1 2 How to install and configure a QEMU aarch64-linux installation. 3 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 4 5 Last updated 30 April 2015 6 7 This gives a fairly usable, and not entirely slow, arm64-linux 8 install. It has the advantage that the idle loop works right and so 9 when the guest becomes idle, qemu uses only very little host cpu, so 10 you can leave the guest idling for long periods without bad 11 performance effects on the host. 12 13 More or less following 14 https://gmplib.org/~tege/qemu.html, section 14 (for arm64) 15 16 Build qemu-2.2.1 with --target-list including aarch64-softmmu 17 18 mkdir Arm64-2 19 cd Arm64-2 20 21 wget http://d-i.debian.org/daily-images/arm64/daily/netboot/debian-installer/arm64/linux 22 23 wget http://d-i.debian.org/daily-images/arm64/daily/netboot/debian-installer/arm64/initrd.gz 24 25 # Note. 6G is easily enough to install debian and do a build of Valgrind. 26 # If you envisage needing more space, now is the time to choose a larger 27 # number. 28 29 /path/to/Qemu221/bin/qemu-img create disk6G.img 6G 30 31 /path/to/Qemu221/bin/qemu-system-aarch64 \ 32 -M virt -cpu cortex-a57 -m 256 \ 33 -drive file=disk6G.img,if=none,id=blk -device virtio-blk-device,drive=blk \ 34 -net user,hostfwd=tcp::5555-:22 -device virtio-net-device,vlan=0 \ 35 -kernel linux \ 36 -initrd initrd.gz \ 37 -append "console=ttyAMA0 --" \ 38 -nographic 39 40 Do an install, be as vanilla as possible, allow it to create a user 41 "username", and do not ask it to install any extra software. But, 42 when you get to here 43 44 [!!] Finish the installation 45 46 Installation complete 47 Installation is complete, so it is time to boot into your new system. 48 Make sure to remove the installation media (CD-ROM, floppies), so 49 that you boot into the new system rather than restarting the 50 installation. 51 52 <Go Back> <Continue> 53 54 55 56 do "Go Back" 57 then in the next menu "Execute a shell", "Continue" 58 59 This gives you a root shell in the new VM. In that shell: 60 61 mount -t proc proc /target/proc 62 mount --rbind /sys /target/sys 63 mount --rbind /dev /target/dev 64 chroot /target bash 65 /etc/init.d/ssh start 66 mv /boot/initrd.img-3.16.0-4-arm64 /boot/initrd.img-3.16.0-4-arm64.old 67 echo virtio-mmio >>/etc/initramfs-tools/modules 68 /usr/sbin/update-initramfs -c -k 3.16.0-4-arm64 69 70 Then on the host, copy out the files that the above created. 71 72 cd Arm64-2 73 ssh -p 5555 username@localhost \ 74 "tar -c -f - --exclude=lost+found /boot" | tar xf - 75 76 Now back in the VM, we can finish the installation. 77 78 exit 79 exit 80 Select "Finish the installation" 81 Continue 82 83 When it reboots, kill qemu from another shell, else it will try to reinstall. 84 85 Now start the installation: 86 87 /path/to/Qemu221/bin/qemu-system-aarch64 -M virt \ 88 -cpu cortex-a57 -m 1024 -drive file=disk6G.img,if=none,id=blk \ 89 -device virtio-blk-device,drive=blk -net user,hostfwd=tcp::5555-:22 \ 90 -device virtio-net-device,vlan=0 -kernel boot/vmlinuz-3.16.0-4-arm64 \ 91 -initrd boot/initrd.img-3.16.0-4-arm64 \ 92 -append "root=/dev/vda2 rw console=ttyAMA0 --" -nographic 93 94 Now you can ssh into the VM and install stuff as usual: 95 96 ssh -XC -p 5555 username@localhost 97 98 (on the guest) 99 become root 100 apt-get install make gcc g++ automake autoconf emacs subversion gdb 101 102 Hack on, etc. 103