KVM on Debian 12, tested on the N100 Mini PC.

Some of these tools will require an X11 server which can be VxSrv on Windows, for example.

apt install --no-install-recommends qemu-system libvirt-clients libvirt-daemon-system virt-viewer virtinst virt-manager qemu-utils

Add login to group(s).

Debian says add your login to group libvirt and other guides recommend group kvm as well. The latter group requirement is unknown.

adduser `login' libvirt
adduser `login' kvm

Export the hostname of your X11 server and on that host allow access via xhost.

setenv DISPLAY excellent:0.0
virt-manager

VM storage

mkdir -p /opt/VM
chown 0:0 /opt/VM
chmod 1777 /opt/VM

ISO storage

mkdir -p /opt/ISO
cd /opt/ISO
wget https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current/amd64/iso-dvd/debian-12.4.0-amd64-DVD-1.iso
sha256sum debian-12.4.0-amd64-DVD-1.iso
3a85e04f0bbdf7ba0cdd7537dd781c583f70754db67e5a757f113442cade56ea  debian-12.4.0-amd64-DVD-1.iso

Interactive

This example uses a fixed MAC address.

#! /bin/sh

export PATH=/bin:/sbin

NAME="debian12"
DVD="/opt/ISO/debian-12.4.0-amd64-DVD-1.iso"
DISK="/opt/VM/${NAME}.qcow2,size=20,format=qcow2"

virsh destroy ${NAME}
virsh undefine ${NAME}
rm -f ${DISK}

virt-install \
--name "${NAME}" \
--ram 1024 \
--disk path="${DISK}" \
--vcpus 1 \
--os-variant debian11 \
--network bridge=br0,mac=02:00:c0:a8:00:6e \
--graphics none \
--console pty,target_type=serial \
--location "${DVD}" \
--extra-args 'console=ttyS0'

Non interactive

Append the following to the interactive script above

--initrd-inject preseed.cfg --noautoconsole --wait

This preseed file uses a fixed IP address.

preeseed.cfg

virsh list --all

virsh start debian12

virsh autostart debian12

virsh console debian12

virsh shutdown debian12

NB there are optional modes

virsh destroy debian12

virsh undefine debian12

Debian KVM

virt-install examples