qqX - quickemu quickget X terminal project

• Adds fixes, tools and general improvements to the Quickemu system

• for the easy running of Linux, Windows, MacOS, etc with Qemu / KVM

• Offers a complete menu system within a unique hybrid interface

• More up-to-date and easier to mod than Gnome Boxes

• Much easier than the complex Qemu front-ends based on LibVirt.

Latest release 1.10.02 + 1.11.0.02 beta

Large code update with lots of new features and Quickemu improvements.

An extended testing program has now added extra handling routines for KDE 6, XFCE and LXQT

@ Nov 27th, the beta is stable and downloadable and has several improvements, fixes and updates ....

More in the release notes and wiki pages

Launch from the Linux desktop or from the command line

No need to wait for Quickget to add in the distros or releases that you want.

• Download, right click and install

• Or at the terminal qqX XDG /path/distro.iso

Simple and Straightforward

• Simple list browse, download, and organise countless distros

• Multiple display modes, utilities, optimizers and tools

• Choice of Custom Menus or 5 built-in menu styles

• Easy installation

• Always up-to-date text translation

Get the latest fixes

No need to wait for Quickemu bug fixes to make their way through the system either.

• Built-in code releases ensure that any new input from the quickemu community can be quickly put to work.

Start the main menu via the desktop or command line

Start specific VM's straight from the filemanager

Search the distro lists with alphabetical zooming

• Includes distro homepage browser, link checker and download size reportage

Range of utilities and functions

• Backups and snapshot management

• Controls for Secondary storage

• Configuration tune-up wizard

• Qcow2 repair, resize and diagnostics

• Boot manager and ISO boot selector

• Custom boot parameters and the ability to run Arm64, Risc-V +

• .conf updater for rename and move

• Controls for screen size and days count on 'daily-live' ISO's

How to Install

For standard Linux, most users will only need to install qemu spice-gtk and qqX

• Some distro versions may need curl jq and bc

• The qqX latest release is available here

No further software, support structures or dependencies should be required.

• The qqX installer includes an easy un-installer, if you don't like it .....

Start from scratch. Or safely test out the qqX difference on your existing VM's.

• Quickemu and Quickgui may be installed but are not essential.

• Full installer details in the wiki pages

Release notes

@ Sept 16 - Version 1.10.02

• General collection of fixes and tweaks. Plus more improvements for KDE6 / Qt6 / Wayland / XFCE etc

@ Sept 1 - Version 1.10.01

• Adds Windows languages and sorts the Quickemu problems too. You can now download French, not just 'French Canadian' for example.

• There's an improved distro editions selection mechanism which allows you to scroll up and down between releases and editions, depending on what you find and how you decide.

• Other features also include being able scroll through the distro info pages, and from any given start point.

• And finally some control over boot management and being able to select whether we boot from the virtual hard drive or from the ISO. Very useful for partition management and disk maintenance.

• You can now organize folders by various categories. The same machine can now be listed in two or three folders at once. All by the magic of 'symbolic links'. Expect a wiki page shortly to explain in full detail.

• The ability to download any given Linux ISO and install it, has had a make over as well.

• This release has had extra extensive testing, ranging from the slickness of 'Garuda Dr460nized' to the lightness of LXQT

• FreeBird is default and based on quickemu @ Aug 4. FreeSpirit has had initial testing and looks good. This is based on Aug 29.

• Users still on version 1.8.04 and previous should download the latest release directly. For others, there was a fix in place a while back for the github changes behind the wget 302 / SHA error. So, use the installer/updater ....

@ Nov 27th

• New feature mounting of qcow2 drives in a file manager ....

• adds several quickget distro updates

• adds a fix for Arch hosts EFI

• adds a new version manager and checker

• adds some improved menus and menu sub-features

• improves vm selector transfer speed

• further improves terminal handling on Qt based desktops

• plus tweaks for i3 and gnome3

• adds a fix for Arch hosts EFI

To follow soon

• a couple of tweaks still to do in a couple of places, but nothing serious

• and a bit more testing in tiling WM's before we go to full release ....

Reliability

• Testing is always carried out on a variety of mainstream distros before release. (more so on 1.10)

• All scripts are carefully Shellcheck linted & have full error handling routines.

• qqX always makes backups, as is standard good practice with any software.

Improvements

• Tests show that official Quickemu 4.9.5/6 can cause Intel processors to run MacOS very slowly. This doesn't affect FreeBird or FreeSpirit.

• Also the Quickemu problem, where telescoped/nested VM grind to a halt, doesn't happen when using the qqX builtins either.

• As qqX will offer a config autotune after a download, the Quickemu issue #1387 with Windows will not be present.

See FreeBird wiki page for details on the built-ins, or change log for a history synopsis

FAQs and Help

• Lots of Quickemu Help available in the qqX wiki pages too, not just qqX

• Full Quickemu MacOS installation guide and walk through

• Qemu / qqX guide to disk resizing and disk maintenance

• And more ...

Also try the Quickemu forum at https://discord.gg/sNmz3uw

Why Bash?

Bash, or similar, is automatically there on the Linux command line. Most users already know or can understand at least a little of it.

• Improving your knowledge of Bash is always time well spent.

Keeping it Simple

• The qqX coding is clear and annotated sufficiently for newcomers to find their feet.

Quickemu currently uses simple Bash scripts. QEMU / KVM does all the heavy lifting.

• Much easier for community contributions. Much easier to edit and easy to fix.

qqX uses a more modern writing style but is much the the same.

• Anything in quickemu can be easily modded, shaped and improved.

... and Straightforward

There are none of the complexities that LibVirt creates by using only machine readable configurations.

And none of steep learning curves that come with languages such as Rust, C or Vala.

• Even seemingly simple LibVirt front-ends like Gnome Boxes can contain whole learning curves for the most basic of things, like moving the default VM folder for example. Forget anything more

Development and Roadmap

See the specific wiki for more details and for what's happening in future releases

Why the Vinyards?

I live in a wine growing region of Italy, in a castled village dating from the 1300's

For me, qqX is something to do when it's too hot or it's raining and I can't be outside. So, Linux development amongst the Vinyards, with the Olde English spelling of " Vine Yards " which doesn't have with an 'e', to match the context.

1533 (1651 pub.), Henry Cornelius Agrippa, De Occulta Philosophia ...therefore they who are more religiously and holily instructed, neither set a tree nor plant their vinyard, nor undertake any mean work without divine invocation...

why 'X' ?

Traditionally Linux has used the X window system from X.org, so 'X term' often gets used as shorthand for the terminal.

More technically speaking qqX runs in a 'terminal emulator' and can also run with Wayland display systems as well as with 'X' ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_Window_System

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayland_(protocol)