GitHub

Install & build

No download.
Build the lifecycle.

Wave VM has no public release artifacts yet. You can build the current desktop lifecycle from source to create machine definitions, QCOW2 disks, run QEMU, and open a loopback noVNC console.

Build from source Open the repository
No release artifacts exist. There is no installer, tagged release, published version, or checksum to download. Do not use an unofficial build that claims to be an official Wave VM release.

From source

Run the current build

The desktop application is a Tauri 2 project. The frontend is static; the Rust backend owns host detection, VM persistence, disk creation, and the QEMU process lifecycle.

Install the prerequisites first. Rust, Node.js, npm, and the Tauri 2 Linux system libraries are required. QEMU and qemu-img are required for VM operations; a usable KVM device is optional and enables hardware acceleration.

git clone https://github.com/somemorewater/waveVM.git
cd waveVM
npm install
npm run dev

npm run dev launches the Tauri application. Do not opensrc/index.html directly in a browser; the frontend requires the Tauri desktop shell.

Build a binary

To compile a release binary without producing an installer bundle, run:

npx tauri build --no-bundle

The release binary is written under src-tauri/target/release/. This is not a public release or a supported installer.

Expectations

What the build does today

The current milestone implements a real VM lifecycle, but not a complete virtual machine manager. These lists describe the inspected build.

Implemented

  • Desktop window and persistent multi-page frontend.
  • Host diagnostics and local data paths.
  • QEMU and qemu-img discovery with version probing.
  • Linux KVM verification through /dev/kvm.
  • VM definitions with validated resources.
  • Thin-provisioned QCOW2 disk creation.
  • QEMU start and stop with QMP control.
  • Loopback noVNC guest console.
  • Schema-v2 local configuration with atomic writes.

Not implemented

  • Guest OS installation, ISO selection, or media attachment.
  • Guest networking.
  • Editing or deleting machine definitions.
  • Reset, pause, or snapshot controls.
  • Windows and macOS host support.
  • Public releases, installers, or checksums.

The lifecycle currently requires a Linux x86_64 host and supports x86_64 guests only. A created disk is blank until an operating system is installed in a future milestone.

If setup fails, see Troubleshooting or the prerequisites.