Hands-on exploration of QEMU/KVM and system emulation:
benchmarking, VirtIO optimisation, QEMU Guest Agent integration, ARM (Raspberry Pi) emulation, and a one-command automation script.
qemu-virtualization-lab
├─ docs/ # PDF report
├─ src/ # Bash automation script
└─ screenshots/ # Key proof-of-work images
| Folder | Highlight |
|---|---|
| docs/ | ➜ Introduction_to_QEMU.pdf – full illustrated report |
| src/ | ➜ vm_run.sh – launches a KVM VM with VirtIO, Guest Agent, port-forwarding |
| screenshots/ | 9 curated PNGs referenced below & in the PDF |
# Launch a Lubuntu VM with 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, VirtIO disk/net,
# Guest Agent socket and host port 4000 → guest 22 (SSH)
bash src/vm_run.sh -d lubuntu.qcow2 -i lubuntu-24.04.2-desktop-amd64.iso| Proof | Screenshot |
|---|---|
| KVM enabled (vmx/svm = 16 flags) |  |
| KVM modules loaded |  |
| Raw vs qcow2 size |  |
| Boot time: full emu → KVM (12 min ➜ 33 s) |  |
VirtIO switch (/dev/sda ➜ /dev/vda) |
 |
| Guest Agent file creation |  |
| Guest confirms file |  |
| ARM (Raspberry Pi) emulation |  |
Read the detailed lab document (methodology, metrics, conclusions):
- Performance engineering – showed a ×10 boot-time gain from KVM and ×2 from VirtIO.
- Cross-architecture testing – ran an ARMv6 guest entirely in software.
- Automation – one Bash script to reproduce the whole setup.
- Host–guest orchestration – leveraged QEMU Guest Agent for real-time operations.
Code and documentation licensed under the MIT License – free to use, share and adapt.