Creating a domain
Space n opens the new domain wizard. It collects what virt-install needs
in six steps and shows the resulting command at the bottom, highlighting the
part that belongs to the current step. The command shown is the one that
runs.
| Step | Fields |
|---|---|
| 1. Name & OS | name, OS variant (osinfo), title, description |
| 2. Install media | local ISO, URL install tree with kernel arguments, PXE, import an existing disk, or none |
| 3. CPU & memory | vCPUs and maximum, CPU model, memory and maximum, balloon, hugepages |
| 4. Storage | a new disk (pool, size, format, bus) or an existing image |
| 5. Network | a virtual network (or none), NIC model, fixed or automatic MAC |
| 6. Review & create | firmware (UEFI or BIOS), secure boot, TPM 2.0, graphics, start after creation, open viewer, autostart |
The left column lists the steps with a one-line summary each and a checklist of what still blocks creation, such as a missing name or ISO path.
Keys
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
Tab, ↓, Ctrl-j | next field |
Shift-Tab, ↑, Ctrl-k | previous field |
| letters, digits | type into text and number fields |
Backspace | delete the last character |
Ctrl-w | clear the field |
h / l, ← / → | change a choice, or adjust a number by 1 |
H / L | adjust a number by 10 |
Space | toggle a check box or cycle a choice |
Ctrl-n / Ctrl-p | next / previous step |
Enter | next step; on the last step, create the domain |
Ctrl-y | copy the virt-install command |
Ctrl-e | edit the generated XML in your editor, then define it |
Ctrl-r | reset the wizard to its defaults |
Esc | close; the draft is kept |
In text fields every printable key types, including h, l and y.
Defaults and the OS variant
A new wizard starts with 2 vCPUs (maximum 4), 4 GiB of memory (maximum 8 GiB), a 20 GiB qcow2 virtio disk in the first active pool, a virtio NIC on the first active network, UEFI firmware and SPICE graphics.
Leave the OS field empty and virsh-tui guesses it from the ISO file name
(Fedora, Arch Linux, Ubuntu and Debian are recognised). Otherwise it passes
--osinfo detect=on,require=off and lets virt-install detect it from the
media. virt-install --osinfo list shows the accepted names.
Creating
Enter on the last step checks the form. If something is missing, the
wizard jumps to the step that needs it and says what is wrong. Otherwise it
runs virt-install … --noautoconsole against the current connection.
- With “start after creation” off, virsh-tui asks
virt-installfor the XML (--print-xml) and defines the domain without booting it. - With “open viewer” on, the graphical viewer opens once the domain starts.
Errors from virt-install are shown in the wizard, so you can fix the field
and try again.
Drafts
The wizard saves a draft on every change and when you close it. The next
Space n restores it. A successful creation deletes the draft; Ctrl-r
starts over. The draft lives in ~/.local/state/virsh-tui/wizard-draft.toml.