qemu_essentials.md

QEMU essential commands

Observations

• KVM acceleration is for Linux machines
• HVF acceleration is for MacOS Hypervisor.Framework

qemu-img options explained

• -f specify disk format
  • VDI/HDD bla bla VirtualBox and VMWare formats
  • qcow2, qed, qcow - QEMU specific formats qcow2 is the latest and greatest (the others are deprecated)

qemu-system-x86_64 explained

• -smp number of processors
• -cdrom iso image to boot from
• -hda disk image to boot from
• -m amount of RAM
• -vga type of virtual graphic card
• -machine what kind of virtual machine
  • q35 newer virtual chipset
  • accel virtualization acceleration support
    • KVM for linux/windows(?) host OS
    • HVF for MacOS Hypervisor.Framework
• -device adds a device driver
  • types of devices
    • controller/bridge/hub
    • USB
    • storage
    • network
    • input
    • display
    • sound
    • misc/uncategorised
    • CPU
    • watchdog
  • sample
    • e1000,netdev=net0 Intel Gigabit Ethernet with ID net0
• -netdev configure network backend with ID 'str'
  • user,id=net0,hostfwd=tcp::5555-:22
    • id identity of the network backend
    • hostfwd has format hostip:hostport-guestip:guestport hence tcp : :555 - :22

Full e1000 options

e1000 options:
  acpi-index=<uint32>    -  (default: 0)
  addr=<int32>           - Slot and optional function number, example: 06.0 or 06 (default: -1)
  autonegotiation=<bool> - on/off (default: true)
  bootindex=<int32>
  extra_mac_registers=<bool> - on/off (default: true)
  failover_pair_id=<str>
  init-vet=<bool>        - on/off (default: true)
  mac=<str>              - Ethernet 6-byte MAC Address, example: 52:54:00:12:34:56
  migrate_tso_props=<bool> - on/off (default: true)
  mitigation=<bool>      - on/off (default: true)
  multifunction=<bool>   - on/off (default: false)
  netdev=<str>           - ID of a netdev to use as a backend
  rombar=<uint32>        -  (default: 1)
  romfile=<str>
  romsize=<uint32>       -  (default: 4294967295)
  x-pcie-extcap-init=<bool> - on/off (default: true)
  x-pcie-lnksta-dllla=<bool> - on/off (default: true)

Creating a new virtual disk

qemu-img create -f qcow2 disk.qcow 10G

Booting up with the ISO disk inserted

qemu-system-x86_64
    -hda disk.qcow
    -cdrom ubuntu_qemu_mini.iso
    -smp 2
    -machine type=q35,accel=hvf
    -m 4G
    -vga virtio

Booting up normally

qemu-system-x86_64
    -hda disk.qcow
    -smp 2
    -machine type=q35,accel=hvf
    -m 4G
    -vga std

Booting up with network

qemu-system-x86_64
    -hda disk.qcow
    -smp 2
    -machine type=q35,accel=hvf
    -m 4G
    -vga std
    -device e1000,netdev=net0
    -netdev user,id=net0,hostfwd=tcp::5555-:22