Emulating raspbian with QEMU

[dhruvvyas90]

Hello,

I'm trying to emulate raspbian on QEMU and there're plenty of guides available on internet. However, every guide points to download qemu-linux kernel from link https://xecdesign.com/downloads/linux-qemu/kernel-qemu however, this link is dead and I was unable to find an alternative link. Is there any alternative link to the kernel or guide how to compile kernel from source ?

Thanks.

[ShiftPlusOne]

I plan to bring the site back up over the weekend.

[dhruvvyas90]

I plan to bring the site back up over the weekend.

Thanks a lot. I really appreciate it. However, out of curiosity, if someone were to compile his own kernel for rpi for qemu, is there any technical difference ? In other words, can I just take a working pi and use its kernel zImage to emulate rpi in qemu ? It might sound silly but I'm just kicking off with rpi and linux in general.

Thanks in advance.

[ShiftPlusOne]

Sorry, didn't get around to it.

However, out of curiosity, if someone were to compile his own kernel for rpi for qemu, is there any technical difference ? In other words, can I just take a working pi and use its kernel zImage to emulate rpi in qemu ? It might sound silly but I'm just kicking off with rpi and linux in general.

One of the tutorials I had was how to compile such a kernel, it should be cached somewhere. You can't just take the normal pi kernel, because it doesn't support the hardware emulated by qemu.

If you look around, you should be able to find plenty of kernels which will work under qemu. For example, google spits this page out https://people.debian.org/~aurel32/qemu/armhf/ , but I haven't tried it.

[dhruvvyas90]

I found cached webpages. Hope it would be useful to someone following the same track as mine.

https://web.archive.org/web/20131210001 ... -a-kernel/
https://web.archive.org/web/20131209235 ... ling-qemu/
https://web.archive.org/web/20131210001 ... with-qemu/
https://web.archive.org/web/20131210001 ... -easy-way/

[dhruvvyas90]

Meanwhile, I have made it available on this link. https://github.com/dhruvvyas90/qemu-rpi-kernel Hope it helps someone who stumbles across this thread. (Thanks to the Sandor Megyari for his answer [and link ] on http://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/qu ... -with-qemu)

[jjletho67]

Thank you very much!!!
I was going crazy in finding the right kernel image. Your image is working fine!
I followed this guide:
http://www.linux-mitterteich.de/fileadm ... p_2013.pdf
(but there are a lot of usefull guides on this theme)

I think it would be very usefull to have a sticky thread with an "official" guide to running raspbian inside qemu.

[polaco1782]

I have built a custom qemu kernel for raspbian Jessie. You can get a sources and a precompiled version on my github page:

https://github.com/polaco1782/raspberry-qemu

Thanks

[DougieLawson]

I have built a custom qemu kernel for raspbian Jessie. You can get a sources and a precompiled version on my github page:

https://github.com/polaco1782/raspberry-qemu

Thanks

Is there any way to get Qemu running with more than 256MB of RAM or multiple cores?

[polaco1782]

I have built a custom qemu kernel for raspbian Jessie. You can get a sources and a precompiled version on my github page:

https://github.com/polaco1782/raspberry-qemu

Thanks

Is there any way to get Qemu running with more than 256MB of RAM or multiple cores?

Not really sure about, but its hardcoded 256 on versatilepb kernel source file. Also not sure if just increasing it would work, because of memory mappings.

Thanks

[dhruvvyas90]

I have built a custom qemu kernel for raspbian Jessie. You can get a sources and a precompiled version on my github page:

https://github.com/polaco1782/raspberry-qemu

Thanks

Is there any way to get Qemu running with more than 256MB of RAM or multiple cores?

I heard that torlus' qemu allows you to emulate original rpi kernel (without versatilepb patch and separate compilation) and without RAM limited to 256 MB. I've not tested it myself but it sounds promising. Here is the link : https://github.com/Torlus/qemu/tree/rpi

[dhruvvyas90]

I have built a custom qemu kernel for raspbian Jessie. You can get a sources and a precompiled version on my github page:

https://github.com/polaco1782/raspberry-qemu

Thanks

@polaco1782: I tried to emulate but it enters into emergency mode giving me `[email protected]` prompt every time I try to boot.

I've made changes as you suggested on your readme file, ie, commented lines in `/etc/ld.so.preload`, changed `mmcblk0p` to `sda` in /etc/fstab`. Can you describe step by step what you did to make it work right ? It could be useful to other users as well.

Thanks.

Attached is the snapshot : (link: http://i.imgur.com/va8l51Z.png)



Update :

I was able to make it work by, commenting all the mmcblk entries in `/etc/fstab`. I was doing it wrong.

It works perfectly fine.

In order to make fresh jessie image to work, this needs to be done.

1. Mount .img file.
2. Comment any lines present in `/etc/ld.so.preload`. Save file.
3. Comment mmcblk entries from `/etc/fstab`. Save file.
4. Unmount.
5. Use that image to emulate qemu by `qemu-system-arm -kernel kernel-name -cpu arm1176 -m 256 -M versatilepb -serial stdio -append "root=/dev/sda2 rootfstype=ext4" -hda image-file-name.img`

[vortexvortex]

@dhruvvyas90

Hi. Watching this thread, I've been getting the same result as yourself. su - pi and startx seems to work relatively well from that point, but I still don't seem to get a clean boot ...

Mounting the image and checking issues:

Code: Select all

mount -t auto -o loop,offset=$((122880*512)) 2015-09-24-raspbian-jessie.img /mnt/rpi

cat /mnt/rpi/etc/ld.so.preload 
#/usr/lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/libarmmem.so

# cat /mnt/rpi/etc/fstab 
proc            /proc           proc    defaults          0       0
#/dev/mmcblk0p1  /boot           vfat    defaults          0       2
#/dev/mmcblk0p2  /               ext4    defaults,noatime  0       1
/dev/sda1  /boot           vfat    defaults          0       2
/dev/sda2  /               ext4    defaults,noatime  0       1

I also got warnings from my distro version of qemu (Fedora 22) stating I should explicitly configure raw format for the img file mount. I've tried qemu invocation as you have suggested, as well as

Code: Select all

qemu-system-arm -kernel kernel-qemu-4.1.7-jessie -cpu arm1176 -m 256 -M versatilepb -serial stdio -append "root=/dev/sda2 panic=1 rootfstype=ext4 rw" -drive format=raw,file=2015-09-24-raspbian-jessie.img

I've also tried both your github kernel image as well as @polaco1782's, with the same result.

Any pointers/tips appreciated.

[dhruvvyas90]

@dhruvvyas90

Hi. Watching this thread, I've been getting the same result as yourself. su - pi and startx seems to work relatively well from that point, but I still don't seem to get a clean boot ...

Mounting the image and checking issues:

Code: Select all

mount -t auto -o loop,offset=$((122880*512)) 2015-09-24-raspbian-jessie.img /mnt/rpi

cat /mnt/rpi/etc/ld.so.preload 
#/usr/lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/libarmmem.so

# cat /mnt/rpi/etc/fstab 
proc            /proc           proc    defaults          0       0
#/dev/mmcblk0p1  /boot           vfat    defaults          0       2
#/dev/mmcblk0p2  /               ext4    defaults,noatime  0       1
/dev/sda1  /boot           vfat    defaults          0       2
/dev/sda2  /               ext4    defaults,noatime  0       1

I also got warnings from my distro version of qemu (Fedora 22) stating I should explicitly configure raw format for the img file mount. I've tried qemu invocation as you have suggested, as well as

Code: Select all

qemu-system-arm -kernel kernel-qemu-4.1.7-jessie -cpu arm1176 -m 256 -M versatilepb -serial stdio -append "root=/dev/sda2 panic=1 rootfstype=ext4 rw" -drive format=raw,file=2015-09-24-raspbian-jessie.img

I've also tried both your github kernel image as well as @polaco1782's, with the same result.

Any pointers/tips appreciated.

@vortexvortex

DO NOT ADD `/dev/sda` entries in fstab. Just comment `mmcblk` entries and you're good to go. Ie, your fstab should look like this,

Code: Select all

proc            /proc           proc    defaults          0       0
#/dev/mmcblk0p1  /boot           vfat    defaults          0       2
#/dev/mmcblk0p2  /               ext4    defaults,noatime  0       1

It should boot right into desktop without any hassles. Also, ignore that raw image warnings. At first I also thought, that it has something to do with not booting it properly.

You should be able to emulate it with,

Code: Select all

qemu-system-arm -kernel kernel-qemu-4.1.7-jessie -cpu arm1176 -m 256 -M versatilepb -serial stdio -append "root=/dev/sda2 panic=1 rootfstype=ext4 rw" -hda 2015-09-24-raspbian-jessie.img

Hope it helps.

[vortexvortex]

@dhruvvyas90

Hi. Watching this thread, I've been getting the same result as yourself. su - pi and startx seems to work relatively well from that point, but I still don't seem to get a clean boot ...

Mounting the image and checking issues:

Code: Select all

mount -t auto -o loop,offset=$((122880*512)) 2015-09-24-raspbian-jessie.img /mnt/rpi

cat /mnt/rpi/etc/ld.so.preload 
#/usr/lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/libarmmem.so

# cat /mnt/rpi/etc/fstab 
proc            /proc           proc    defaults          0       0
#/dev/mmcblk0p1  /boot           vfat    defaults          0       2
#/dev/mmcblk0p2  /               ext4    defaults,noatime  0       1
/dev/sda1  /boot           vfat    defaults          0       2
/dev/sda2  /               ext4    defaults,noatime  0       1

I also got warnings from my distro version of qemu (Fedora 22) stating I should explicitly configure raw format for the img file mount. I've tried qemu invocation as you have suggested, as well as

Code: Select all

qemu-system-arm -kernel kernel-qemu-4.1.7-jessie -cpu arm1176 -m 256 -M versatilepb -serial stdio -append "root=/dev/sda2 panic=1 rootfstype=ext4 rw" -drive format=raw,file=2015-09-24-raspbian-jessie.img

I've also tried both your github kernel image as well as @polaco1782's, with the same result.

Any pointers/tips appreciated.

@vortexvortex

DO NOT ADD `/dev/sda` entries in fstab. Just comment `mmcblk` entries and you're good to go. Ie, your fstab should look like this,

Code: Select all

proc            /proc           proc    defaults          0       0
#/dev/mmcblk0p1  /boot           vfat    defaults          0       2
#/dev/mmcblk0p2  /               ext4    defaults,noatime  0       1

It should boot right into desktop without any hassles. Also, ignore that raw image warnings. At first I also thought, that it has something to do with not booting it properly.

You should be able to emulate it with,

Code: Select all

qemu-system-arm -kernel kernel-qemu-4.1.7-jessie -cpu arm1176 -m 256 -M versatilepb -serial stdio -append "root=/dev/sda2 panic=1 rootfstype=ext4 rw" -hda 2015-09-24-raspbian-jessie.img

Hope it helps.

Thanks! Works like a charm. Now to see how far I can push with getting 1Mb memory working & maybe KVM/libvirt ...

[trojanspike]

I created a qemu cli to help me created minibian images ::

https://github.com/trojanspike/qbian

[leighma]

I have built a custom qemu kernel for raspbian Jessie. You can get a sources and a precompiled version on my github page:

https://github.com/polaco1782/raspberry-qemu

Thanks

sorry to interrupt . i am following your github. to clone the git and checkout , but seems check out failed.
fatal check out failed and need to run " git checkout -f HEAD"

i am not even programmer, i am a hardware guy. so still trying to get the Raspberry Pi jessie qemu working.
could you please be more specific ?

Many thanks in advanced!

leigh

[cil8]

I followed all your instructions and tried all your kernels, but I invariably get a kernel panic as in the screenshot attached.

I'm running Ubuntu 15.04 and qemu 2.2.0.

Any hints?

Thanks!

[furansa]

Hi everyone.

Some of you already tried to run Raspberry Pi with QEmu using the virt manager interface (www.virt-manager.org)?

I've search on the Internet but just found old information.

My virt-manager (running on Debian 8) have the arm option with some boards like cubieboard but no RPi board.

I'll appreciate with someone could share some experience.

Thanks in advance, best regards.

[mc007ibi]

someone has a more updated article? I tried now 4-5 articles from the internet but they all fail.