Family PC Setup: KVM Kubuntu Host + Win7 Guest

kevinhdw — Fri, 18 Apr 2025 02:48:38 +0000

It's that time of the year again to try setting up a Linux PC for family purposes, opening WhatsApp, YouTube, downloading and printing school assignments...

Previously was using a laptop but the camera and wifi are failing.

While saving up for a dedicated PC, I'm repurposing my old workstation, ThinkPad x220 core i7 16GB RAM, as Family PC.

Features

Shared Folder
Seamless windows

In short, I cannot achieve this because of an error when installing VirtIO for Shared Folder. So I will use VirtualBox for now.

Tutorials

https://www.debugpoint.com/kvm-share-folder-windows-guest/
https://askubuntu.com/questions/1310440/using-virtio-win-drivers-with-win7-sp1-x64 downloaded 179-4.iso
when installing, got error

Resources

Kubuntu 24.04 ISO
Windows 7 ISO, the version I used is en_windows_7_professional_with_sp1_x64_dvd_u_676939.iso 1

Steps

install kubuntu 24.04, minimum install is ok
open konsole, execute # in this step I installed using Discover GUI

  $ sudo apt update && apt install virt-manager

make sure libvirtd is enabled and started

$ sudo systemctl enable libvirtd
$ sudo systemctl start libvirtd

copy windows 7 iso to the new laptop

References

KVM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgZHbCDFODk
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/KVM/Installation
Windows 7 Resource
https://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1755258
... and other usual places to get windows 7 ISOs
Virt-IO ISOs
https://fedorapeople.org/groups/virt/virtio-win/direct-downloads/archive-virtio/

FAQs

How can I get Windows 7 ISO?
Answer: how to obtain the ISO is left as exercise for the reader
"QEMU/KVM - Not Connected" or "Error: No active connection to install on"
Answer: check libvirtd is running