Aurora OS Documentation latest
/

Documentation › Virtual machines

Virtual machines

Running Aurora in QEMU, GNOME Boxes, virt-manager, VirtualBox and VMware

Aurora runs well in a virtual machine. Give it 4 GB of memory (8 GB for AI models), 2 or more processors and a 40 GB disk. Guest tools for QEMU/KVM (agent, SPICE), VirtualBox, VMware and Hyper-V are included.

Graphics in a VM

With 3D acceleration (virtio-gpu with virgl, VirtualBox or VMware with 3D on) the Aurora session uses it. Without it, Wayfire draws on the processor, or Aurora uses the Compatibility session where Wayfire can't run (see Desktop sessions).

GNOME Boxes and virt-manager

Open the ISO, choose Debian 13 as the operating system, 4 GB of memory and 2 or more processors. virt-manager: enable UEFI (OVMF) if you want it.

QEMU from a terminal

sudo apt install qemu-system-x86 qemu-utils ovmf     # Debian/Ubuntu
qemu-img create -f qcow2 aurora.qcow2 40G
qemu-system-x86_64 -enable-kvm -machine q35 -cpu host -smp 4 -m 4G \
  -cdrom aurora-os-VERSION-amd64.iso -boot d \
  -drive file=aurora.qcow2,if=virtio \
  -device virtio-vga-gl -display gtk,gl=on \
  -device intel-hda -device hda-duplex \
  -nic user,model=virtio-net-pci -usb -device usb-tablet
  • -device virtio-vga-gl -display gtk,gl=on gives the VM 3D acceleration. Without it (for example over SSH) use -vga std -display gtk.
  • Add -drive if=pflash,format=raw,readonly=on,file=/usr/share/OVMF/OVMF_CODE_4M.fd to boot with UEFI; keep the same firmware for later boots.
  • After installing, start again without -cdrom and -boot d.

From Aurora's source tree, build/run-qemu.sh does this with options (--uefi, --disk FILE, --software, --spice PORT, --vnc N).

On a server, watched from another computer

# on the server
build/run-qemu.sh --uefi --disk aurora.qcow2 --spice 5930 aurora-os-VERSION-amd64.iso
# on your computer
ssh -L 5930:127.0.0.1:5930 user@server
remote-viewer spice://127.0.0.1:5930

Windows with WSL 2

WSL 2 supports nested virtualization, so the QEMU commands work in Ubuntu on WSL: check that /dev/kvm exists, install QEMU, add yourself to the kvm group (sudo usermod -aG kvm $USER, then wsl --shutdown), and start with --software.

VirtualBox and VMware

Create a Debian 64-bit VM, enable EFI for UEFI, give it 128 MB of video memory and turn 3D acceleration on if available. The guest tools are already in Aurora.