Kudu is a terminal user interface for creating and managing QEMU virtual machines on Linux.
It offers a keyboard-driven alternative to graphical applications such as virt-manager and GNOME Boxes. Unlike virt-manager, Kudu does not depend on libvirt and instead works directly with QEMU and related virtualization components.
Kudu can operate with KVM hardware acceleration when it is available, but virtual machines can still run without KVM. It supports multiple guest architectures and provides facilities for creating, editing, starting and controlling virtual machines directly from its terminal interface.
This is free and open source software.
Key Features
- Does not require libvirt.
- Create new virtual machines from within the interface.
- Edit existing virtual machine configurations.
- Delete virtual machines with confirmation.
- Start, pause and resume virtual machines.
- Stop or forcibly kill running virtual machines.
- Preview virtual machines from the terminal interface.
- Supports QEMU x86, AArch64 and RISC-V system emulators.
- Uses KVM hardware acceleration when available.
- Continues to operate when KVM is unavailable.
- Cloud-init support using xorriso.
- UEFI firmware support for supported architectures.
- Uses passt for virtual machine networking.
- Configure networks using different network-interface and backend combinations.
- Supports configuring port forwarding.
- Vim-style and arrow-key navigation within the terminal interface.
Website: github.com/pythops/kudu
Support:
Developer: Badr Badri
License: GNU General Public License v3.0
Kudu is written in Rust. Learn Rust with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
Related Software
| Virtualization Tools | |
|---|---|
| VirtualBox | Powerful x86 and AMD64/Intel64 virtualization software |
| Quickemu | Wrapper for QEMU that automatically “does the right thing” |
| QEMU | Machine emulator and virtualizer |
| Boxes | View, access, and manage remote and virtual systems |
| virt-manager | Desktop tool for managing virtual machines via libvirt |
| Incus | Secure and powerful system container and virtual machine manager |
| Quickgui | Gaphical user interface for the Quickemu virtual machine manager. |
| Cassowary | Run Windows virtual machine on Linux |
Read our verdict in the software roundup.
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