 5.2
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 18.66 TiB used: 10.92 TiB (58.5%)
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: Seagate model: FireCuda 530 ZP2000GM30013
    size: 1.82 TiB
  ID-2: /dev/nvme1n1 vendor: Seagate model: FireCuda 530 ZP2000GM30013
    size: 1.82 TiB
  ID-3: /dev/sda vendor: Samsung model: SSD 860 PRO 512GB size: 476.94 GiB
  ID-4: /dev/sdb vendor: Seagate model: ST16000NM001G-2KK103 size: 14.55 TiB
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 1.82 TiB used: 1.58 TiB (86.9%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2
  ID-2: /boot/efi size: 998 MiB used: 576 KiB (0.1%) fs: vfat
    dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1
  ID-3: /home size: 1.82 TiB used: 1.58 TiB (86.9%) fs: btrfs
    dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2
  ID-4: /var/log size: 1.82 TiB used: 1.58 TiB (86.9%) fs: btrfs
    dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2
Swap:
  ID-1: swap-1 type: zram size: 16 GiB used: 11.3 MiB (0.1%) dev: /dev/zram0
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 39.0 C mobo: 37.0 C gpu: amdgpu temp: 69.0 C
  Fan Speeds (rpm): fan-1: 0 fan-2: 414 fan-3: 365 fan-4: 0 fan-5: 0
    fan-6: 0 fan-7: 0 gpu: amdgpu fan: 0
Info:
  Memory: total: 64 GiB available: 62.71 GiB used: 9.81 GiB (15.6%)
  Processes: 579 Uptime: 2h 37m Shell: Sudo inxi: 3.3.37

SudoMason · April 17, 2025, 11:54am

If you haven’t tried Boxes yet, I highly recommend it. Since using it, I’ve never looked back. It’s an excellent VM solution from the GNOME project.

ricklinux · April 17, 2025, 12:31pm

Ryzen 9 5950X doesn’t support SEV.

milkytwix · April 17, 2025, 2:42pm

Thank you for the suggestion, but for now I will stick to VirtManager and try to make it work.

That explains that, ty! So for now I will ignore the WARN, which leaves only the C&P.

nula · April 17, 2025, 5:21pm

Installing spice-vdagent should be sufficent. Did you try drag and drop? Dnd works for me in context of files/archives, not dirs. Cnp works for text clipboard content.

milkytwix · April 18, 2025, 9:24am

This actually did the trick for me, after I read a bit more about it. The reading was the solution, though.
vdagent was not installed after the direct installation of Arch. I just installed KDE via manually typing all the packages, booted up, installed vdagent and activated vdagentd and voila - here we go!
Will not mark this as a solution, though, because I guess there will be more “stupid me” questions! TYVM!