User Guide

Disks and installation media

QCOW2 disk creation, missing media support, and planned ISO handling.

In development

Disk creation exists; media does not

The current build creates a blank QCOW2 disk for each machine. It does not select ISO images, download images, verify checksums or signatures, attach installation media, or install a guest operating system.

The VM lifecycle has local disk storage but no installation-media workflow. The two areas are documented together because they are both required before a machine can boot an installed guest.

Virtual disks today

Each machine definition records a disk path and size.
qemu-img creates a thin-provisioned QCOW2 image under vms/<machine-id>/disk.qcow2.
Existing disk files are never overwritten.
On Unix, the disk file is restricted to 0600 and the machine directory to 0700.
The Storage page provides a read-only inventory of disks recorded in machine definitions.
A missing disk is reported and prevents the machine from starting.

Storage limits

Disk size is validated between 1 and 1,024 GiB and against the free space reported on the application data filesystem. These are current implementation limits, not guarantees about guest capacity or performance.

Not implemented

Resizing, deleting, or compacting virtual disks.
Attaching an existing disk to a machine.
Inspecting disk usage inside the guest.
Selecting local ISO images or attaching boot media.
Downloading operating system images or maintaining a media catalogue.
Verifying checksums or signatures.
Installing a guest operating system.

No guest images are bundled

Wave VM will not include complete guest operating system images in the installer. Managed downloads and a catalogue remain under consideration, not scheduled work.

See guest installation media and networking in the roadmap. The current QEMU launch does not attach an ISO or expose a guest network device.