macOS GUI frontend for QEMU?

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PeterHolbrook
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macOS GUI frontend for QEMU?

Post by PeterHolbrook »

How close are we to a GUI frontend for QEMU that will be easy to use and allow us to avoid using the Terminal? If there's one already, are there any caveats about its use? If there are several options available, is there a GUI frontend that you can recommend?
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Cat_7
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Re: macOS GUI frontend for QEMU?

Post by Cat_7 »

Hi,

There is a GUI by programmingkid, but it hasn't been updated for a while. I have no idea whether it still works for newer qemu builds or on newer macOS versions.

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adespoton
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Re: macOS GUI frontend for QEMU?

Post by adespoton »

And it's probably worth noting that the existing one, Q, hasn't been updated since before QEMU supported booting Mac virtual hardware.

It seems like QEMU-PPC has stabilized enough to actually put something together now that won't break in a few months; I had been waiting for Screamer to get integrated into the mainline first, but it doesn't look like that will happen any time soon due to the snapshotting conflicts.

My "front ends" work, but they're applications with pre-baked configurations where you need to drop the qemu package into the Resources folder yourself, and adjust the config / do the install yourself too, so they're actually more steps to set up than just using the existing script. Once set up though, it's easier to use/move.

It'd be nice for someone to have another stab at replicating the VirtualBox interface for QEMU. That's a lot of work though.
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Cat_7
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Re: macOS GUI frontend for QEMU?

Post by Cat_7 »

PeterHolbrook
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Re: macOS GUI frontend for QEMU?

Post by PeterHolbrook »

Cat_7 wrote: Mon Mar 29, 2021 4:09 pm The latest beta is here: http://www.mediafire.com/file/yuh4gb7j2 ... 3.zip/file
Great. Many thanks to both of you!
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Cat_7
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Re: macOS GUI frontend for QEMU?

Post by Cat_7 »

I had been waiting for Screamer to get integrated into the mainline first, but it doesn't look like that will happen any time soon due to the snapshotting conflicts.
I believe the main issue with the screamer is that it hammers dbdma where it shouldn't, so performance suffers. Finding that means some debugging in qemu and perhaps openbios while in the end only one developer is really actively developing in his sparse spare time. He is currently working on the Quadra 800 emulation.
Some days ago I wrote to the developer list about the issues with -device usb-audio. Perhaps those will get solved and then perhaps we will not need to rely on the screamer. But if the issue is with the ppc emulation and/or openbios....

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Re: macOS GUI frontend for QEMU?

Post by Cat_7 »

Great. Many thanks to both of you!
Please let us know how you get on with the GUI.
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Sven
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Re: macOS GUI frontend for QEMU?

Post by Sven »

The most advanced QEMU GUI frontend currently available for the Mac is “UTM” (which probably stands for “Universal Turing Machine”), which is also a project in active development:

https://mac.getutm.app

It was formerly only an emulator for i(Pad)OS, but now it runs also on the Mac (but requires macOS Big Sur: universal app for M1 and Intel): certainly not feature-complete, yet, but definitely with a nice interface and rather easy to use (but, of course, still with some bugs).

It would be interesting to see if it works well also with qemu-system-ppc-based VMs (anyway, it includes all QEMU system architectures, so at least in theory it should be possible): this could maybe considerably ease the use also of PPC Mac OS (X) virtual machines.

Quite interesting, anyway...
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adespoton
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Re: macOS GUI frontend for QEMU?

Post by adespoton »

Sven wrote: Tue Mar 30, 2021 3:26 pm The most advanced QEMU GUI frontend currently available for the Mac is “UTM” (which probably stands for “Universal Turing Machine”), which is also a project in active development:

https://mac.getutm.app

It was formerly only an emulator for i(Pad)OS, but now it runs also on the Mac (but requires macOS Big Sur: universal app for M1 and Intel): certainly not feature-complete, yet, but definitely with a nice interface and rather easy to use (but, of course, still with some bugs).

It would be interesting to see if it works well also with qemu-system-ppc-based VMs (anyway, it includes all QEMU system architectures, so at least in theory it should be possible): this could maybe considerably ease the use also of PPC Mac OS (X) virtual machines.

Quite interesting, anyway...
Interesting; I didn't realize UTM had set macOS as a target option now! I've used it on iOS, and it works decently well. It definitely replicates the VirtualBox interface fairly well, although I don't believe its interface handles the monitor any differently, nor advanced actions like snapshots. And you may still need to hand-tool the config files if you want to do anything not covered in the UI.
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Sven
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Re: macOS GUI frontend for QEMU?

Post by Sven »

Yes, and it’s certainly still rather rough around the edges and incomplete: for example, VMs must be located in ~/Library/Containers/com.utmapp.UTM/Data/Documents (sandboxed app), and currently it is not possible to store them, for example, on an external drive (which is the ideal solution for those with many virtual machines).

Looks promising, anyway: within some months, it will probably be more usable, also for beginners (and possibly also a good option for Mac OS X PPC VMs)...
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Re: macOS GUI frontend for QEMU?

Post by WizKid »

Sven wrote: Wed Mar 31, 2021 3:23 pm Yes, and it’s certainly still rather rough around the edges and incomplete: for example, VMs must be located in ~/Library/Containers/com.utmapp.UTM/Data/Documents (sandboxed app), and currently it is not possible to store them, for example, on an external drive (which is the ideal solution for those with many virtual machines).
One could always make a symlink in ~/Library/Containers/com.utmapp.UTM/Data named "Documents" to point to wherever they want to (or have) or VMs stored.
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Sven
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Re: macOS GUI frontend for QEMU?

Post by Sven »

Sadly, that doesn’t seem to work anymore, inside containers: UTM won’t see a symlinked VM, anymore. I guess we’ll have to wait until the developer implements this, if possible...
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Sven
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Re: macOS GUI frontend for QEMU?

Post by Sven »

... And if I symlink the aforementioned Documents folder in the container to my UTM folder on the external VMs SSD, when I try to create a new VM in UTM there is a warning that I don’t have the permission to save to the destination folder (the one on the external drive): so, it really looks like the sandboxing is strictly limiting us to the container’s Documents folder, in this case. Which is quite inconvenient, to say the least: hopefully, this will improve in the future, together with other things...
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adespoton
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Re: macOS GUI frontend for QEMU?

Post by adespoton »

Sven wrote: Sun Apr 04, 2021 3:39 pm ... And if I symlink the aforementioned Documents folder in the container to my UTM folder on the external VMs SSD, when I try to create a new VM in UTM there is a warning that I don’t have the permission to save to the destination folder (the one on the external drive): so, it really looks like the sandboxing is strictly limiting us to the container’s Documents folder, in this case. Which is quite inconvenient, to say the least: hopefully, this will improve in the future, together with other things...
I think you can still override this in security settings. The correct way to handle it however is for the app itself to watch for errors when doing file-handly things, and prompt you to authorize access to the locations that are being blocked.
JustinD
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Re: macOS GUI frontend for QEMU?

Post by JustinD »

There's a PR to address this, it looks like: https://github.com/utmapp/UTM/pull/2451

I tried building it but got stuck on this error when I did:

Code: Select all

/Users/justin/Documents/UTM/sysroot-macOS-arm64/qapi/qapi-visit-migration.c:293:10: Implicit declaration of function 'visit_deprecated_accept' is invalid in C99
Haven't really done anything in C since college, but if anyone wants to take a crack at building that branch and letting me know how to fix that error, it might help with being able to run these on external storage.
sarahedmonds
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Re: macOS GUI frontend for QEMU?

Post by sarahedmonds »

JustinD wrote: Thu Jun 03, 2021 3:55 pm There's a PR to address this, it looks like: https://github.com/utmapp/UTM/pull/2451

I tried building it but got stuck on this error when I did:

Code: Select all

/Users/justin/Documents/UTM/sysroot-macOS-arm64/qapi/qapi-visit-migration.c:293:10: Implicit declaration of function 'visit_deprecated_accept' is invalid in C99
Haven't really done anything in C since college, but if anyone wants to take a crack at building that branch and letting me know how to fix that error, it might help with being able to run these on external storage cara membuat halaman di word
i see All checks have passed but im still getting error invalid in C99.
any news?
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oxoocoffee
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Re: macOS GUI frontend for QEMU?

Post by oxoocoffee »

Is UTM in Appstore include qemu binaries? Or external qemu installation is required? like homebrew install qemu?
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adespoton
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Re: macOS GUI frontend for QEMU?

Post by adespoton »

oxoocoffee wrote: Tue Mar 28, 2023 2:03 pm Is UTM in Appstore include qemu binaries? Or external qemu installation is required? like homebrew install qemu?
Not only is everything included, it's a custom compile that includes SPICE, the Apple VM, and other stuff as well.

I can't remember the difference between the UTM in the App Store and the one on https://mac.getutm.app/ (or, for that matter, on https://github.com/utmapp/UTM/releases); I think the only difference is that you need to pay to get the App Store copy, and it's managed by the App Store. Other difference is that it has fewer releases, as it only gets the "stable" ones.
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4-YearWindowsPro
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Re: macOS GUI frontend for QEMU?

Post by 4-YearWindowsPro »

Well, Lucky, Mac user.
There's no more than one GUI for Windows, but for macOS, just google it. Then 1000 results will appear.
Especially it's most found for macOS. I'm a Windows user and Google all talks about Ubuntu and Mac.
Just google it then done!
Thank you Apple!
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