W10 VM Bridged networking QEMU/KVM (External Switch)

Hi folks

Really SIMPLE way of getting Bridged networking to work in QEMU KVM for proper VM access to rest of your LAN -- equivalent to external switch in HYPER-V

Note you need to do this after re-boot from host each time --you can set a script etc for permanence but as I don't boot the Host very often this works fine.

1) disable any DHCP from the PHYSICAL NIC i.e set the DHCP to disabled

2) enter these commands now : assuming eth0 is your physical NIC you are using

brctl addbr br0
ifconfig eth0 0.0.0.0
brctl addif br0 eth0
dhclient br0

then hey presto you should see your bridge have an ip address (a real one) and the physical nic not have one.



Now in the Windows VM

set the nic to use shared device -- your bridge br0



it will now have a proper IP address on your LAN and this VM will be accessible to everything on your LAN (it can also access the rest of the LAN too)



I spent ages with all the quite complex answers on google and invariably ended up with a total mess --usually BOTH the physical NIC and the bridge (br0) having IP addresses so of course internet didn't work on host and VM !!!!!!!

You need to install dhclient -- ifconfig is also deprecated bit it still is easier for this type of simple command.

Cheers
jimbo