[virt-tools-list] Using virt-manager with QEMU in emulation mode

[Cole Robinson]

On 05/10/2016 07:48 PM, Programmingkid wrote:
> 
> On May 10, 2016, at 7:41 PM, Cole Robinson wrote:
> 
>> On 05/10/2016 07:39 PM, Cole Robinson wrote:
>>> On 05/10/2016 07:36 PM, Programmingkid wrote:
>>>> I just finally made virt-manager 1.3.2 run on Mac OS 10.6.8. Is it possible to make virt-manager manage QEMU when it is used in emulation mode? For example, could I use QEMU on x86 hardware to manage qemu-system-ppc?
>>>
>>
>> I should say though, I don't know if anyone has actually tried to get libvirtd
>> working on a mac. You may be in for a long difficult road ahead of you
> 
> I did manage to install libvirt here, I just don't know how it works yet. I just don't think it would help. 
> 

First and foremost, virt-manager is a front end for libvirt. There is no using
virt-manager without libvirt

> 
>>> Yes, that should work for some use cases at least, I test Fedora with ppc64 on
>>> occasion. But it entirely depends on what options you need to specify to qemu,
>>> and if libvirt/virt-manager have support for them
> 
> According to libvirt.com, libvirt is made to work with a hypervisor. So why do we need it for emulation? I think making virt-manager talk to QEMU can be done without libvirt. 
> 

libvirt is an API wrapped around qemu (and other hypervisors). In the qemu
case, it provides a configuration XML format that maps to most qemu command
line properties, handles tracking qemu process lifecycle state like
start/stop/save/migrate/taking snapshots, provides APIs around qemu monitor
commands to enable device hotplug and a ton of other things.

The point is, if you want to run virt-manager on Mac OSX, and manage qemu
running on the same machine, libvirtd running on the host machine is 100%
required.

- Cole