Prerequisites:
- A PC with a Linux distribution - Arch Linux
amd64used here
Dependencies (for Arch Linux amd64 but very easy to get on most distros):
edk2-armvirt(or a prebuilt firmware binary from the Unofficial EDK2 nightly build project)qemu-arch-extra(provides the commandqemu-system-aarch64)wget(or any downloader)gvim(or any editor)openssh(or QEMU console)
- Download the Arch Linux ARM generic tarball and create an image, replacing
60Gwith your desired maximum size.
wget http://os.archlinuxarm.org/os/ArchLinuxARM-aarch64-latest.tar.gz
qemu-img create -f qcow2 arch-aarch64.qcow2 60GTip
Step 1 equivalent for Debian guest:
wget https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/release/current/arm64/iso-dvd/debian-12.7.0-arm64-DVD-1.iso
wget https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/release/current/arm64/iso-dvd/SHA256SUMS
shasum -a 256 --ignore-missing -c SHA256SUMS
qemu-img create -f qcow2 debian-aarch64.qcow2 60GUsers of Debian guest should now skip to step 7.
- Become
root, connect the image tonbdand partition it withfdisk.
sudo modprobe nbd
sudo qemu-nbd --connect=/dev/nbd0 arch-aarch64.qcow2
sudo fdisk /dev/nbd0- then
g(to create a new GPT partition table) - then
n(to create a new partition), then Enter twice, then+400Mand Enter - then
t(to change the type), then1for EFI System Partition - then
nand Enter three times, thenwto write changes and exit
- Format the partitions of the image, mount them, and extract the Arch Linux ARM tarball to them.
sudo mkfs.vfat /dev/nbd0p1
sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/nbd0p2
sudo mkdir rootfs
sudo mount /dev/nbd0p2 rootfs
sudo mkdir rootfs/boot
sudo mount /dev/nbd0p1 rootfs/boot
sudo bsdtar -xpf ArchLinuxARM-aarch64-latest.tar.gz -C rootfs- Edit
fstab.
- You will need both partitions' UUIDs - the UUID of the
vfatpartition in/dev/nbd0p1looks likeUUID="XXXX-XXXX"and the UUID of theext4partition in/dev/nbd0p2looks likeUUID="XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX":
sudo blkid
- Then, edit
rootfs/etc/fstab:
sudo vim rootfs/etc/fstab
- Paste the following, replacing each instance of
Xwith the corresponding digit of the UUID of the corresponding partition,/dev/nbd0p1and/dev/nbd0p2respectively, then save the file:
/dev/disk/by-uuid/XXXX-XXXX /boot vfat defaults 0 0
/dev/disk/by-uuid/XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX / ext4 defaults 0 0
- Create
startup.nsh, which is read by the UEFI firmware to initially boot.
- Edit
rootfs/boot/startup.nsh:
sudo vim rootfs/boot/startup.nsh- Paste the following, replacing each instance of
Xwith the corresponding digit of the UUID of the/dev/nbd0p2partition, then save the file:
Image root=UUID=XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX rw initrd=\initramfs-linux.img
- Unmount the partitions,
sync, disconnect the image fromnbd, and exit therootshell.
sudo umount -R rootfs
sudo sync
sudo qemu-nbd --disconnect /dev/nbd0
sudo rmmod nbd- Create flash images for the UEFI firmware and variables
Note
if you downloaded the RELEASEAARCH64_QEMU_EFI.fd instead of using the one from your distro's package, use that here in place of the QEMU_CODE.fd. AARCH64_QEMU_EFI.fds (which are installed into "flash0.img" here) can very slowly become slightly outdated over time. After using one with an Arch Linux ARM emulator for several years, then installing a new emulator from scratch and comparing its behavior with the old one, I've noticed very slight, subtle differences in behavior between them in the pre-boot stage before guest OS code runs. I would say the newer one's behavior seems slightly more polished and desirable.
truncate -s 64M flash0.img
truncate -s 64M flash1.img
dd if=/usr/share/edk2-armvirt/aarch64/QEMU_CODE.fd of=flash0.img conv=notrunc- Launch QEMU, removing or adding anything you see fit.
qemu-system-aarch64 -M virt -m 8192 -cpu cortex-a72 -smp 8 \
-drive if=pflash,media=disk,format=raw,cache=writethrough,file=flash0.img \
-drive if=pflash,media=disk,format=raw,cache=writethrough,file=flash1.img \
-drive if=none,file=arch-aarch64.qcow2,format=qcow2,id=hd0 \
-device virtio-scsi-pci,id=scsi0 \
-device scsi-hd,bus=scsi0.0,drive=hd0,bootindex=1 \
-nic user,model=virtio-net-pci,hostfwd=tcp::2222-:22 \
-monitor none -display none -vga noneTip
Step 8 equivalent for Debian guest:
qemu-system-aarch64 -M virt -m 8192 -cpu cortex-a72 -smp 8 \
-drive if=pflash,media=disk,format=raw,cache=writethrough,file=flash0.img \
-drive if=pflash,media=disk,format=raw,cache=writethrough,file=flash1.img \
-drive if=none,file=debian-aarch64.qcow2,format=qcow2,id=hd0 \
-cdrom debian-12.7.0-arm64-DVD-1.iso \
-device virtio-scsi-pci,id=scsi0 \
-device scsi-hd,bus=scsi0.0,drive=hd0,bootindex=2 \
-nic user,model=virtio-net-pci,hostfwd=tcp::2222-:22 \
-nographic- Upon successful first boot, initialize Arch Linux ARM and install a new bootloader.
- Log in as
alarm, passwordalarm:
ssh -p 2222 alarm@localhost
- Become
root, passwordroot:
su- Initialize the
pacmankeyring, update the system and installefibootmgr, replacing each instance ofXwith the corresponding digit of the UUID of the/dev/nbd0p2partition from earlier (which is now/dev/sda2), then shut down:
pacman-key --init
pacman-key --populate archlinuxarm
pacman -Syu
pacman -S efibootmgr
efibootmgr --disk /dev/sda --part 1 --create --label "Arch Linux ARM" --loader /Image --verbose \
--unicode 'root=UUID=XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX rw initrd=\initramfs-linux.img'
poweroffTip
Step 9 equivalent for Debian guest:
- At the EDK II Shell, type this command
FS1:\efi\boot\grubaa64.efiUsers of Debian guest can choose "Install" and use the guided installer.
- Launch QEMU again, exactly as in step 8.
qemu-system-aarch64 -M virt -m 8192 -cpu cortex-a72 -smp 8 \
-drive if=pflash,media=disk,format=raw,cache=writethrough,file=flash0.img \
-drive if=pflash,media=disk,format=raw,cache=writethrough,file=flash1.img \
-drive if=none,file=arch-aarch64.qcow2,format=qcow2,id=hd0 \
-device virtio-scsi-pci,id=scsi0 \
-device scsi-hd,bus=scsi0.0,drive=hd0,bootindex=1 \
-nic user,model=virtio-net-pci,hostfwd=tcp::2222-:22 \
-monitor none -display none -vga noneTip
Step 10 equivalent for Debian guest:
qemu-system-aarch64 -M virt -m 8192 -cpu cortex-a72 -smp 8 \
-drive if=pflash,media=disk,format=raw,cache=writethrough,file=flash0.img \
-drive if=pflash,media=disk,format=raw,cache=writethrough,file=flash1.img \
-drive if=none,file=debian-aarch64.qcow2,format=qcow2,id=hd0 \
-device virtio-scsi-pci,id=scsi0 \
-device scsi-hd,bus=scsi0.0,drive=hd0,bootindex=2 \
-nic user,model=virtio-net-pci,hostfwd=tcp::2222-:22 \
-nographic- Proceed with configuring Arch Linux ARM as normal (time, locales, users, software, configuration), using the Arch Linux Wiki as a guide.
Note
If your host has a simple network configuration, you can replace the slower -nic user argument with an efficient -netdev tap argument if you want using my minimal tap0 guide.
I have successfully installed an app that I needed within this for a long time but only yesterday finally got to work within this QEMU, redroid, so I am documenting the steps here. I haven't got GPU acceleration working in this so its graphics are a lot slower than the Arch Linux ARM emulator itself, but it works with software rendering.
Prerequisites
hostfwd=tcp::5555-:5555setting to forward theadbport through QEMU forscrcpyBuild necessary kernel
Install Docker
sudo pacman -S docker sudo systemctl enable --now dockerInstall and run redroid
sudo docker run -itd --privileged -v ~/redroid-data:/data -p 5555:5555 -p 8022:8022 --name redroid redroid/redroid:14.0.0_64only-latestImportant
There is one step during redroid's boot that sometimes takes an extremely long time within the emulator. The longest I had to wait was 7 hours and then it eventually booted fully. You can use
dmesg -wwithin QEMU to monitor redroid's boot progress (and compare it with the kernel log of a native redroid instance outside the emulator to see what point you're at)Install
scrcpyon the hostamd64OS and connect to the emulated redroidNote
These commands can be run outside the emulator