FreeBird, FreeSpirit and Creative Differences

From 2024/04 thru 06, Quickemu underwent major changes

The differences between Quickemu versions 4.9.2 thru 4.9.5 are sizeable and significant.

The release numbering may not indicate much but thousands of lines changed, as well as general commands, the API and the overall capabilities. 628 commits in total .... qe-4 92 94-changes-628

TO KEEP qqX STABLE, built-in releases were introduced from qqX version 1.8 onwards. All of these are based on official code and checked as working.

qqX built-in code may be viewed here as in the qqX quickemu fork, as branches

Builtins

Choice of 3 easy-swap rolling release models: Leading Edge, Standard or Slow:

Named versions are generally as follows:

FreeSpirit - As FreeBird, or as FreeBird but more spirited, with newer ideas and fixes if they are EXPECTED TO BE STABLE. Probably includes some official pre-release, or qqX and Community pre-release, or both.
FreeBird - Based on time tested FreeSpirit or on official code. Generally tested as STABLE. Contains the usual qqX additions and tweaks. May contain a few official pre-release improvements.
HomeBird - An older FreeBird release. Just in case of the unforeseen ....

Plus:

Echo - An older official quickemu release. Should generally work with qqX. May be useful?
System - The latest official quickemu release, as it is on the system. Use with caution. New releases can often have problems.

And:

Custom/Dev - Your own customised or development version. See the notes towards the end of the settings file.

REMAINS CLOSELY CONNECTED TO THE QUICKEMU SOURCE and QUICKEMU COMMUNITY

But protected from any unexpected API or code changes
And with bonus community contributions as and when needed

Example of a qqX fix

nested-vms-ubuntu-running-garuda-running-manjaro

The Quickemu problem, where telescoped/nested VM grind to a halt, doesn't happen when using the qqX builtins ....

Exclusive Quickget fixes

@ Jan 2025 A new branch, quickget-distro-fixes-2025 contained exclusive fixes for multiple distro downloads. This was later merged and further development work was moved to qqX's quickemu fork as better way of tracking upstream. See the latest FreeSpirit branch for details.

Quickget Mods

@ July 2025 a new QuickGet overlay scripting method was introduced and opened up whole new dimensions.

FreeSpirit adds in a FAST new Checksum and Iso check routine:

quickget --version
4.9.7

quickget --check opensuse
FAIL: opensuse-16.0                       https://download.opensuse.org/distribution/leap/16.0/iso/openSUSE-Leap-16.0-DVD-x86_64-Current.iso
PASS: opensuse-15.6                       https://download.opensuse.org/distribution/leap/15.6/iso/openSUSE-Leap-15.6-DVD-x86_64-Current.iso
PASS: opensuse-15.5                       https://download.opensuse.org/distribution/leap/15.5/iso/openSUSE-Leap-15.5-DVD-x86_64-Current.iso
PASS: opensuse-15.4                       https://download.opensuse.org/distribution/leap/15.4/iso/openSUSE-Leap-15.4-DVD-x86_64-Current.iso
PASS: opensuse-15.3                       https://download.opensuse.org/distribution/leap/15.3/iso/openSUSE-Leap-15.3-DVD-x86_64-Current.iso
PASS: opensuse-15.2                       https://download.opensuse.org/distribution/leap/15.2/iso/openSUSE-Leap-15.2-DVD-x86_64-Current.iso
PASS: opensuse-15.1                       https://download.opensuse.org/distribution/leap/15.1/iso/openSUSE-Leap-15.1-DVD-x86_64.iso
PASS: opensuse-15.0                       https://download.opensuse.org/distribution/leap/15.0/iso/openSUSE-Leap-15.0-DVD-x86_64.iso
FAIL: opensuse-aeon                       https://mirrorcache.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/appliances/iso/opensuse-aeon.x86_64.iso
PASS: opensuse-microos                    https://download.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/iso/openSUSE-MicroOS-DVD-x86_64-Current.iso
PASS: opensuse-tumbleweed                 https://download.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/iso/openSUSE-Tumbleweed-DVD-x86_64-Current.iso

quickget --version
4.9.7

qqX.builtins/freespirit$ ./quickget --version
FS 4.9.8.06

qqX.builtins/freespirit$ ./quickget --full-check opensuse

Checksum: PASS   Iso: PASS   opensuse-leap-Gnome             https://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-current/live/openSUSE-Leap-15.6-GNOME-Live-x86_64-Media.iso  585cf7cfe23454324ff188b95c01bdcb26e7dd3dc139389cfe8e8b0705c3e089
Checksum: PASS   Iso: PASS   opensuse-leap-KDE               https://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-current/live/openSUSE-Leap-15.6-KDE-Live-x86_64-Media.iso  8b386e4fc04b6921b35302464b4f60ca2a8835f8a40b749b7e8eb995625c793f
Checksum: PASS   Iso: PASS   opensuse-leap-XFCE              https://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-current/live/openSUSE-Leap-15.6-XFCE-Live-x86_64-Media.iso  5fa12124b87b36de79323d2a53c63087d1b87b9f58afc404bb656c0b14a64581
Checksum: PASS   Iso: PASS   opensuse-leap-Rescue            https://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-current/live/openSUSE-Leap-15.6-Rescue-CD-x86_64-Media.iso  4d6cb3b937af3c44f3e10e097b38fe390bf07f576062f1059188e84dd3ee9462
Checksum: PASS   Iso: PASS   opensuse-leap-micro-current     https://download.opensuse.org/distribution/leap-micro-current/product/iso/openSUSE-Leap-6.1-x86_64-Current.iso  0fb4f6d628563c63443ffb4dd2e42e6d45f0a7f9e6e6f2611e1208717cbb26be
Checksum: PASS   Iso: PASS   opensuse-slowroll-DVD           https://download.opensuse.org/slowroll/iso/openSUSE-Slowroll-DVD-x86_64-Build33.3-Media.iso  a2fe4344f459f5d9b02e43c991ba82e0d6fbaf139e9754a015ce0ebe23dcfe4b
Checksum: PASS   Iso: PASS   opensuse-tumbleweed-DVD         https://download.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/iso/openSUSE-Tumbleweed-DVD-x86_64-Current.iso  a251a3a044ead89481410865307a6e8373c36921cd800a369f942f2bf9df8d71
Checksum: PASS   Iso: PASS   opensuse-tumbleweed-Gnome       https://download.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/iso/openSUSE-Tumbleweed-GNOME-Live-x86_64-Current.iso  34f6131af8795304f3410335671a2f7b4f12a76adf1b802d90a7f274d346059f
Checksum: PASS   Iso: PASS   opensuse-tumbleweed-KDE         https://download.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/iso/openSUSE-Tumbleweed-KDE-Live-x86_64-Current.iso  6a3da08a14f3df1fcc66da6249f87c97355914e7c447e38dadaf8e6897a519b2
Checksum: PASS   Iso: PASS   opensuse-tumbleweed-XFCE        https://download.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/iso/openSUSE-Tumbleweed-XFCE-Live-x86_64-Current.iso  37183f2249cca0caf85fec6f109d5b0377cbfecb74b7a6c7684ccd01ce49bb40
Checksum: PASS   Iso: PASS   opensuse-tumbleweed-Rescue      https://download.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/iso/openSUSE-Tumbleweed-Rescue-CD-x86_64-Current.iso  2f34739867111ec8259ee5c704c664bb71ad88db62fc4d115801ab89f10cc820

See the Quickget Mods script located in the FreeSpirit builtin folder for the latest changes and for easy community code contributions.

Floatversion

The use of floatversion also allows qqX to make easy adjustments to Quickget that are not possible with standard Quickemu.

# the latest is:
floatversion -M "$(curl -sLf  "https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/archive/" | grep 'src=')"
12.6.0

# the latest three are:
floatversion -M 3 "$(curl -sLf  "https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/archive/" | grep 'src=')"
12.6.0  12.5.0  12.4.0

# the oldest is:
floatversion --rev -M "$(curl -sLf  "https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/archive/" | grep 'src=')"
3.0

Hash Checker: https://github.com/TuxVinyards/qqX/commit/9f08af90f3bec3e929d4aae08f2191e5c0dd958b#comments

Endeavour: https://github.com/TuxVinyards/qqX/commit/e63a356cdefcd6023106768044d3e65bb534edf4

Mint: https://github.com/TuxVinyards/qqX/commit/ed78262e304e50585bb5e56ef546c6c7f7f60de9

Spiral: https://github.com/TuxVinyards/qqX/commit/d35f882af090006903c2c8ce575b8c155a2e3939

Bodhi: https://github.com/TuxVinyards/qqX/commit/c6b46589866ac322e1063b236e5220e61ec2ab2d

Lite: https://github.com/TuxVinyards/qqX/commit/aa7d0203873cfeba5c2dc3c997fcb1d38ed34e63

More fixes, and fixes to the fixes, were added in April 2025:

qqX-downstream-fixes-at-apr25

Further reading on the MacOS tweaks see this quickemu code commit and this issue comment

Creative Differences

qqX offers Quickemu users another option and should be seen as a complementary addition.

Users should be offered a choice and be allowed to decide.

qqX-on-the-quickemu-wiki

There was a qqx listing on the Quickemu wiki pages

This should probably be reinstated on the basis that people keep their distance and stay away from each others issue pages.

But more independence can also mean that you get a faster moving program that is not being held back, so maybe not ??

And, given that you managed to find your way here to these pages, and that qqX will support virtual machines created using QuickEmu or QuickGUI, it may be that everything will work out fine in the end ....