# How do I use the qcow2 images?



## Toolforger (Feb 18, 2019)

Hi all,

I want to run FreeBSD 12.0 in a virtual machine on my Linux box.
I thought I could leverage the qcow2 images so I don't have to wait out the install routine, but after two days to mucking around with virt-install and virsh, I'm still not making any progress. (This libvirt stuff is drowning me: too many options, too little documentation on each of them, very little cross-referencing in the form of "this option is for doing $FOO, if you want to do $BAR please investigate that other option".)

Here's what I want to do:

I have FreeBSD-12.0-RELEASE-amd64.qcow2.
I want to leverage the qcow2 snapshot feature; in particular, I want the first boot to start off a snapshot so I can revert to a pristine image anytime.
I want to stick with shell commands as far as humanly possible. It's easier to log what I did that way.

I didn't try the qemu commands yet; should I switch to using these, or should I stick with the libvirt toolchain?


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## maurizio (Oct 27, 2019)

hello, I advice you to use Virtual Machine Manager (virt-manager) for your desktop-workstation. Command line tools like virt-install and virsh are nice and useful but a GUI like virt-manager is really helpful to speed up and simplify vm operations


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## SKull (Oct 27, 2019)

IIRC virsh and the other libvirt command line tools were documented well in RHEL 6.








						Virtualization Getting Started Guide Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 | Red Hat Customer Portal
					

The Red Hat Enterprise Linux Virtualization Getting Started Guide describes the basics of virtualization and the virtualization products and technologies that are available with Red Hat Enterprise Linux.




					access.redhat.com


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