Re: Emulating Raspberry Pi in Windows the easy way

[sundansx]

touche', I would have to agree.
I am not familar with QEMU at all, but I am with vmware and vbox. I understand what you are saying. i will look at how to configure QEMU as a bridged network.
I will post details of how I did this so others can follow.

Note:
I think that it would be useful for people to post instructions on how to do stuff like this, as opposed to mentioning it in passing...there might be a lot of kids that are using the emulator soon given the contest (I am not one of them) and I think that the kids that are using the emulator are already at a disadvantage to those that have real hardware. They should have waited until they actually shipped some more volume to start a contest. Chicken and egg, I suppose.
thanks.

[Joe Schmoe]

I agree with you, but TBH, I'm not a QEMU maven. In fact, like you, I'm more familiar with VMWare than anything (never have used VBox).

But, and here's the thing, I actually didn't know that QEMU could (and did) do the "private network on 10.x.y.z" thing. When I set it up (on Windows), I used "-net nic -net if=TAP" (or something like that - haven't checked lately) and it just magically did the "bridging" thing.

[sundansx]

That's fine. I wasn't targeting you specifically. I just saw several posts that mentioned things in passing but did not explain how to do them or how to find out. I will admit, having to do that research would be good for the kiddies, but if they spend a bunch of their time doing that stuff, they will be at a disadvantage to other competitors.
Just a thought. Thanks very much for you help.

[ferrymanr]

Two weeks ago I managed to get the wheezy image working in the emulator. Since then I have installed various software packages, expanded the image to almost fill a 4GB SD card and run the expanded image in the emulator and finally write it to a new SD card. On 11th. I received an e-mail from Farnell to say that my order had been shipped. Today it arrived I'm pleased to say my SD card booted without error and all my extra installed packages are intact and ready to go. My thanks to mjlally for enabling all the preparation with his easy emulator.
Richard (Dick) G4BBH

[mjlally]

LATEST UPDATE

I will be uploading new zip folders for debian squeeze and wheezy with the latest qemu for windows, next day or two, depending on when I am next near fast internet.

Sorry for the delay, very busy at the moment.

The latest qemu seems to have normal colour and networking working so far. Anybody have any thoughts about which to make the main download? Any of you who have used wheezy and squeeze, which would be more suitable for kids without a pi who want to use qemu to enter the programming competition?

[Joe Schmoe]

What's a "zip folder"???

It sounds dangerous to me. Like a zip gun or something.

[Ocean20]

I installed Oracle VirtualBox and then installed the Debian squeeze and ran it in the virtual machine and got it to work like a RPi. That was fun. There was a video that explained how to do it and it was at www.debianperu.org/archives/1050

[mjlally]

What's a "zip folder"???

It sounds dangerous to me. Like a zip gun or something.

I'm sure you know what I meant Joe, but just in case anybody else is confused, when I say zip folder I mean a folder or directory and all of its contents, that has been compressed and saved as a .zip file.

On a more flippant note, it would be dangerous not to store your zip files in a zip folder, all the different lengths and different size teeth, not to mention the different zippers, would get mixed up and you'd have quite a tough job matching everything up!

[mjlally]

I installed Oracle VirtualBox and then installed the Debian squeeze and ran it in the virtual machine and got it to work like a RPi. That was fun. There was a video that explained how to do it and it was at http://www.debianperu.org/archives/1050

Sounds interesting. Does VirtualBox emulate the ARM architecture or just the operating system?

[davidb]

Ware is the link to download?

[Joe Schmoe]

I installed Oracle VirtualBox and then installed the Debian squeeze and ran it in the virtual machine and got it to work like a RPi. That was fun. There was a video that explained how to do it and it was at http://www.debianperu.org/archives/1050

Sounds interesting. Does VirtualBox emulate the ARM architecture or just the operating system?

I've never understood (seriously!) why people bring in VirtualBox to this discussion. You don't need it and it doesn't accomplish anything (because, as people will tell you by-and-by, Virtualbox (and VMWare similarly) only emulate x86 (on x86)). They do not emulate ARM (unlike QEMU, which does).

Since the title of this thread is "Emulating Raspberry Pi in Windows the easy way", it is off-topic to talk about doing it the hard way (with VBox and/or VMWare). That is, the "easy way" refers specifically to running QEMU-compiled-for-MicrosoftWindows directly under MicrosoftWindows, without anything else getting in the way.

[JeffreySun]

The simulation works on my win 7 OS. Attach some pictures if you want to preview the result priort to run it.


Figure 1 - configure


Figure 2 - login successfully



Figure 3 - GUI

[gyeben]

Hi!

I found that in your qemu/run.bat file the emulated CPU is set to arm1136-r2, whether it should be rather set to arm1176.

[mjlally]

Hi!

I found that in your qemu/run.bat file the emulated CPU is set to arm1136-r2, whether it should be rather set to arm1176.

Hi there, that seemed to work best.

I am testing Raspian on the latest qemu for windows at the moment, it is looking good, the issue with the colours is resolved (the raspberry logo is no longer blue!). I have tried both arm1136 and arm1136-r2 with raspian and it seems to work with both.

Should be uploaded tomorrow sometime. Until then I have a couple of screen shots which will go up here soon.

If you want to experiment, I would love to hear how it goes.

[mjlally]

I installed Oracle VirtualBox and then installed the Debian squeeze and ran it in the virtual machine and got it to work like a RPi. That was fun. There was a video that explained how to do it and it was at http://www.debianperu.org/archives/1050

Sounds interesting. Does VirtualBox emulate the ARM architecture or just the operating system?

I've never understood (seriously!) why people bring in VirtualBox to this discussion. You don't need it and it doesn't accomplish anything (because, as people will tell you by-and-by, Virtualbox (and VMWare similarly) only emulate x86 (on x86)). They do not emulate ARM (unlike QEMU, which does).

Since the title of this thread is "Emulating Raspberry Pi in Windows the easy way", it is off-topic to talk about doing it the hard way (with VBox and/or VMWare). That is, the "easy way" refers specifically to running QEMU-compiled-for-MicrosoftWindows directly under MicrosoftWindows, without anything else getting in the way.

Just to satisfy my curiosity Joe, are you telling me off for going off topic!? And thanks for explaining to me what the title of the thread refers to, I had a vague idea when I started the thread but it is crystal clear now!!!

My personal view is that we should be somewhat flexible on what is and is not off topic, given that the thread is in the beginners section but then again I do not moderate the forum.

[mjlally]

Screen shots of Raspbian running in qemu on windows 7

[bursar]

Heh, I've just finished downloading your previously bundled files. Should I download the whole thing again once you put up the new version, or is there a shortcut I can take?

[mjlally]

I will upload the Raspbian in Windows Qemu folder to sourceforge tomorrow and a second folder without an OS image for any of you who have already downloaded Raspbian.

[mjlally]

Ware is the link to download?

This is the link
http://sourceforge.net/projects/rpiqemuwindows/

however the the folder containing Raspbian and a much improved qemu will be ready to download tomorrow if you can wait...

It should be up by 12 noon, British Summer Time(GMT+1).

[Wolfram23]

Gah, can't wait for that! I'll definitely spend some time on Raspbian this weekend, then. I've got 3 months to figure out what the heck I'm doing

Definitely excited to get this set up, though. I find nothing answers questions faster than trying it out first. That, and Google. Then forums.

Just gotta find the time to do it between fiberglassing sessions (hand made speaker boxes for my car).

Thanks for putting all this together.

[mjlally]

Hi!

I found that in your qemu/run.bat file the emulated CPU is set to arm1136-r2, whether it should be rather set to arm1176.

Misread your post..

The new version emulates arm1176 and has a new kernel compiled for arm1176.

Compressing now, will upload tonight if it is done any time soon.

[mjlally]

Uploading now, 11% done.

[mjlally]

Heh, I've just finished downloading your previously bundled files. Should I download the whole thing again once you put up the new version, or is there a shortcut I can take?

The new upload has the official Raspbian, the latest qemu for windows and a new kernel for arm1176.

If you have the old version it will contain the Debian Wheezy beta, an older qemu and a kernel compiled for arm1166-r2. You could download the folder I put up tomorrow without the operating system image in it which makes the download a lot smaller. You should be able to use your existing image in the new folder with a small edit to the run.bat file.

[mjlally]

Gah, can't wait for that! I'll definitely spend some time on Raspbian this weekend, then. I've got 3 months to figure out what the heck I'm doing

Definitely excited to get this set up, though. I find nothing answers questions faster than trying it out first. That, and Google. Then forums.

Just gotta find the time to do it between fiberglassing sessions (hand made speaker boxes for my car).

Thanks for putting all this together.

You're welcome. Other people have done most of the work, I've just put it together.

Just uploaded to sourceforge here
http://sourceforge.net/projects/rpiqemuwindows/

enjoy!

[Dilligaf]

Works good with the supplied image Unfortunately doesn't work with the raspbian xbmc image I get an error

Code: Select all

failed to open vchiq instance 

when it goes to load xbmc, any ideas or help? Has anyone else tried and failed or succeeded? Thanks for all your work.

Mike