macOS-Simple-KVM/docs/guide-networking.md

Guide to Bridged Networking

Note: you don't need to set up bridged networking just to get internet access. With basic.sh you should be able to access the internet from MacOS automatically. However, the ICMP protocol (used for ping) is not supported with the default networking solution.

To set up bridged networking for the macOS VM, use one of the following methods:

Using /etc/network/interfaces

It is possible to create the bridge and tun/tap interfaces by adding the following lines to /etc/network/interfaces. Replace DEVICENAME with your ethernet card's device name, and MYUSERNAME with the user that is starting the VM.

auto br0
iface br0 inet dhcp
  bridge_ports DEVICENAME tap0

auto tap0
iface tap0 inet dhcp
  pre-up tunctl -u MYUSERNAME -t tap0

Using NetworkManager

You can use NetworkManager to control the bridge and tun/tap interfaces, by creating them with the following commands. Replace DEVICENAME with your ethernet card's device name.

Make the Bridge

nmcli connection add type bridge \
    ifname br1 con-name mybridge

Attach Bridge to Ethernet

nmcli connection add type bridge-slave \
    ifname DEVICENAME con-name mynetwork master br1

Make the Tun/Tap

nmcli connection add type tun \
    ifname tap0 con-name mytap \
    mode tap owner `id -u`

Attach Tun/Tap to Bridge

nmcli connection mod mytap connection.slave-type bridge \
    connection.master br1

Attach Bridge to QEMU

Once you have set up the bridge and tun/tap on the host, you'll have to add the following line to basic.sh, replacing -netdev user,id=net0. Change tap0 to your corresponding device name.

    -netdev tap,id=net0,ifname=tap0,script=no,downscript=no \

You can optionally use the vmxnet3 driver for higher performance compared to the default e1000. Note that replacing it requires macOS El Capitan or higher.

    -device vmxnet3,netdev=net0,id=net0,mac=52:54:00:c9:18:27 \

Using Netctl

You can also use netctl and the qemu bridge helper to control the bridge and tun/tap interfaces. Replace DEVICENAME with your ethernet card's device name.

Create netctl configuration file in /etc/netctl (f.e. /etc/netctl/kvm-bridge)

Description="Bridge Interface br10 : DEVICENAME"
Interface=br10
Connection=bridge
BindsToInterfaces=(DEVICENAME)
IP=dhcp
# If you want also for DHCPv6,uncomment below line
#IP6=dhcp

Activate netctl bridge handler with system boot

sudo netctl enable kvm-bridge

Create bridge whitelist file for qemu (/etc/qemu/bridge.conf)

allow br10

Attach Bridge to QEMU

Now you'll have to add the following line to basic.sh, replacing -netdev user,id=net0. Change br10 to your corresponding device name.

    -netdev bridge,br=br10,id=net0 \