How to install Arch Linux ARM or Debian ARM in QEMU full system emulator

README.md

How to install a GNU/Linux ARM emulator

Prerequisites:

• A PC with a Linux distribution - Arch Linux amd64 used 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 command qemu-system-aarch64)
• wget (or any downloader)
• gvim (or any editor)
• openssh (or QEMU console)

1. Download the Arch Linux ARM generic tarball and create an image, replacing 60G with your desired maximum size.

wget http://os.archlinuxarm.org/os/ArchLinuxARM-aarch64-latest.tar.gz
qemu-img create -f qcow2 arch-aarch64.qcow2 60G

Tip

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 60G

Users of Debian guest should now skip to step 7.

2. Become root, connect the image to nbd and partition it with fdisk.

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 +400M and Enter
• then t (to change the type), then 1 for EFI System Partition
• then n and Enter three times, then w to write changes and exit

3. 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

4. Edit fstab.

• You will need both partitions' UUIDs - the UUID of the vfat partition in /dev/nbd0p1 looks like UUID="XXXX-XXXX" and the UUID of the ext4 partition in /dev/nbd0p2 looks like UUID="XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX":

sudo blkid

• Then, edit rootfs/etc/fstab:

sudo vim rootfs/etc/fstab

• Paste the following, replacing each instance of X with the corresponding digit of the UUID of the corresponding partition, /dev/nbd0p1 and /dev/nbd0p2 respectively, 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

5. 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 X with the corresponding digit of the UUID of the /dev/nbd0p2 partition, then save the file:

Image root=UUID=XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX rw initrd=\initramfs-linux.img

6. Unmount the partitions, sync, disconnect the image from nbd, and exit the root shell.

sudo umount -R rootfs
sudo sync
sudo qemu-nbd --disconnect /dev/nbd0
sudo rmmod nbd

7. 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

8. 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 none

Tip

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

9. Upon successful first boot, initialize Arch Linux ARM and install a new bootloader.

• Log in as alarm, password alarm:

ssh -p 2222 alarm@localhost

• Become root, password root:

su

• Initialize the pacman keyring, update the system and install efibootmgr, replacing each instance of X with the corresponding digit of the UUID of the /dev/nbd0p2 partition 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'
poweroff

Tip

Step 9 equivalent for Debian guest:

• At the EDK II Shell, type this command

FS1:\efi\boot\grubaa64.efi

Users of Debian guest can choose "Install" and use the guided installer.

10. 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 none

Tip

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

11. 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.

In this case, the file rootfs/boot/Image is the file that is represented by the Image command here, so I believe rootfs/boot/Image must be correctly present and stored in /dev/nbd0p1 in the previous steps, for this to work.

If the Arch Linux steps are too tedious, you can also try the Debian steps (in green paragraphs) which are shorter and have an automated installer, so are easier to do without making mistakes.

For example, it is important that these two commands in Step 3 were done in this order, and not the other way around, and that they did not have errors:

sudo mount /dev/nbd0p1 rootfs/boot 
sudo bsdtar -xpf ArchLinuxARM-aarch64-latest.tar.gz -C rootfs

This was in /rootfs/boot

root@a8host:/naspool/virtualstore/arch_arm# ls /mnt/boot/
bcm2708-rpi-b-plus.dtb	  bcm2710-rpi-zero-2-w.dtb  bcm2835-rpi-cm1-io1.dtb   fixup.dat		   start4.elf
bcm2708-rpi-b-rev1.dtb	  bcm2710-rpi-zero-2.dtb    bcm2835-rpi-zero-w.dtb    fixup4.dat	   start4cd.elf
bcm2708-rpi-b.dtb	  bcm2711-rpi-4-b.dtb	    bcm2835-rpi-zero.dtb      fixup4cd.dat	   start4db.elf
bcm2708-rpi-cm.dtb	  bcm2711-rpi-400.dtb	    bcm2836-rpi-2-b.dtb       fixup4db.dat	   start4x.elf
bcm2708-rpi-zero-w.dtb	  bcm2711-rpi-cm4-io.dtb    bcm2837-rpi-3-a-plus.dtb  fixup4x.dat	   start_cd.elf
bcm2708-rpi-zero.dtb	  bcm2711-rpi-cm4.dtb	    bcm2837-rpi-3-b-plus.dtb  fixup_cd.dat	   start_db.elf
bcm2709-rpi-2-b.dtb	  bcm2711-rpi-cm4s.dtb	    bcm2837-rpi-3-b.dtb       fixup_db.dat	   start_x.elf
bcm2709-rpi-cm2.dtb	  bcm2835-rpi-a-plus.dtb    bcm2837-rpi-cm3-io3.dtb   fixup_x.dat	   startup.nsh
bcm2710-rpi-2-b.dtb	  bcm2835-rpi-a.dtb	    bcm2837-rpi-zero-2-w.dtb  initramfs-linux.img
bcm2710-rpi-3-b-plus.dtb  bcm2835-rpi-b-plus.dtb    bootcode.bin	      kernel7.img
bcm2710-rpi-3-b.dtb	  bcm2835-rpi-b-rev2.dtb    cmdline.txt		      overlays
bcm2710-rpi-cm3.dtb	  bcm2835-rpi-b.dtb	    config.txt		      start.elf
root@a8host:/naspool/virtualstore/arch_arm# 

I copied kernel7.img to Image , because seemed that the Arch didn't used the Image name.

But still drops this :
`UEFI Interactive Shell v2.2
EDK II
UEFI v2.70 (EDK II, 0x00010000)
Mapping table
FS0: Alias(s):HD0a0b:;BLK1:
PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x2,0x0)/Scsi(0x0,0x0)/HD(1,GPT,2D4D7735-2D4F-4D64-9B36-7DDE99A411D3,0x800,0x64000)
BLK0: Alias(s):
PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x2,0x0)/Scsi(0x0,0x0)
BLK2: Alias(s):
PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x2,0x0)/Scsi(0x0,0x0)/HD(2,GPT,95B5CA11-34A9-44F8-95CC-50489FF853E3,0x64800,0x99B000)

Press ESC in 1 seconds to skip startup.nsh or any other key to continue.
Shell> Image root=UUID=02298819-b38e-4a2f-91c8-13a2e1022ea1 rw initrd=\initramfs-linux.img
Script Error Status: Unsupported (line number 1)

Shell>
`

So something really strange is going on here. Luckily it's not urgent to me to have this VM, so i can let this go if you have no time :)

I copied kernel7.img to Image , because seemed that the Arch didn't used the Image name.

That doesn't look right,
are you sure you used this Arch Linux ARM installer image?

http://os.archlinuxarm.org/os/ArchLinuxARM-aarch64-latest.tar.gz

This is what I see in /boot of my installation, it should look like this:

[tacokoneko@archarm ~]$ ls /boot
dtbs  Image  Image.gz  initramfs-linux-fallback.img  initramfs-linux.img  startup.nsh

If you extract that archive http://os.archlinuxarm.org/os/ArchLinuxARM-aarch64-latest.tar.gz, do you see the same thing as me, or are you trying to use a different version of Arch Linux ARM?

A different version of Arch Linux ARM might have a kernel that is not compatible with this mode of QEMU.

You were right, at first i followed the Qemu Raspberry guide, and it referred a different rootfs package. With your suggestion, it booted (in emergency, but this is another problem).

Thanks for your time :)