Show HN: VM-curator – a TUI alternative to libvirt and virt-manager (github.com)
Behold, vm-curator! A fast and friendly VM management TUI written in Rust. You can create, configure, organize, and manage VMs directly with QEMU. No libvert. No XML. No wonky UI's. Just the right level of friendliness, customization, and speed to be really really useful.
The best part? 3D para-virtualization works with NVIDIA cards (via virtio-vga-gl!) No jumping through hoops to get GPU passthrough working!
(Disclaimer: This works great with other guest Linux VMs, but is not suitable for Windows gaming. If you want to game on Windows within a VM, passthrough is a must. vm-curator will have fast and friendly support soon.)
Looking for contributors (especially to help with the ascii art,) and donations are welcome. (Claude was a big help, but this was not a vibe-coded affair. We pair-programmed approx. 10,000 lines of code here. It was a great way to learn Rust, actually!)
7 comments
[ 2.7 ms ] story [ 20.2 ms ] thread> IOMMU GPU passthrough with device selection would be a helpful feature: https://www.google.com/search?q=gpu+passthrough+qemu
rutabaga_gfx does GPU paravirtualization: https://github.com/magma-gpu/rutabaga_gfx
- VM creation with over 100 different OS profiles, built for KVM and emulation - 3D para-virtualization support using virtio-vga-gl (virgl) - UEFI and TPM support (auto-configured for OSes that need it, like Windows 11) - QCOWS2 Snapshot support. - USB Pass-through support and management.
There is also a rich metadata library with ascii art, descriptions of OSes, and fun-facts.
VM Creation with IOMMU will require the following for GPU pass-through: - a motherboard capable of proper IOMMU support. - 2+ GPUs, plus a dummy HDMI or DP1.4 plug for the passed-through GPU - Looking-Glass for display
VM-curator can host and manage other gpu-passthrough configurations, as the application supports editing each VM's launch script, but the above profile is what I'm planning to put into the creator system.
I have a TRX40 (Threadripper) motherboard, which will serve as an ample test-bed, but I still need to acquire a second GPU.
single-gpu-passthrough relies on a script (run outside the app) to disconnect the GPU from the current X.org or Wayland session and then to attach it to the running VM. When the VM is shut down, the script runs this process in reverse. This means you can only run one VM at a time with your main display and peripherals, and while you're running that VM, you can't access your host with your display and peripherals (you can always SSH into it while the VM is running.)
This is the common process for getting single-GPU-passthrough to work. vm-curator helps prepare the system and generates the scripts automatically.
multi-gpu-passthrough is designed to run with looking-glass, but it can also support physical KVM switching if the user prefers.
- Defaulting to SGL display-mode when enabling 3D accel for Linux VMs for better graphics performance. - Changing display mode for existing VMs is now available in Manage - Adding multiple VMs for the same OS is now supported - Custom VM naming now persists. - Renaming VMs is now supported.
Next major feature: Full PCI passthrough support, including GPU passthrough via looking-glass.