I installed fedora server. I set up opnsense in the VM. I told networkmanager on the host to treat the dual port NIC as unmanaged. I have the container grabbing up that NIC and routing traffic to WAN and LAN/vLANs. that part is done.

Now I want to add a virtual network between the OPNsense guest and the fedora host so that traffic from the host can reach the guest without having to pass through the physical network outside the box. I see no reason to make it leave the box just to come right back into the box again. This is where I’m stuck.

talking with friends, arguing with chatGPT hallucinations, I finally just tried winging it visually in the cockpit UI and got it working, but it didnt survive reboots and broke again. From what I can tell, networkmanager and libvirt had a dispute over who managed a bridge. A lot of the stuff I’m finding on this was vague or meant for traffic flowing in the other direction. and I’m struggling to wrap my head around this.

How do I create a virtual network between my OPNsense guest and Fedora server host for the host and containers to reach the internet, LAN and VLANs through?