Re: [Qemu-devel] No useful documentation.

[benb]

What OS are you using?

in linux: (assumptions: you want to boot from cd and your cdrom is located
at /dev/cdrom)

#cd /home/
#qemu-img create windows.img 500M
#qemu -boot d -cdrom /dev/cdrom -hda windows.img



> Daniel Carrera wrote:
>> In any event, since you find it so easy to use, could you please tell me
>> how to use it?
>
> I don't use it any more, I only needed it for a couple of days as it
> happens.  So I've completely forgotten everything, sorry ;-)
>
> Well,
>
>> The only reason why now I have a fair idea of how it works is because
>> someone told me (on a different list). And it only took them 2
>> sentences. They said that the way qemu works is, you first create a
>> blank disk image and then boot the virtual machine from a CD ROM and
>> install normally.
>>
>   There, that's just one sentence. That's an example of useful
>> documentation, and notice that it's not long. Indeed, it's quite
>> short.
>
> I guess that's where I found it clear to me.
>
> You see, I started from the view that Qemu is a PC simulator.
>
> So it must simulate a hard disk, a CD ROM, a network card, etc.
> Everything just like a real PC, but in a window.
>
> So the process of installing an OS on it is exactly the same as
> installing an OS on an ordinary PC.  Which is usually from CD these
> days, but you can use a floppy too.
>
> The only difference really is everything is simulated, so you use a
> file containing a CD image instead of a real CD, a file containing a
> hard disk image instead of a real hard disk, some options to simulate
> a network card instead of a real one, etc., some options to simulate a
> mouse and video card, etc.
>
> The actual procedure for installing Windows or whatever is pretty much
> identical to doing it on a real PC.
>
> That doesn't mean it's easy, but the hard (or tedious) part is
> generally not with using Qemu, but with using a PC to install Windows
> or whatever.
>
> That can be quite difficult sometimes, but those wouldn't really be
> Qemu questions as long as it's simulating a PC ok - they'd be OS
> installation questions for any kind of PC.
>
>> To make this complete, all I need now is a command to tell me how
>> to actually boot qemu and point it to both the CD DROM (e.g. the
>> Ubuntu install CD, or the Windows install CD) an my newly-created
>> blank disk image.
>
> I think Nathaniel just posted a list of command line options.
>
> Though, "qemu --help" and "man qemu" seem to list them too.
>
>> I should note another thing: Because the problem
>> I'm pointing to is so fundamental, you're much less likely to hear
>> about it. You're not going to hear about it much if the problem is
>> that people can't even get started. You're only going to hear about
>> problems that occur after someone gets started. I notice in your
>> question that you assumed that I knew how to install at least one OS
>> with qemu; I don't.
>
> Actually I didn't assume that.
>
> I assumed you knew how to install at least one OS on an ordinary PC.
>
> Installing it in Qemu is pretty much the same, other than using
> simulated devices instead of real ones.  And the simulated devices are
> really easy to specify.  There's a command line option to say that a
> .iso file contains a simulated CD-ROM image (the same .iso file you'd
> use for writing a CD-ROM), another option to say what file contains
> the simulated hard disk, another option to say that you want to boot
> from CD-ROM (simulated) instead of simulated floppy.  I don't have
> Qemu installed right now to say what those options are exactly, but I
> remember that's not much more than those, if anything, and then you
> get a window which looks just like a PC booting off CD-ROM... and you
> do the same as you would with a real one from then on.
>
> -- Jamie
>
>
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