Another type of virtualization I have used lately is LXD. I am on Ubuntu and installed using a snap. It will run containers and VMs. Worth a look in the future maybe. VirtualBox is a good place to start.
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Yes VM’s have their own BIOS, but I have never seen anything about secure boot? Virtmanager defaults to a legacy bios and an msdos partition table.
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Ok. yes that might be it but i looked in my pcs bios and the secure boot even if i disable it stands on auto mode and i don’t know how to disable it and i dont want to mess up my bios so it gets unstable
when i install a distro in boxes i can chose uefi or legazy bios
There is a checkbox -Customize configuration before install - during setup of new VM. It will let you choose firmware. Virtmanager does attempt to auto pick depending on what you tell it you are setting up.
The choices are usually something like: (i added examples)
- Old OS / simplicity → BIOS (SeaBIOS)
- Linux, don’t care about Secure Boot → OVMF_CODE_4M.fd
- Windows 11 → OVMF_CODE_4M_ms.fd (Secure Boot required, MS keys pre-loaded)
- Linux with Secure Boot (shim-based distros) or want to manage your own keys → OVMF_CODE_4M_secboot.fd
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i cant find any of those examples in boxes
Ok, i know where you mean. Thanks.
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I doubt if Boxes can do that.
I did say that Boxes was the least capable VM choice.
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Is LXD very advanced or is it easy to work with ?
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It isn’t as easy to work with as VirtualBox. There is a web management interface that makes things easier. I don’t think the Copilots and ChatGPTs of the world have the best, up to date information on it.
For evaluating different distros maybe VirtualBox is better. LXD is good for running services in the background like Plex or a website.
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Ok. Thank you very much pdecker.
my opinion- VirtualBox (like @pdecker suggested) is hard to beat if you are a beginner - Easy interface and is very configurable. As you might of noticed, gnome boxes, virt-manager, LXD (to an extent) are just wrappers (little help programs) for qemu/kvm. Qemu/KVM from command line gives you the most versatility- but is very complicated for beginners.
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Ok. Thank you.
My vote is for Virt-Manager after trying Boxes and VirtualBox.
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Ok. how is Virt-Manager ?
Virt-Manager
Is the one I lean towards when i am not doing qemu/kvm by cli (command line interface). A little more complicated than virtualbox (not much though) and it helps you learn more about what is going on behind the scene.
@cat-man What is your Host (actual computer) running? which linux or Mirocosoft Windows etc…
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i got cachyos as main and endeavor os on separate 1 tb nvme ssd disks. but want to find another instead of endeavouros since they are both arch
Just a FYI. If you are unsure if your computer has secure boot on or not you should be able to type mokutil --sb-state on the command line (terminal) and it will tell you.
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I just tried the command and mokutil command could not be found. but i think its on as it stands in auto mode
