How To Install virtinst on Debian 12

Learn how to install virtinst on Debian 12 with this tutorial. virtinst is utilities to create and edit virtual machines

Introduction

In this tutorial we learn how to install virtinst on Debian 12.

What is virtinst

virtinst is:

This package contains some command line utilities to create and edit virtual machines:

  • virt-clone: cloning existing inactive guests; it copies the disk images, and defines a config with new name, UUID and MAC address pointing to the copied disks
  • virt-install: provision operating systems into new virtual machines
  • virt-xml: easily edit libvirt domain XML using virt-install’s command line options

There are three methods to install virtinst on Debian 12. We can use apt-get, apt and aptitude. In the following sections we will describe each method. You can choose one of them.

Install virtinst Using apt-get

Update apt database with apt-get using the following command.

sudo apt-get update

After updating apt database, We can install virtinst using apt-get by running the following command:

sudo apt-get -y install virtinst

Install virtinst Using apt

Update apt database with apt using the following command.

sudo apt update

After updating apt database, We can install virtinst using apt by running the following command:

sudo apt -y install virtinst

Install virtinst Using aptitude

If you want to follow this method, you might need to install aptitude first since aptitude is usually not installed by default on Debian. Update apt database with aptitude using the following command.

sudo aptitude update

After updating apt database, We can install virtinst using aptitude by running the following command:

sudo aptitude -y install virtinst

How To Uninstall virtinst on Debian 12

To uninstall only the virtinst package we can use the following command:

sudo apt-get remove virtinst

Uninstall virtinst And Its Dependencies

To uninstall virtinst and its dependencies that are no longer needed by Debian 12, we can use the command below:

sudo apt-get -y autoremove virtinst

Remove virtinst Configurations and Data

To remove virtinst configuration and data from Debian 12 we can use the following command:

sudo apt-get -y purge virtinst

Remove virtinst configuration, data, and all of its dependencies

We can use the following command to remove virtinst configurations, data and all of its dependencies, we can use the following command:

sudo apt-get -y autoremove --purge virtinst

Dependencies

virtinst have the following dependencies:

References

Summary

In this tutorial we learn how to install virtinst package on Debian 12 using different package management tools: apt, apt-get and aptitude.