How to Install Qemu on CachyOS Linux – Step-by-step

How to Install

2. 2. Pre‑Installation Checks

   Then Check KVM Virtualization is available:

   egrep -c '(vmx|svm)' /proc/cpuinfo

   If the Output > 0 then your processor supports hardware virtualization.
   (Make sure virtualization is enabled in BIOS.)
   If output is zero you can still use QEMU but without hardware acceleration.

3. 3. Install QEMU and Dependencies from Repo

   Use the CachyOS repositories to install QEMU and related tools.

   sudo pacman -Syu qemu qemu‑base qemu‑desktop

   Also install virtualization backend and tools:

   sudo pacman -S --needed libvirt virt-manager edk2‑ovmf bridge-utils

4. 4. Enable and Start Libvirt Service

   Start the libvirt daemon and enable it at boot:

   sudo systemctl start libvirtd

   sudo systemctl enable libvirtd

5. 5. Add User to libvirt Group

   Add your user to the `libvirt` group and re‑login:

   sudo usermod -aG libvirt $(whoami)

6. 6. Verify Installation

   Check that the libvirt environment is working:

   virsh list --all

   You should see no VMs listed yet, which is fine — the service is running.

7. 7. Create and Run a VM

   Use Virt‑Manager or Virsh to create a virtual machine with KVM acceleration. For example open Virt‑Manager via:

   virt-manager

   Then follow the GUI to create a VM, assign CPU, RAM, disk, and enable hardware virtualization.