Apologies in advance if I missed a required step & this is operator error as it is my first attempt to use QEMU/Debian. Running Guix on Debian 8.3, I set up qemu like this ... su apt-get update apt-get upgrade apt-get install qemu apt-get install qemu-kvm apt-get install libvirt-bin adduser g1 kvm adduser g1 libvirt ... then, as user g1, I checked that virsh commands work ... g1@e3b:~/dev/vms$ virsh list --all Id Name State ---------------------------------------------------- g1@e3b:~/dev/vms$ virsh --connect qemu:///system list --all Id Name State ---------------------------------------------------- g1@e3b:~/dev/vms$ virsh version --daemon Compiled against library: libvirt 1.2.9 Using library: libvirt 1.2.9 Using API: QEMU 1.2.9 Running hypervisor: QEMU 2.1.2 Running against daemon: 1.2.9 ... then, using this version of guix ... git branch -av | grep '* master' * master bae0636 bournish: Add 'wc' command. g1@e3b:~/dev/guix$ stat /home/g1/.config/guix/latest | grep File: File: ‘/home/g1/.config/guix/latest’ -> ‘../../dev/guix’ ... I tried making a guix vm ... g1@e3b:~/dev/vms$ guix system vm ../configs/c01system.scm --expose=$HOME --share=$HOME/tmp=/exchange --verbosity=1 ;;; note: source file /home/g1/.config/guix/latest/gnu/packages/screen.scm ;;; newer than compiled /home/g1/.config/guix/latest/gnu/packages/screen.go ;;; compiling /home/g1/.config/guix/latest/gnu/packages/screen.scm ;;; compiled /home/g1/.cache/guile/ccache/2.0-LE-8-2.0/home/g1/dev/guix/gnu/packages/screen.scm.go substitute: warning: failed to install locale: Invalid argument substitute: updating list of substitutes from 'http://hydra.gnu.org'... 100.0% The following derivations will be built: /gnu/store/jz6mlhlz7f5sp4g93spac69bxfjpjbqg-run-vm.sh.drv /gnu/store/5f6zfsx0fa0bzkl4ynqb1lf5pk3m4rfs-qemu-image.drv warning: failed to install locale: Invalid argument building path(s) `/gnu/store/nbppjjb2kkb17nr8jqas7hchkg669nv9-qemu-image' Formatting 'image.qcow2', fmt=qcow2 size=31457280 encryption=off cluster_size=65536 lazy_refcounts=off refcount_bits=16 Could not access KVM kernel module: Permission denied failed to initialize KVM: Permission denied Backtrace: In ice-9/boot-9.scm: 157: 10 [catch #t # ...] In unknown file: ?: 9 [apply-smob/1 #] In ice-9/boot-9.scm: 63: 8 [call-with-prompt prompt0 ...] In ice-9/eval.scm: 432: 7 [eval # #] In ice-9/boot-9.scm: 2401: 6 [save-module-excursion #] 4050: 5 [#] 1724: 4 [%start-stack load-stack #] 1729: 3 [#] In unknown file: ?: 2 [primitive-load "/gnu/store/kfakhvdns3vjpivw6pk0bkdqafywr9s9-qemu-image-builder"] In ./gnu/build/vm.scm: 127: 1 [load-in-linux-vm "/gnu/store/9yprr0vmwnpvlkr2a0jgylpf9py6cf83-linux-vm-loader" ...] In unknown file: ?: 0 [scm-error misc-error #f "~A ~S" ("qemu failed" "qemu-system-x86_64") #f] ERROR: In procedure scm-error: ERROR: qemu failed "qemu-system-x86_64" environment variable `PATH' set to `/gnu/store/nk0z0qs8g3i03jfyi6hr2rwnd9pg2qnv-qemu-minimal-2.6.0/bin:/gnu/store/34j2zmi69mqwrslpyizbi9mcxmn2hzgb-coreutils-8.24/bin' builder for `/gnu/store/5f6zfsx0fa0bzkl4ynqb1lf5pk3m4rfs-qemu-image.drv' failed with exit code 1 cannot build derivation `/gnu/store/jz6mlhlz7f5sp4g93spac69bxfjpjbqg-run-vm.sh.drv': 1 dependencies couldn't be built guix system: error: build failed: build of `/gnu/store/jz6mlhlz7f5sp4g93spac69bxfjpjbqg-run-vm.sh.drv' failed g1@e3b:~/dev/vms$ tia, - George