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Show HN: Lightweight tool for managing Linux virtual machines

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Re: Show HN: Lightweight tool for managing Linux virtual machines

#21

Post by indigodaddy »

imiric wrote: post #12
dangus wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems to me that in use cases like this, reliability and stability is so much more important than a nice lightweight UI. This project advertises a small single binary but that’s really a feature of Go, and the small size is a feature of the fact that this is a rushed vibecoded app. A typical HomeLab user (mentioned in this project as one of the primary audiences) is probably using something like Proxmox because it…

I do think that there's appeal in a single-binary tool that implements the core features of something like Proxmox. Proxmox is a complex project that requires dedicating an entire machine to it. I'm not familiar with Kimchi or Cockpit, but OP's claims sound reasonable. There are/were other even simpler tools like the similarly named flintlock, Incus, Lima, plain virsh, and many others. But most of them don't have a w…

Maybe this was a homegrown tool for managing VMs in their infuze platform and they decided to open source it? Speculation of course, as is your guesswork here too. Would be nice to hear a response from the OP.

Re: Show HN: Lightweight tool for managing Linux virtual machines

#22

Post by k_bx »

0x073 wrote: post #3
k_bx wrote: post #2

While I am using cockpit every time I need to remotely manage the machines, I couldn't get it to log me in via something other than user's login/password, which are not that safe, and it listens to 0.0.0.0 by default too. So I have to ssh into machine, start cockpit service, use it, and then stop the cockpit.socket once I finish. Would be great to have something which has its own users/passwords (to have strong passw…

I thought cockpit use pam, so you can use other pam modules to log in.

Can you explain a bit more? The user passwords are inherently not strong enough so I disable all ssh via password and only use private keys (id_ed25519). If cockpit allowed me to use one I'd be ok, but if they don't – I at least want some scary auto-generated password only for cockpit, not the system user's one (which is often very weak).

Re: Show HN: Lightweight tool for managing Linux virtual machines

#23

Post by jauntywundrkind »

It'd be cool to see a nice UI (like this) atop something a little better built out & defined like systemd-nspawn. Like Quadlet for containers, Nspawn for VMs is a nice base with tons of great capabilities & very standard management patterns. There's nice .nspawn files and drop ins, where config lies, and (semi) standard paths for mounts and machines. Having that stable standard base would raise my interest & confidence a lot.

This recent guide covers a ton of nitty gritty, down to baking your own vm images & doing everything by hand. But by half way through, it builda to using the nice machinectl cli that is the real meat of the experience. https://quantum5.ca/2025/03/22/whirlwind-tour-of-systemd-nsp...

Re: Show HN: Lightweight tool for managing Linux virtual machines

#24

Post by sergsoares »

k_bx wrote: post #2

While I am using cockpit every time I need to remotely manage the machines, I couldn't get it to log me in via something other than user's login/password, which are not that safe, and it listens to 0.0.0.0 by default too. So I have to ssh into machine, start cockpit service, use it, and then stop the cockpit.socket once I finish. Would be great to have something which has its own users/passwords (to have strong passw…

You can use a localhost Cockpit with SSH Port Forwarding.

> Configure Cockpit to listen only loopback/127.0.0.1[1]:

[Socket]

ListenStream= #This remove 0.0.0.0:9090 bind based on the docs

ListenStream=127.0.0.1:9090

> Execute in your machine a port forward with SSH[2]:

ssh -N -L 9090:127.0.0.1:9090 host@ip

> Then you can open localhost:9090 in your browser securely only using SSH (that is already part of your actual workflow).

[1]: https://cockpit-project.org/guide/latest/listen

[2]: https://coder.com/docs/code-server/guide#port-forwarding-via...

Re: Show HN: Lightweight tool for managing Linux virtual machines

#25

Post by paul_h »

jauntywundrkind wrote: post #23

It'd be cool to see a nice UI (like this) atop something a little better built out & defined like systemd-nspawn. Like Quadlet for containers, Nspawn for VMs is a nice base with tons of great capabilities & very standard management patterns. There's nice .nspawn files and drop ins, where config lies, and (semi) standard paths for mounts and machines. Having that stable standard base would raise my interest & confiden…

Oh,systemd-nspawn is very cool.

Re: Show HN: Lightweight tool for managing Linux virtual machines

#26

Post by paul_h »

imiric wrote: post #6

Hey, thanks for sharing. As someone who uses QEMU via rudimentary shell scripts, this looks interesting. Unfortunately, I'm reluctant to trust a 26KLOC vibe-coded app[1] for something like this, so I'll pass. But if a polished React/Next.js app, with a CLI, HTTP/WebSocket API, authentication, and libvirt integration, truly took you a couple of hours to produce, and it solves your problem, that's a commendable achieve…

I'd be less worried about Vibe coded if there were also comprehensive unit and component tests, but it looks like there is none

Re: Show HN: Lightweight tool for managing Linux virtual machines

#27

Post by natebc »

k_bx wrote: post #22
0x073 wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought cockpit use pam, so you can use other pam modules to log in.

Can you explain a bit more? The user passwords are inherently not strong enough so I disable all ssh via password and only use private keys (id_ed25519). If cockpit allowed me to use one I'd be ok, but if they don't – I at least want some scary auto-generated password only for cockpit, not the system user's one (which is often very weak).

so bind cockpit to 127.0.0.1 and use ssh port forwarding?

You could also have a more strict password policy but I don't know that I'd ever want to expose something like cockpit to the raw Internet.

Re: Show HN: Lightweight tool for managing Linux virtual machines

#28

Post by dangus »

moshib wrote: post #17
imiric wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do think that there's appeal in a single-binary tool that implements the core features of something like Proxmox. Proxmox is a complex project that requires dedicating an entire machine to it. I'm not familiar with Kimchi or Cockpit, but OP's claims sound reasonable. There are/were other even simpler tools like the similarly named flintlock, Incus, Lima, plain virsh, and many others. But most of them don't have a w…

I'm running Proxmox in my homelab. Although it's based on Debian, it doesn't lend itself to running tasks other than Proxmox itself. I, for one, would appreciate a KVM manager with web UI (Portainer for KVM, if you may) - but I'm reluctant to run something so vibe-coded.

I'm kinda confused here because Proxmox is a KVM manager with a web UI (and LXC containers).

Re: Show HN: Lightweight tool for managing Linux virtual machines

#29

Post by hamdouni »

_1tem wrote: post #5

The readme keeps using the word “manage” but what does it actually do? Does it create and start new VMs? Using dockerfiles? On the local host or other hosts? I don’t understand WTF this thing does.

This part of the readme may answer your questions :

# List your VMs

flint vm list --all

# Launch a new Ubuntu VM named 'web-01'

flint launch ubuntu-24.04 --name web-01

# SSH directly into your new VM

flint ssh web-01

# Create a template from your configured VM

flint snapshot create web-01 --tag baseline-setup

# Launch a clone from your new template

flint launch --from web-01 --name web-02

Re: Show HN: Lightweight tool for managing Linux virtual machines

#30

Post by imiric »

indigodaddy wrote: post #21
imiric wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do think that there's appeal in a single-binary tool that implements the core features of something like Proxmox. Proxmox is a complex project that requires dedicating an entire machine to it. I'm not familiar with Kimchi or Cockpit, but OP's claims sound reasonable. There are/were other even simpler tools like the similarly named flintlock, Incus, Lima, plain virsh, and many others. But most of them don't have a w…

Maybe this was a homegrown tool for managing VMs in their infuze platform and they decided to open source it? Speculation of course, as is your guesswork here too. Would be nice to hear a response from the OP.

> Maybe this was a homegrown tool for managing VMs in their infuze platform and they decided to open source it?

That would be the charitable interpretation, but there's no doubt that this was vibecoded[1]. Their claim was that they came up with this in a "couple of hours" when they needed it, not that they released something that was previously proprietary.

As for my second comment: none of it was speculative. The accounts and links are there, you can see for yourself. I obviously can't prove that this in particular is a scam, but it certainly doesn't put the project in good light when its authors are part of scam circles.

[1]: https://github.com/ccheshirecat/flint/blob/b49a90bc984f12857...

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