22.3. GNOME Boxes

Boxes is a lightweight graphical desktop virtualization tool used to view and access virtual machines and remote systems.

Unlike virt-viewer and remote-viewer, Boxes allows viewing guest virtual machines, but also creating and configuring them, similar to virt-manager. However, in comparison with virt-manager, Boxes offers fewer management options and features, but is easier to use.

To install Boxes, run:

yum install gnome-boxes

# yum install gnome-boxes

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Open Boxes through Applications ⇒ System Tools.

The main screen shows the available guest virtual machines. The right side of the screen has two buttons:

- the search button, to search for guest virtual machines by name, and
- the selection button.

Clicking the selection button allows you to select one or more guest virtual machines in order to perform operations individually or as a group. The available operations are shown at the bottom of the screen on the operations bar:

Operations bar. From left to right: favorite, pause, delete, properties.

Figure 22.3. The Operations Bar

There are four operations that can be performed:

Favorite: Adds a heart to selected guest virtual machines and moves them to the top of the list of guests. This becomes increasingly helpful as the number of guests grows.
Pause: The selected guest virtual machines will stop running.
Delete: Removes selected guest virtual machines.
Properties: Shows the properties of the selected guest virtual machine.

Create new guest virtual machines using the New button on the left side of the main screen.

Procedure 22.1. Creating a new guest virtual machine with Boxes

Click New
This opens the Introduction screen. Click Continue.

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Figure 22.4. Introduction screen
Select source
The Source Selection screen has three options:
- Available media: Any immediately available installation media will be shown here. Clicking any of these will take you directly to the Review screen.
- Enter a URL: Type in a URL to specify a local URI or path to an ISO file. This can also be used to access a remote machine. The address should follow the pattern of protocol://IPaddress?port;, for example:
  
  spice://192.168.122.1?port=5906;
  
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  The protocols can be spice://, qemu://, or vnc://
- Select a file: Open a file directory to search for installation media manually.
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Figure 22.5. Source Selection screen
Review the details
The Review screen shows the details of the guest virtual machine.

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Figure 22.6. Review screen
These details can be left as is, in which case proceed to the final step, or:
Optional: customize the details
clicking Customize allows you to adjust the configuration of the guest virtual machine, such as the memory and disk size.

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Figure 22.7. Customization screen
Create
Click Create. The new guest virtual machine will open.