How to Install Kubernetes in a QEMU VM?

TL;DR — This guide walks through installing QEMU on Linux Mint, creating an Ubuntu 26.04 Server VM with dual networking, and bootstrapping a single-node Kubernetes cluster inside it. Why I have been doing all my virtualization work with Oracle VirtualBox. It works great, but it is time to switch to a more professional tool: QEMU. QEMU can do everything VirtualBox does and more. It can emulate ARM architecture on x86, offers better performance, and is fully open source. In this guide I will create a VM with Ubuntu 26.04 and bootstrap a Kubernetes cluster inside it.