quick-docs/en-US/qemu.adoc

= How to use qemu

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[[how-to-use-qemu]]
How to use QEMU
---------------

QEMU is a very flexible virtualization technology however it is quite
slow and it is recommended that you understand and evaluate alternative
solutions before picking this one. Refer to
link:Getting_started_with_virtualization[Getting started with
virtualization]

[[qemu]]
Qemu
~~~~

QEMU is a generic and open source processor emulator which achieves a
good emulation speed by using dynamic translation.

QEMU has two operating modes:

* Full system emulation. In this mode, QEMU emulates a full system (for
example a PC), including a processor and various peripherials. It can be
used to launch different Operating Systems without rebooting the PC or
to debug system code.
* User mode emulation (Linux host only). In this mode, QEMU can launch
Linux processes compiled for one CPU on another CPU.

[[download]]
Download
~~~~~~~~

QEMU is available on Fedora repository. It can be installed by using
link:dnf[DNF]:

....
$ su -c "dnf install qemu"
....

Or with YUM:

....
$ su -c "yum install qemu"
....

[[qemu-commands-since-f]]
Qemu commands since F?+
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To discover the qemu commands that are installed perform the following:

....
$ ls /usr/bin/qemu-*
....

In the following examples where "qemu" is, substitute your command for
executing qemu. E.g.

....
qemu-system-i386
....

or

....
qemu-i386
....

Of course, this does not apply to "qemu-img".

[[qemu-virtual-machine-installation]]
Qemu virtual machine installation
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Create the virtual image for the system:

....
$ qemu-img create fedora.qcow 5G
....

Of course you are not obliged to take 5GB.

Note: Even if you take 10GB this does NOT mean that the image does
really HAVE the size of 10GB. It just means that your new system is
limited up to 10GB - if the new system takes only 1,2 GB also the image
will only be at 1,2GB.

now let's install the OS. Put in the install CD and type into your
konsole (all in one line without break):

....
$ qemu -cdrom /dev/cdrom -hda fedora.qcow -boot d -net nic -net user -m 196 -localtime
....

"-user -net" is important to have internet access within your new
system. "-m 196" is the Set virtual RAM size (megabytes), default is 128
MB, I chose 196.

The install may take some time. After the install, qemu will try to boot
the new OS itself. Maybe this may fail (was the case for me) - but don't
worry. If that happens: just close the qemu window and type the
following command into your konsole to launch your new OS:

....
$qemu fedora.qcow -boot c -net nic -net user -m 196 -localtime
....

[[testing-iso-images]]
Testing ISO Images
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Type, in the proper directory

....
$ qemu -m 512M -cdrom <isoname>.iso
....

[[debugging]]
Debugging
~~~~~~~~~

To get kernel output dumped to a file outside the virtual system, add
e.g. "-serial file:/tmp/qemu-output.log" to the qemu command line. When
booting the virtual system, add "console=ttyS0" to the kernel boot
parameters.

This output is particularly helpful if you are having trouble booting
the system, in which case you may also wish to remove "rhgb" and "quiet"
from the kernel boot parameters.

Category:How_to
'''

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