vm-curator

A fast and friendly Rust TUI for managing desktop QEMU/KVM virtual machines — with 3D acceleration, GPU passthrough, VM import, and 120+ pre-configured OS profiles!

Changelog

v0.4.7

• Windows Server Profiles: Add 9 Windows Server OS profiles (2003, 2008, 2008 R2, 2012, 2012 R2, 2016, 2019, 2022, 2025) with QEMU configurations, metadata, and a new "Windows Server" subcategory under the Microsoft family

v0.4.6

• Fix Multi-GPU Passthrough VFIO Binding: Launch scripts now automatically bind PCI devices to vfio-pci before QEMU and restore original drivers on exit. Fixes Could not open '/dev/vfio/N' errors. Uses pkexec/sudo for authentication — only prompts when devices need rebinding.

v0.4.5

• Fix Multi-GPU Passthrough State: Multi-GPU Passthrough screen now correctly shows previously selected GPUs. Pressing 'p' from Multi-GPU to enter PCI Passthrough also loads saved selections.

v0.4.3

• Floppy Disk Support: Boot floppy image support for OSes that require a boot floppy for installation (e.g., OS/2). Browse for floppy images (.img, .ima, .flp, .vfd) in the create wizard and boot from floppy in the management screen.

v0.4.2

• macOS Intel VM Support: Comprehensive overhaul of macOS Intel profiles with Apple SMC emulation, AHCI disk, OpenCore bootloader integration, version-specific CPU models (Penryn/Skylake-Client), passt networking with vmxnet3, and spice-app display with vmware-svga
• QEMU Profile Audit: Review and update of 40+ QEMU profiles against current OS compatibility research — fixes critical boot failures (Bazzite, Pop!_OS, OpenWrt), corrects VGA/network/audio defaults for BSD, Windows 9x, BeOS, Plan 9, and retro OSes, and bumps resource allocations for Proxmox, Tails, and Classic Mac profiles

Full changelog

Features

VM Discovery & Organization

• Automatically scans your VM library for directories containing launch.sh scripts
• Hierarchical organization by 16 OS families with emoji icons and 49 subcategories
• Parses QEMU launch scripts to extract configuration (emulator, memory, CPU, VGA, audio, network, disks)
• Smart categorization with configurable hierarchy patterns
• Live process monitoring — shows running VMs with status indicators
• Search and filter VMs by name

VM Creation Wizard

• 5-step guided wizard for creating new VMs
• 120+ pre-configured OS profiles with optimal QEMU settings (Windows, macOS, Linux, BSD, Unix, retro, and more)
• Automatic UEFI firmware detection across Linux distributions (Arch, Debian, Fedora, NixOS, etc.)
• ISO file browser for selecting installation media
• Configurable disk size, memory, CPU cores, and QEMU options with direct text editing and size suffixes (e.g., "8GB")
• Use existing disk images (copy or move) instead of creating new ones
• Support for custom OS entries with user metadata

VM Import Wizard

• Import existing VMs from libvirt (virsh) XML configurations and Quickemu .conf files
• 5-step guided import: select source, choose VM, review compatibility warnings, configure disk handling, review and import
• Automatic OS profile detection from imported configurations
• Disk handling options: symlink, copy, or move existing disk images

GPU Passthrough

• Single-GPU passthrough: Pass your only GPU to a VM (requires TTY, stops display manager)
• Multi-GPU passthrough: Pass a secondary GPU while keeping the primary for the host
• Looking Glass integration: Near-zero latency display for multi-GPU setups with auto-launch support
• PCI passthrough screen: Select PCI devices (GPUs, USB controllers, NVMe) for VM passthrough
• System setup wizard: One-click VFIO/IOMMU configuration with initramfs regeneration

3D Graphics Acceleration

• Para-virtualized 3D acceleration with virtio-vga-gl and SDL gl=on
• Tested on NVIDIA RTX-4090 with driver 590.48.01+
• Automatic SDL display selection for 3D-enabled VMs

Snapshot Management

• Create, restore, and delete snapshots for qcow2 disk images
• Visual snapshot list with timestamps and sizes
• Background operations with progress feedback

Network Configuration

• Network backend selection: user/SLIRP (NAT), passt, bridge, or none
• Port forwarding with presets for common services (SSH, RDP, HTTP, HTTPS, VNC)
• Bridge networking with automatic bridge detection, status checklist, and setup guidance
• Configurable network adapter models per VM

Shared Folders

• Share host directories with VMs using virtio-9p
• Add, remove, and edit shared folders from the management menu
• Automatic mount tag generation

USB Passthrough

• USB device enumeration via libudev with sysfs fallback
• xHCI USB 3.0 controller with 8 ports (supports up to 8 USB 2.0 + 8 USB 3.0 devices)
• Persistent passthrough configuration
• Hub filtering and keyboard/mouse detection for passthrough validation

VM Notes

• Free-form personal notes for any VM from the management menu
• Multi-line text editor with full keyboard navigation
• Notes displayed in the main info panel and preserved across VM renames

Launch Script Editor

• Edit launch.sh scripts directly in the TUI
• Syntax-aware display with line numbers and horizontal scrolling
• Automatic QEMU configuration re-parsing after saves
• Automatic single-GPU passthrough script regeneration when applicable

Additional Features

• Vim-style navigation (j/k, arrows, mouse) with full clickable interface
• Multiple boot modes (normal, install, custom ISO)
• Dynamic display backend detection per emulator (GTK, SDL, SPICE-app, VNC)
• Headless VM support (display=none) with process monitoring
• Stop/force-stop VMs (ACPI poweroff or SIGKILL)
• VM rename with persistent custom display names
• OS metadata with historical blurbs, fun facts, and multi-step installation guides
• 42+ ASCII art logos for classic and modern operating systems
• BTRFS copy-on-write auto-disable for VM directories
• First-time setup wizard for configuring the VM library directory
• Configurable settings with persistence

Screenshots

 VM Curator (QEMU VM Library in ~/vm-space)
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ ┌─────────────────────────┐  ┌────────────────────────────────────┐ │
│ │ VMs (35)                │  │       _    _ _           _        │ │
│ │ ──────────────────────  │  │      | |  | (_)         | |       │ │
│ │ 🪟 Microsoft            │  │      | |/\| |_ _ __   __| | ___   │ │
│ │   ▼ DOS                 │  │      \  /\  / | '_ \ / _` |/ _ \  │ │
│ │     > MS-DOS 6.22   [*] │  │       \/  \/|_|_| |_|\__,_|\___/  │ │
│ │     > Windows 3.11      │  │                                   │ │
│ │   ▼ Windows 9x          │  │   Windows 95 OSR2.5               │ │
│ │     > Windows 95        │  │   Microsoft | August 1995 | i386  │ │
│ │     > Windows 98        │  │                                   │ │
│ │ 🐧 Linux                │  │   The OS that changed everything  │ │
│ │   ▼ Debian-based        │  │   with the Start Menu, taskbar,   │ │
│ │     > Debian 12         │  │   and 32-bit computing for all.   │ │
│ │     > Ubuntu 24.04      │  │                                   │ │
│ └─────────────────────────┘  └────────────────────────────────────┘ │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ [Enter] Launch  [m] Manage  [c] Create  [s] Settings  [?] Help     │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Installation

AUR (Arch / Arch-derived)

# Using your preferred AUR helper
paru -S vm-curator
yay -S vm-curator

crates.io

cargo install vm-curator

Binary Packages

Pre-built packages (DEB, RPM, AppImage, tarball) are available from GitHub Releases.

From Source

git clone https://github.com/mroboff/vm-curator.git
cd vm-curator
cargo build --release

The binary will be at target/release/vm-curator.

Prerequisites

• Required: QEMU (qemu-system-* binaries), qemu-img (for disk creation and snapshots), libudev
• Build: Rust 1.70+, libudev-dev (Debian/Ubuntu) or systemd-libs (Arch/Fedora)
• Optional:
  • OVMF/edk2 — UEFI boot support (edk2-ovmf on Arch, ovmf on Debian/Ubuntu)
  • virt-viewer — SPICE-app display backend
  • passt — passt network backend
  • Looking Glass client — multi-GPU passthrough display
  • polkit — bridge networking permissions

Usage

TUI Mode (default)

vm-curator

CLI Commands

# List all VMs
vm-curator list

# Launch a VM
vm-curator launch windows-95
vm-curator launch windows-95 --install    # Boot in install mode
vm-curator launch windows-95 --cdrom /path/to/image.iso

# View VM configuration
vm-curator info windows-95

# Import a VM
vm-curator  # then press 'i' for the import wizard

# Manage snapshots
vm-curator snapshot windows-95 list
vm-curator snapshot windows-95 create my-snapshot
vm-curator snapshot windows-95 restore my-snapshot
vm-curator snapshot windows-95 delete my-snapshot

# List available QEMU emulators
vm-curator emulators

Key Bindings

Main Menu

Key	Action
j/k or Down/Up	Navigate VM list
Enter	Launch selected VM
m	Open management menu
x	Stop VM (if running)
c	Open VM creation wizard
i	Open VM import wizard
s	Open settings
/	Search/filter VMs
?	Show help
PgUp/PgDn	Scroll info panel
Esc	Back / Cancel
q	Quit

VM Management

Key	Action
j/k or Down/Up	Navigate menu
Enter	Select menu option
e	Edit launch script
u	Configure USB passthrough

Management menu options:

• Boot Options (normal, install, custom ISO)
• Snapshots
• USB Passthrough
• PCI Passthrough
• Shared Folders
• Network Settings
• Multi-GPU Passthrough (if enabled)
• Single GPU Passthrough (if enabled)
• Change Display
• Edit Notes
• Rename VM
• Stop VM / Force Stop
• Reset VM (recreate disk)
• Delete VM
• Edit Raw Configuration

Create Wizard

Key	Action
Tab / Shift+Tab	Next/previous field
Enter	Select / Continue
n	Next step
p	Previous step
Esc	Cancel wizard

Configuration

Settings are stored in ~/.config/vm-curator/config.toml and can be edited via the Settings screen (s key).

# VM library location
vm_library_path = "~/vm-space"

# Default values for new VMs
default_memory_mb = 4096
default_cpu_cores = 2
default_disk_size_gb = 64
default_display = "gtk"      # gtk, sdl, spice-app, vnc
default_enable_kvm = true

# Behavior
confirm_before_launch = true

# Multi-GPU passthrough (Looking Glass)
enable_multi_gpu_passthrough = false
default_ivshmem_size_mb = 64
show_gpu_warnings = true
looking_glass_client_path = ""       # Path to Looking Glass client
looking_glass_auto_launch = true     # Auto-launch client when VM starts

# Single GPU passthrough
single_gpu_enabled = false
single_gpu_auto_tty = false          # Experimental: auto switch TTY
single_gpu_dm_override = ""          # Override display manager detection

VM Library Structure

VMs are expected in your library directory (default ~/vm-space/) with this structure:

~/vm-space/
├── windows-95/
│   ├── launch.sh      # QEMU launch script (required)
│   └── disk.qcow2     # Disk image (qcow2 recommended for snapshots)
├── linux-debian/
│   ├── launch.sh
│   ├── disk.qcow2
│   └── install.iso    # Optional: installation media
└── macos-tiger/
    ├── launch.sh
    └── disk.qcow2

The launch.sh script should invoke QEMU. VM Curator parses this script to extract configuration and can generate new scripts via the creation wizard.

OS Profiles

The creation wizard includes 120+ pre-configured profiles organized into 16 OS families:

Microsoft: DOS, Windows 1.x–3.x, Windows 95/98/ME, Windows NT/2000/XP/Vista, Windows 7/8/10/11, Server editions

Apple: Classic Mac OS (System 6–9), Mac OS X PowerPC (Cheetah–Tiger), Mac OS X Intel (Leopard–El Capitan), macOS (Sierra–Tahoe)

Linux: Arch, Manjaro, EndeavourOS, Garuda, CachyOS, Debian, Ubuntu, Mint, Pop!_OS, Fedora, RHEL, Rocky, Alma, Bazzite, openSUSE, Slackware, Gentoo, Void, NixOS, Alpine, and more

BSD: FreeBSD, GhostBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, DragonFly BSD

Unix: Solaris, OpenIndiana, illumos, HP-UX, IRIX, MINIX, QNX

IBM: OS/2, eComStation, ArcaOS, AIX

Commodore: AmigaOS, AROS, MorphOS

Be / Haiku: BeOS, Haiku

NeXT: NeXTSTEP, OpenStep

Research: Plan 9, 9front, Inferno

Alternative: SerenityOS, Redox, TempleOS, KolibriOS, MenuetOS, ReactOS

Retro: Atari TOS, CP/M, FreeDOS, DR-DOS, GEOS, RISC OS

Mobile: Android-x86, LineageOS, Bliss OS

Infrastructure: pfSense, OPNsense, OpenWrt, TrueNAS, Proxmox, ESXi

Utilities: GParted, Clonezilla, Memtest86+

Other: Catch-all for uncategorized VMs

Each profile includes optimal QEMU settings for that OS (emulator, machine type, CPU model, VGA, audio, network, disk interface, and more).

Metadata Customization

OS Information: Override or add OS metadata in ~/.config/vm-curator/metadata/:

# ~/.config/vm-curator/metadata/my-os.toml
[my-custom-os]
name = "My Custom OS"
publisher = "My Company"
release_date = "2024-01-01"
architecture = "x86_64"

[my-custom-os.blurb]
short = "A brief description"
long = "A longer description with history and details."

[my-custom-os.fun_facts]
facts = ["Fact 1", "Fact 2"]

ASCII Art: Add custom ASCII art in ~/.config/vm-curator/ascii/.

QEMU Profiles: Override profiles in ~/.config/vm-curator/qemu_profiles.toml.

Dependencies

• Runtime: QEMU, qemu-img, libudev
• Build: Rust 1.70+, libudev-dev (Debian/Ubuntu) or systemd-libs (Arch)
• Optional: OVMF/edk2 (UEFI), virt-viewer (SPICE-app), passt (networking), Looking Glass client (multi-GPU), polkit (bridge networking)

Cross-Distribution Compatibility

VM Curator automatically detects OVMF/UEFI firmware paths across Linux distributions:

• Arch Linux: /usr/share/edk2/x64/OVMF_CODE.4m.fd
• Debian/Ubuntu: /usr/share/OVMF/OVMF_CODE.fd
• Fedora/RHEL: /usr/share/edk2/ovmf/OVMF_CODE.fd
• NixOS: Multiple search paths supported
• And more...

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Contributing

Contributions are welcome! If you find a bug or have an idea for an improvement, feel free to open an issue or submit a Pull Request.

Help Wanted: ASCII Art As a TUI application, vm-curator relies on visual flair to stand out. I am specifically looking for help with:

• Logo/Banner Art: A cool ASCII banner for the startup screen.
• Iconography: Small, recognizable ASCII/block character icons for the TUI menus (e.g., stylized hard drives, network cards, or GPU icons).

If you have a knack for terminal aesthetics, your PRs are highly appreciated!

Support & Maintenance Status

vm-curator was built to solve a specific, painful problem: getting high-performance, 3D-accelerated Linux VMs (via QEMU) without the overhead and complexity of libvirt or virt-manager.

This is a personal passion project that I am sharing with the community. While I use this tool daily and will fix critical bugs as I encounter them, please note:

• Development Pace: This project is maintained in my spare time. Feature requests will be considered but are not guaranteed.
• The "As-Is" Philosophy: The goal is a lean, transparent TUI. I prioritize stability and performance over comprehensive enterprise feature parity.

If this tool saved you time or helped you get 3D Acceleration working without having to resort to passthrough:

If you'd like to say thanks, you can support the project below. Donations are a "thank you" for existing work, not a payment for future support.

• GitHub Sponsors: Best for one-time contributions (Goes to the RTX-Pro 6000 fund!)
• Ko-fi: Buy me a coffee (or a generic energy drink).

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License

MIT