I love virtualization in Linux and I would like to have operating system which will work only as minimal, air-gapped as much is possible host for my guest operating systems. Qubes OS project really interested me but it’s based on Xen hypervisor so it might cause troubles with GPU Passthrough which is really important for me also I’m more interested in KVM. In my case it’s not only about security and privacy but also about fun and learning. What can you recommend? I think that good choice might be Gentoo Linux because it allows for minimal installation and remove unnecessary software like CUPS, Bluetooth entirely with flags which will be great option for host only OS. But I had experience with Gentoo and it’s not easiest way 😅 Debian might be easier option but I will have less control over my system. Maybe you have other interesting options?
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Another option is to run a minimal GUI with Cockpit to manage your VMs and Containers.
Proxmox
- based on KVM
- relatively easy to install
- big community and lots of how-to guides
- well-documented hardware pass through
- minimal install (no cups, no extraneous software)
I heard that Proxmox is great server solution but how about desktop?
proxmox can be used on a desktop. if you don’t like qubes, virt-manager or virtualbox on a regular distro could be up your alley too.
that is i understood correctly and you want to actually sit at it, just that it is running many guest oses instead of just your desktop?
Sounds like “minimal” just went out the door?
What? I’m looking for minimal setup but for desktop use (by this I mean machine which I’ll be using as my workstation), not for a server. I don’t think that Proxmox will be minimal option for this purpose when it have features which I don’t need at all because the software on it is primarily designed for remotely controlled servers. For example I don’t need WebUI function, instead I need simple desktop environment to manage my machines directly from a machine. Of course I can install desktop environment on it but why when it have completely different use case?
The short answer is any. KVM is built in to the kernel. You can run VMM (Virtual Machine Manager) for a simple, easy GUI, but you can also manually edit the VM files if that’s your thing. You can air gap them by creating a bridge that doesn’t bind to a nic.
Anything debian (which includes ubuntu based) just run
apt install qemu-kvm virt-manager bridge-utils
See: https://youtu.be/FNcImbM8ugg
The much longer answer is, it really depends on your needs for a daily driver, not for virtualization. Figure out what you need for a dd, then use that and install the tools.
What? I’m looking for minimal setup but for desktop use (by this I mean machine which I’ll be using as my workstation), not for a server.
Which isn’t a “minimal” Linux installation. Which is fine - you don’t actually need a “minimal” system. I’m not sure you even know why you want that. Just install any Linux distro and go to town. You can remove things if you like.
Proxmox has no desktop by default. You can install it, add a desktop environment, but it will be less hassle to just use Debian as the desktop and install proxmox on top of that.
Ultimately, it’s all Linux or Unix. You can install qemu/KVM and libvirt on just about anything.
You can pretty much just pick your distribution and then add KVM on top of that, it will get you a long way before you need to use anything with more features.
A lot of people like to keep their hypervisor separate from their daily driver, but you can totally just fire up VMs and containers on your dd if that works for you.
Or, create a VM in Proxmox and pass the GPU, mouse and keyboard to it.
If all you want is KVM, than any Linux distro +
virt-managerwill work perfect. My general recommendations for Linux distros are Fedora and openSUSE, because they are usually pretty up-to-date. Arch is also a good option, though not as stable. Choose KDE Plasma or GNOME when using GPU passthrough (because most guides will be made for either of these DEs).That’s what I’m thinking about but I think that OpenSUSE or Fedora might be too much bloated. Someone recommended AlmaLinux and I think that might be a great solution.
Alma is an LTS enterprise distro so gets pretty out of date after some time, and I don’t think it is significantly more bloated than Fedora because AlmaLinux is downstream of Fedora. Just uninstall the apps you don’t want on install. Even better is openSUSE Tumbleweed because the YaST installer allows for you to pick and choose every package (or group of packages) that makes it onto your final system.
That seems far from minimal. A bare metal virtualisation manager like promox should fit the job much better with no actual overhead.
Proxmox is based on debian, with it’s own virtualization packages and system services that do something very similar to what libvirt does.
Libvirr + virt manager also uses qemu kvm as it’s underlying virtual machine software, meaning performance will be identical.
Although perhaps there will be a tiny difference due to libvirt’s use of the more performant spice for graphics vs proxmox’s novnc but it doesn’t really matter.
The true minimal setup is to just use qemu kvm directly, but the virtual machine performance will be the same as libvirt, in exchange for a very small reduction in overhead.
They specifically asked for a desktop operating system, so I recommended systems with a GUI. Proxmox comes with its own bloat, Arch would be far more minimal without the need for a bunch of dependencies.
It sounds like you want fedora coreOS maybe?
Not helping here, but I heard a guy with Guix did that. Guix just builds a profile with the extra desktop parts, run it in a local container if you want and add that profile to the local software stack. Not a vm but maybe you don’t need it ? Both the system, home and the desktop profile are declarative, so very mobile. I think he had his DE user profile remote also, so extremely minimal/air-gapped and stable solution with almost zero local data: system, home, desktop-profile, remote user profile (ldap etc).
In declarative operating systems, you describe what you want, and the system builds it for you. Your whole system configuration is a few files of std code (learning experience ;). Personally, I’m done with the usual monolithic distros. They are too error prone for my taste, and not really moving with the dev flow of operating systems imho.
Anyway, just a loose rumor/idea, I have no links and don’t actually know how to do it, sorry.
Opensuse MicroOS is not only minimal, but also inmutable. Or their variations Aeon (Gnome) or Kalpa (Plasma) if you are looking for a desktop env.
On top of that, if you enable Cockpit it would enable your VM and containers management.
Well. Gentoo will let you have a direct say in every single aspect of the final system.
