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With Boxes, you can run two or more virtual machines at the same time-if your computer can handle it.Kali Linux is a Debian-derived Linux distribution designed for digital forensics and penetration testing. You can also open the virtual machine in a new window. Cloning virtual machines is useful for testing out different changes to a base virtual environment. In the main window, you can force shutdown, clone, delete, and reconfigure your VMs. You can also shut down the operating system within the VM to save your work. If you did not shut down your VM while doing this, it will continue to run in the background.
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You can test and play around with the virtual machine to suit your needs.Ĭlick the Arrow button in the top-left corner at any time to return to Boxes' main window. Once you've installed the OS on your virtual machine, you can use the VM as if it were a separate desktop. If you're following this guide by setting up an Ubuntu VM of your own, then most of the steps of our Ubuntu installation guide will apply. Once the VM boots up, you'll need to install the OS if you opted out of an Express Installation. Note that while the Flatpak version tends to receive fast updates, it lacks the feature to let virtual machines access USB drives. You can also install Boxes through Flatpak. To install Boxes this way, use one of these commands:įor Debian/Ubuntu users: sudo apt install gnome-boxesįor Fedora users: sudo dnf install gnome-boxesįor Arch users: sudo pacman -S gnome-boxes If your distro doesn't come with Boxes, then it should be available on your distro's official repositories. Both are just two of many more QEMU-based VM emulators.īoxes is built into GNOME-based Linux distributions like Fedora. GNOME Boxes also features a sleek GNOME-based user interface. It's also great for those who want to emulate operating systems without any fuss. Meanwhile, Boxes is perfect for newer virtual machine users.
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Virt-manager is great for power users who want to get the most performance out of their VMs. While both are graphical VM apps based on QEMU, Boxes prefers the ease of use over virt-manager's many customization options. GNOME's VM tool may remind you of a similar app called virt-manager. QEMU's free, open-source, and cross-platform nature helps make it a reliable virtualization tool. QEMU serves as a great alternative to other popular virtualization apps like VirtualBox and VMware. GNOME Boxes in particular is a graphical implementation of the open-source virtual machine emulator QEMU. You can also use Boxes to set up a Windows virtual machine if you've just made the switch to Linux, but still have some tasks that you need to do on Windows. Apps like Boxes allow users to run virtual machines or emulated operating systems, within their desktops.īoxes is very useful if you're a distro hopper who wants to try out other Linux-based distributions. Boxes is an easy-to-use virtualization tool built for the GNOME desktop environment.
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