Virtual machines
SUPER SHIFT M opens the virtual machines in
the island, run by quickemu. Every system quickget knows can be fetched from
the panel, with its versions and editions, and every machine kept is started,
paused, snapshotted and stopped from the same place. qemu-desktop and
quickemu are in the package list, so the install brings both.
The panel has two views behind a switch at the top: Machines, the ones there are, and New, the catalogue. With no machine yet it opens on New.
Machines
Section titled “Machines”One row per machine: its system’s mark, its cores, memory and disk, and its state, with the answers that state allows.
| State | Answers |
|---|---|
| Off | Start, and a button that opens the row out |
| Running | Open its window, pause, shut down |
| Paused | Open its window, resume, shut down |
| Shutting down | A second press of the power button ends it at once |
A machine starts without a window, and its window opens and closes without stopping it: close the window and the machine keeps running, open it again from its row. The window is spicy’s, with spicy’s own menus.
Shutting down presses the machine’s own power button, so the system inside goes down cleanly. A system that ignores the button, such as a live ISO, is ended by pressing it again.
Opened out, a machine that is off shows:
- Cores and Memory, to change before the next start;
- Take a snapshot, and each snapshot kept, with a cross to remove it. A click on a snapshot reads Restore …? and the second click takes the disk back to it. Snapshots come after the first start, since that is when the disk is made;
- Delete, which reads Delete it and its disk on the first press and removes both on the second.
A new machine
Section titled “A new machine”New lists every system quickget can fetch, with a search field over the list. Pick one on the left, and on the right choose its Version, its Edition where it has several, and what the machine gets: Cores, Memory and Disk, 8 to 512 GB. Download and create fetches it.
The download’s progress takes the top of Machines until it is done, with a cross that stops it; a download stopped half way leaves nothing behind.
Machines are kept in ~/.local/share/impasto/machines, one quickemu
configuration and one folder each.
On the island
Section titled “On the island”A running machine shows beside the time: its system’s mark and how long it has run, or how many run when there are several. A click opens the panel. In the glance it has its own face, with its window, pause and shut down. It can be kept off the island under Settings → Island → The island → Beside the time → Virtual machines.
The impasto command starts, pauses and stops them from
a terminal too.
What the panel does not do is listed under Limitations.