QEMU Virtual Machine Setup

Sun, 25 Jan 2026 16:37:16 +0100

Setting up a QEMU virtual machine (VM) is a task I perform frequently. Here is my go-to method for getting a VM up and running quickly.

Download ISO and Setup SSH

Download and boot a Debian nocloud image using QEMU with SSH port forwarding (Host:5573). Then, install openssh-server and enable root login within the guest to allow ssh access.

$ wget https://cloud.debian.org/images/cloud/bookworm/latest/debian-12-nocloud-amd64.raw
$ qemu-system-x86_64 -M pc,accel=kvm -m 1G \
		-drive file=./debian-12-nocloud-amd64.raw,if=virtio \
		-netdev type=user,hostfwd=tcp::5573-:22,id=net0 \
		-device virtio-net,netdev=net0 -rtc base=localtime -smp 4 \
		-nographic
# Login with user 'root'
VM$ apt update && apt install openssh-server
VM$ echo "PermitRootLogin yes" > /etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/root_login.conf
VM$ systemctl restart sshd
# Set root password
VM$ passwd
$ ssh root@localhost -p 5573

Resize Disk

In case the default disk size is too small we need to resize the image and resize the partition.

Posts on Lorenz Kofler

QEMU Virtual Machine Setup

Download ISO and Setup SSH

Resize Disk