How do I use the qcow2 images?

Hi all,

I want to run FreeBSD 12.0 in a virtual machine on my Linux box.
I thought I could leverage the qcow2 images so I don't have to wait out the install routine, but after two days to mucking around with virt-install and virsh, I'm still not making any progress. (This libvirt stuff is drowning me: too many options, too little documentation on each of them, very little cross-referencing in the form of "this option is for doing $FOO, if you want to do $BAR please investigate that other option".)

Here's what I want to do:
  • I have FreeBSD-12.0-RELEASE-amd64.qcow2.
  • I want to leverage the qcow2 snapshot feature; in particular, I want the first boot to start off a snapshot so I can revert to a pristine image anytime.
  • I want to stick with shell commands as far as humanly possible. It's easier to log what I did that way.

I didn't try the qemu commands yet; should I switch to using these, or should I stick with the libvirt toolchain?
 
hello, I advice you to use Virtual Machine Manager (virt-manager) for your desktop-workstation. Command line tools like virt-install and virsh are nice and useful but a GUI like virt-manager is really helpful to speed up and simplify vm operations
 
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