qemu-2.5.0

Introduction to qemu

qemu is a full virtualization solution for Linux on x86 hardware containing virtualization extensions (Intel VT or AMD-V).

This package is known to build and work properly using an LFS-7.9 platform.

Package Information

Qemu Dependencies

Required

GLib-2.46.2, Python-2.7.11, and X Window System

Recommended

Optional

ALSA-1.1.0, BlueZ-5.37, Check-0.10.0, cURL-7.47.1, Cyrus SASL-2.1.26, GnuTLS-3.4.9, GTK+-2.24.29, GTK+-3.18.7, libusb-1.0.20, libgcrypt-1.6.5, LZO-2.09, Nettle-3.2, NSS-3.23 (for libcacard.so), Mesa-11.1.2, SDL-1.2.15, VTE-0.42.4, libssh2

[Note]

Note

This optional dependencies list is not comprehensive. See the output of ./configure --help for a more complete list.

User Notes: http://wiki.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/wiki/qemu

KVM Prerequisites

Before building qemu, check to see if your processor supports Virtualization Technology (VT):

egrep '^flags.*(vmx|svm)' /proc/cpuinfo

If you get any output, you have VT technology (vmx for Intel processors and svm for AMD processors). You then need to go into your system BIOS and ensure it is enabled. After enabing, reboot back to your LFS instance.

Kernel Configuration

Enable the following options in the kernel configuration and recompile the kernel if necessary:

[*] Virtualization:  --->                            [CONFIG_VIRTUALIZATION]
  <*/M>   Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) support [CONFIG_KVM]
  <*/M>     KVM for Intel processors support         [CONFIG_KVM_INTEL]
  <*/M>     KVM for AMD processors support           [CONFIG_KVM_AMD]

The Intel or AMD settings are not both required, but the one matching your system processor is required.

For networking, check that bridge-utils-1.5 is installed and the following options in the kernel configuration are enabled:

[*] Networking support  --->                         [CONFIG_NET]
  Networking options  --->
    <*/M> 802.1d Ethernet Bridging                   [CONFIG_BRIDGE]
Device Drivers  --->
  [*] Network device support  --->                   [CONFIG_NETDEVICES]
    <*/M>    Universal TUN/TAP device driver support [CONFIG_TUN]

Installation of qemu

Install qemu by running the following commands:

[Note]

Note

Qemu is capable of running many targets. The build process is also capable of building multiple targets at one time in a comma delimited list assigned to --target-list. Run ./configure --help to get a complete list of available targets.

if [ $(uname -m) = i686 ]; then
   QEMU_ARCH=i386-softmmu
else
   QEMU_ARCH=x86_64-softmmu
fi

mkdir -vp build &&
cd        build &&

../configure --prefix=/usr               \
             --sysconfdir=/etc           \
             --target-list=$QEMU_ARCH    \
             --audio-drv-list=alsa       \
             --docdir=/usr/share/doc/qemu-2.5.0 &&

unset QEMU_ARCH &&

make

To run the built in tests, run make V=1 -k check. One test is known to fail.

Now, as the root user:

make install &&
[ -e  /usr/lib/libcacard.so ] &&
chmod -v 755 /usr/lib/libcacard.so

You will need a dedicated group that will contain users (other than root) allowed to access the KVM device. Create this group by running the following command as the root user:

groupadd -g 61 kvm

Add any users that might use the KVM device to that group:

usermod -a -G kvm <username>

You will also need to add a Udev rule so that the KVM device gets correct permissions:

cat > /lib/udev/rules.d/65-kvm.rules << "EOF"
KERNEL=="kvm", GROUP="kvm", MODE="0660"
EOF
[Note]

Note

For convenience you may want to create a symbolic link to run the installed program. For instance:

ln -sv qemu-system-`uname -m` /usr/bin/qemu

Command Explanations

--audio-drv-list=alsa: This switch sets the audio driver to ALSA. For other drivers see the --audio-drv-list list in configure's help output. The default audio driver is OSS.

Configuring qemu

To generate an image, run:

qemu-img create -f qcow2 vdisk.img 10G

Adjust the virtual disk size and image filename as desired. The actual size of the file will be less than specified, but will expand as it is used.

[Note]

Note

The following instructions assume you have created the optional symbolic link, qemu. Additionally, you must run qemu from an X Window System based terminal (either locally or over ssh).

To install an operating system, download an iso of your choice or use a pre-installed cdrom device. For the purposes of this example, use Fedora 16 that is downloaded as Fedora-16-x86_64-Live-LXDE.iso in the current directory. Run the following:

qemu -enable-kvm -hda vdisk.img            \
     -cdrom Fedora-16-x86_64-Live-LXDE.iso \
     -boot d                               \
     -m 384

Follow the normal installation procedures for the chosen distribution. The -boot option specifies the boot order of drives as a string of drive letters. Valid drive letters are: a, b (floppy 1 and 2), c (first hard disk), d (first CD-ROM). The -m option is the amount of memory to use for the virtual machine. If you have sufficient memory (2G or more), 1G is a reasonable value. For computers with 512MB of RAM it's safe to use -m 192, or even -m 128 (the default). The -enable-kvm option allows for hardware acceleration. Without this switch, the emulation is relatively slow.

To run the newly installed operating system, run:

qemu -enable-kvm vdisk.img -m 384

You may have problem with -enable-kvm. Also, you may want to define audio and video drivers, number of cpu cores and threads. An alternative command to install the operating system is (see qemu man page for the parameters definitions):

qemu -enable-kvm             \
     -cdrom /home/fernando/ISO/linuxmint-17.1-mate-32bit.iso \
     -boot order=d           \
     -m 1G,slots=3,maxmem=4G \
     -machine smm=off        \
     -soundhw es1370         \
     -cpu host               \
     -smp cores=4,threads=2  \
     -vga std                \
     vdisk.img

One parameter not appearing in the qemu man page is -machine smm=off, and is used to allow -enable-kvm in some systems. In order to run the machine, you can alternatively issue:

qemu -enable-kvm             \
     -machine smm=off        \
     -boot order=d           \
     -m 1G,slots=3,maxmem=4G \
     -soundhw es1370         \
     -cpu host               \
     -smp cores=4,threads=2  \
     -vga vmware             \
     -hda vdisk.img

Sometimes, you want the machine to have different screen sizes than the ones natively offered by the virtual grahics card. The example below is for qemu vmware graphics card, which uses Xorg VMMouse Driver-13.1.0 and is set to give maximum screen size of 1600x900. As the root user, issue:

cat > /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-vmware.conf << "EOF"
Section         "Monitor"
  Identifier    "Monitor0"
  # cvt 1600 900
  # 1600x900 59.95 Hz (CVT 1.44M9) hsync: 55.99 kHz; pclk: 118.25 MHz
  Modeline      "1600x900"  118.25  1600 1696 1856 2112  900 903 908 934 -hsync +vsync
  Option        "PreferredMode" "1600x900"
  HorizSync     1-200
  VertRefresh   1-200
EndSection

Section         "Device"
  Identifier    "VMware SVGA II Adapter"
  Option        "Monitor" "default"
  Driver        "vmware"
EndSection

Section         "Screen"
  Identifier    "Default Screen"
  Device        "VMware SVGA II Adapter"
  Monitor       "Monitor0"

  SubSection    "Display"
    Depth       24
    Modes       "1600x900" "1440x900" "1366x768" "1280x720" "800x480"
  EndSubSection

EndSection
EOF

New sizes will be available besides the native ones. You need to restart X in order to have the new sizes available.

qemu provides a DHCP server for the VM and, depending on the client system, sets up networking though the host.

One problem with the above networking solution is that it does not provide the ability to connect with the local network. To do that, there are several additional steps that need to be done, all as the root user:

  • Set up bridging with bridge-utils-1.5.

  • Allow the host system to forward IP packets.

    sysctl -w net.ipv4.ip_forward=1
    

    To make this permanent, add the command to /etc/sysctl.conf:

    cat >> /etc/sysctl.conf << EOF
    net.ipv4.ip_forward=1
    EOF
    
  • Allow the network connection when running as a part of the kvm group:

    chgrp kvm  /usr/libexec/qemu-bridge-helper &&
    chmod 4750 /usr/libexec/qemu-bridge-helper
    
  • Set up a required configuration file:

    echo 'allow br0' > /etc/qemu/bridge.conf
    
  • Start qemu with "-net nic -net bridge" options.

  • If a connection, such as ssh, from the local network to the client VM is desired, the client should be configured with a static IP address.

Contents

Installed Programs: ivshmem-client, ivshmem-server, qemu (symlink), qemu-ga, qemu-img, qemu-io, qemu-nbd, qemu-system-<arch>, virtfs-proxy-helper, and vscclient
Installed Library: libcacard.so
Installed Directories: /etc/qemu and /usr/share/doc/qemu-2.5.0

Short Description

qemu-ga

implements support for QMP (QEMU Monitor Protocol) commands and events that terminate and originate respectively within the guest using an agent built as part of QEMU.

qemu-img

provides commands to manage QEMU disk images.

qemu-io

is a diagnostic and manipulation program for (virtual) memory media. It is still at an early stage of development.

qemu-nbd

exports Qemu disk images using the QEMU Disk Network Block Device (NBD) protocol.

qemu-system-x86_64

is the QEMU PC System emulator.

virtfs-proxy-helper

creates a socket pair or a named socket. QEMU and proxy helper communicate using this socket. QEMU proxy fs driver sends filesystem request to proxy helper and receives the response from it.

vscclient

implements a sockets interface to the virtual CCID reader on the guest.

libcacard.so

is the Virtual Smart Card Emulator library.

Last updated on 2016-03-02 18:22:08 -0800