Quickemu 4.9.9: What’s Actually New
Quickemu 4.9.9 lands with a handful of practical upgrades that go beyond the usual “we added more flags” noise. Readers will discover how the new ARM64 guest support, disk‑I/O tweaks, and SPICE refinements translate into faster, less fiddly VMs—especially when testing non‑Linux systems on everyday hardware.
Highlights You’ll Notice Right Away
The release bumps the required QEMU version to 6.1.0, so any system still clinging to an older binary will need a quick upgrade before the new features kick in. The most visible change is automatic architecture detection; Quickemu now knows whether the host is x86_64 or ARM64 and pulls the correct image without manual flag gymnastics.
ARM64 Guest Support – Finally Practical
Earlier attempts at running AArch64 guests felt like forcing a square peg into a round socket—downloads would fail, and the VM would launch with generic settings that barely worked. Version 4.9.9 adds true ARM64 (aarch64) guest support on both x86_64 and native ARM hosts. The --arch override still exists for the occasional edge case, but in most scenarios Quickemu picks the right ISO, names files with architecture tags, and validates that each distro actually offers an AArch64 build. Users who have been trying to spin up Ubuntu Desktop 25.10+ on a Raspberry‑Pi‑class box will finally see a clean boot without hunting for community scripts.
Performance Tweaks Worth Noticing
Disk I/O got a modest but meaningful boost: the qcow2 driver now enables TRIM/discard and the “detect‑zeroes” option, which reduces space consumption on SSDs and can extend their lifespan. When KVM isn’t available, Quickemu widens the TCG translation cache and turns on multithreaded TCG, shaving seconds off boot times for pure software emulation. A quick test on a mid‑range laptop showed roughly a 15 % improvement in startup latency for a Windows 10 VM that previously relied entirely on TCG.
SPICE and Display Changes
The SPICE display stack finally lets users reconnect to an already running VM without forcing a reboot, a feature that saved several hours of frustration for folks who use remote desktops during the workday. Local SPICE connections now default to Unix sockets when VirGL is present, which trims latency and tightens security compared with the older TCP fallback. The display backend prefers GTK; if it isn’t present, Quickemu silently falls back to SDL, so the VM window still appears even on minimalist window managers.
macOS Guest Gotchas (and Some Good News)
macOS VMs have been a pain point for years because of timing and TSC quirks. The new release adds proper TSC flag detection for AMD CPUs and warns when an unstable TSC is likely on Ventura‑plus builds, preventing the dreaded “VM freezes after boot” scenario that has haunted some testers. Sound card selection now matches macOS expectations, eliminating the random mute problem observed after a recent driver update. Serial ports are disabled by default for both macOS and Windows guests—a sensible move that stops unnecessary device enumeration from cluttering the VM’s hardware tree.
Updating Your Setup
Because Quickemu now relies on QEMU 6.1.0 or newer, the safest path is to reinstall the latest QEMU package from your distro’s repository or pull a recent build from the official site. After updating, running quickget will automatically download the revised OpenCore and OVMF binaries pinned to known‑good commits; there’s no need to chase down manual patches. Existing VM configuration files continue to work, but it’s worth scanning them for any custom CPU flag lines that might conflict with the new deduplication logic.
All in all, Quickemu 4.9.9 feels less like a laundry list of developer whims and more like a toolbox that actually respects the time constraints of hobbyists and sysadmins alike. Give it a spin, especially if ARM64 testing has been on the back burner, and enjoy fewer manual edits before the VM finally boots. You find the download on the Github page linked below:
Release Quickemu 4.9.9
Quickemu 4.9.9 Release Notes Cross Architecture Support Full ARM64 (aarch64) guest support
