Re: [9front] First time 9front start with qemu

[Jacob Moody <moody@posixcafe.org>]

On 2/26/24 12:20, Bengt Kleberg wrote:
> Greetings,
> 
> If somebody that has used the new qcow2 images with qemu, could share
> how it was done I would appreciate an explanation/copy of that.
> 
> I recently read an article about 9front/plan9 and the author mentioned
> it was possible to start 9front (with qemu) in just a few minutes. I
> have now spent a few days and think it is time to seek help.
> Given the right qcow2 file for my computer, 9front-10277.arm64.qcow2.gz from
> https://9front.org/iso, I have tried to use the right qemu command,
> qemu-system-aarch64, in various ways inspired by the description of
> how it was done in the time of ISO files:
> http://fqa.9front.org/fqa3.html#3.3.1 (Qemu)
> 
> Mostly I have been trying variations on 3.3.1.2 Post-Installation
> Booting (since I have no ISO), with some additions demanded by error
> messages (-machine virt).
> But I only get a new little window with qemu command line. Or I can
> get the qemu command line in my original window, and nothing in the
> new window (-monitor stdio).
> 
> Best Wishes,
> bengt

arm64 is a bit more involved then amd64 and the documentation is not
quite updated to reflect the differences yet. The original commit
message has the basic template:

	qemu-system-aarch64 -M virt-2.12,accel=hvf,gic-version=3 \
		-cpu cortex-a72 -m 4G -smp 4 \
		-bios u-boot.bin \
		-drive file=9front.arm64.qcow2,if=none,id=disk \
		-device virtio-blk-pci-non-transitional,drive=disk \
		-serial stdio
                -nic user,mode=virtio-net-pci-non-transitional

This requires you to also grab your own relatively recent u-boot.bin
from upstream. The cpu could also be replaced with 'host' on an arm64
host device.

What particular reason do you have to use arm64? If you are new to the
system I would really suggest to stick to amd64 to get your bearings first.
The current arm64 qemu kernel has no graphical interface so you have to use
it in conjunction with drawterm.


Thanks,
moody