How to install and configure a QEMU aarch64-linux installation. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Last updated 30 April 2015 This gives a fairly usable, and not entirely slow, arm64-linux install. It has the advantage that the idle loop works right and so when the guest becomes idle, qemu uses only very little host cpu, so you can leave the guest idling for long periods without bad performance effects on the host. More or less following https://gmplib.org/~tege/qemu.html, section 14 (for arm64) Build qemu-2.2.1 with --target-list including aarch64-softmmu mkdir Arm64-2 cd Arm64-2 wget http://d-i.debian.org/daily-images/arm64/daily/netboot/debian-installer/arm64/linux wget http://d-i.debian.org/daily-images/arm64/daily/netboot/debian-installer/arm64/initrd.gz # Note. 6G is easily enough to install debian and do a build of Valgrind. # If you envisage needing more space, now is the time to choose a larger # number. /path/to/Qemu221/bin/qemu-img create disk6G.img 6G /path/to/Qemu221/bin/qemu-system-aarch64 \ -M virt -cpu cortex-a57 -m 256 \ -drive file=disk6G.img,if=none,id=blk -device virtio-blk-device,drive=blk \ -net user,hostfwd=tcp::5555-:22 -device virtio-net-device,vlan=0 \ -kernel linux \ -initrd initrd.gz \ -append "console=ttyAMA0 --" \ -nographic Do an install, be as vanilla as possible, allow it to create a user "username", and do not ask it to install any extra software. But, when you get to here ┌───────────────────┤ [!!] Finish the installation ├────────────────────┐ │ │ ┌│ Installation complete │ ││ Installation is complete, so it is time to boot into your new system. │ ││ Make sure to remove the installation media (CD-ROM, floppies), so │ ││ that you boot into the new system rather than restarting the │ ││ installation. │ ││ │ └│ │ │ │ └───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ do "Go Back" then in the next menu "Execute a shell", "Continue" This gives you a root shell in the new VM. In that shell: mount -t proc proc /target/proc mount --rbind /sys /target/sys mount --rbind /dev /target/dev chroot /target bash /etc/init.d/ssh start mv /boot/initrd.img-3.16.0-4-arm64 /boot/initrd.img-3.16.0-4-arm64.old echo virtio-mmio >>/etc/initramfs-tools/modules /usr/sbin/update-initramfs -c -k 3.16.0-4-arm64 Then on the host, copy out the files that the above created. cd Arm64-2 ssh -p 5555 username@localhost \ "tar -c -f - --exclude=lost+found /boot" | tar xf - Now back in the VM, we can finish the installation. exit exit Select "Finish the installation" Continue When it reboots, kill qemu from another shell, else it will try to reinstall. Now start the installation: /path/to/Qemu221/bin/qemu-system-aarch64 -M virt \ -cpu cortex-a57 -m 1024 -drive file=disk6G.img,if=none,id=blk \ -device virtio-blk-device,drive=blk -net user,hostfwd=tcp::5555-:22 \ -device virtio-net-device,vlan=0 -kernel boot/vmlinuz-3.16.0-4-arm64 \ -initrd boot/initrd.img-3.16.0-4-arm64 \ -append "root=/dev/vda2 rw console=ttyAMA0 --" -nographic Now you can ssh into the VM and install stuff as usual: ssh -XC -p 5555 username@localhost (on the guest) become root apt-get install make gcc g++ automake autoconf emacs subversion gdb Hack on, etc.