The virt-manager on all almost every Linux distro, asks for password when it’s opened from the apps’ menu. It’s happens because libvirt runs as a root, and we need to be either root or get elevated privileges to access virtual machine managed via libvirt/KVM.

Adding $USER to libvirt Group

To fix this, make a libvirt group and add yourself to it.

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sudo usermod -aG libvirt $USER

• sudo Runs the command as root
• usermod System Utility to modify system account files
• -a/--append Append user to supplementary group(s), used only with -G
• -G/--groups When used with -a, it appends user to the supplementary group
• libvirt The name of the group being added
• $USER An environment variable expands to a logged-in username

Logout and log back in:

Run the following command in the terminal:

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groups

You can see the newly created libvirt group:

Removing $USER from libvirt Group

To remove yourself from the libvirt group:

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sudo gpasswd -d $USER libvirt

• gpasswd System utility to manage groups and their passwords
• -d/--delete Remove the user from the named group