How to start most minimal VM (no PCI) with a network to log in over SSH?

[Paul Menzel]

Dear QEMU folks,


I’d like to start the most minimal VM possible, but still want to be 
able to log in over SSH. With QEMU 7.2.1 the command below fails, as I 
am passing an incompatible NIC model:

    $ qemu-system-x86_64 -M 
microvm,x-option-roms=off,pit=off,pic=off,isa-serial=off,rtc=off 
-enable-kvm -cpu host -m 32G -smp 32 -nodefaults -no-user-config 
-nographic -device virtio-rng-device -chardev stdio,id=virtiocon0 
-device virtio-serial-device -device virtconsole,chardev=virtiocon0 
-drive id=root,file=debian.img,format=raw,if=none -device 
virtio-blk-device,drive=root -nic user,model=virtio-net-pci -net 
user,hostfwd=tcp::22224-:22
    qemu-system-x86_64: warning: hub 0 with no nics
    qemu-system-x86_64: warning: netdev #net029 has no peer
    qemu-system-x86_64: warning: requested NIC (anonymous, model 
virtio-net-pci) was not created (not supported by this machine?)

What NIC model should be used instead?

    $ qemu-system-x86_64 -nic model=help
    Supported NIC models:
    e1000
    e1000-82544gc
    e1000-82545em
    e1000e
    i82550
    i82551
    i82557a
    i82557b
    i82557c
    i82558a
    i82558b
    i82559a
    i82559b
    i82559c
    i82559er
    i82562
    i82801
    ne2k_pci
    pcnet
    rtl8139
    tulip
    virtio-net-pci
    virtio-net-pci-non-transitional
    virtio-net-pci-transitional
    vmxnet3

If that is not the right approach, it’d be great if you told me the 
alternative.


Kind regards,

Paul