VM Manager

Manage QEMU/KVM virtual machines from the Noctalia bar: a live running/total widget, a panel with start/shutdown/suspend/resume/force-off/console actions, and per-VM libvirt autostart (start on boot).

Plugin

Field	Value
ID	tiobaka/vm-manager
Entries	Bar widget: status; panel: manager; service: vms

Requirements

Install virsh (libvirt client) and virt-viewer (for the Console button) on PATH.

• The libvirt daemon must be running: sudo systemctl enable --now libvirtd.
• Your user must be in the libvirt group, then re-login: sudo usermod -aG libvirt $USER.
• The VMs must live on the configured connection (default qemu:///system). Check with virsh -c qemu:///system list --all. VMs on the session connection are not visible unless you change the connect_uri setting.

Usage

Add the bar widget with type = "tiobaka/vm-manager:status" to a bar. It shows running/total (e.g. 1/2) and turns into a red err glyph when libvirt is unreachable; the tooltip explains why.

• Left click opens the manager panel.
• Right click (or middle click) opens the VM Manager settings, where the poll interval and libvirt connection URI can be changed.

Open the panel:

noctalia msg panel-toggle tiobaka/vm-manager:manager

The panel lists one card per VM with state-aware actions:

• running → Shutdown, Suspend, Force Off, Console
• paused → Resume, Force Off, Console
• shut off → Start

Right-click the gear button on each card to open the Autostart menu:

• Autostart on boot — start this VM whenever libvirtd starts (system boot). Toggles on/off.
• Autostart once (next boot) — start on the next libvirtd start only (virsh autostart --once).

The gear shrinks and dims while the VM is running but stays clickable. Disabling autostart also clears a pending once flag.

Settings

Setting	Type	Default	Description
poll_interval	int	3	Seconds between VM state polls.
connect_uri	string	qemu:///system	The libvirt connection to manage (e.g. qemu:///system, qemu:///session, or a remote URI).

IPC

The service also answers events from the shell:

noctalia msg plugin tiobaka/vm-manager:vms all refresh
noctalia msg plugin tiobaka/vm-manager:vms all autostart myvm
noctalia msg plugin tiobaka/vm-manager:vms all autostart-disable myvm
noctalia msg plugin tiobaka/vm-manager:vms all autostart-once myvm

Notes

• Spawns virsh list --all (and virsh list --all --autostart) on every poll interval, and virsh once per action. Launches virt-viewer for the Console button. No network access, no data written outside of libvirt's own config.
• Autostart is libvirt's native mechanism: it fires when libvirtd starts (i.e. at system boot), not at login. To start VMs at login instead, use a systemd --user unit — a different mechanism than this toggle.
• Autostart only applies to persistent (defined) domains.
• Errors are explained in the widget tooltip / panel banner and in notifications (e.g. libvirtd not running, user not in the libvirt group, unknown VM name).