Run QEMU on a headless host

Question

I am not sure if anyone has been stupid enough to try something like this or if I am just really bad at using Google. I would like a host OS that would be a linux, say Arch Linux, and I would like to run a guest that is Windows XP. I would not like to run Windows XP directly on the hardware.

Although what I am wondering is possible is if I can have QEMU or some other virtual machine software autostart on a headless host, and display a fullscreen window on the monitor, almost as if it were just booting into the guest.

Is this feasible or is the only way to do something like this just to install Windows XP on the hardware? If so, is there a guide to this?

Answer 1

Setup the linux host to autologin a user and that user launches the XP VM in full screen mode. The host itself cannot be "headless" since it controls the screen.

If you do not need changes saved in the guest, then perhaps you want to PXE Boot your XP image.

Answer 2

I am running a Linux host (archlinux) that autostart a vm without any user logged on the host.

I have no screen on the host, and am doing gpu passthrough for guest (Linux gaming vm)

So yes you can.

I am now thinking about removing dedicated host GPU to have only one dedicated to the guest. I use ssh to control host, and virt-manager from my own computer to create/manage vms on the host.