Small doc about how to install Mageia ARM on Qemu ------------------------------------------------- Foreword -------- This doc is not aimed at being complete so this means that people should have some knowledge of Qemu. Also the command lines used are examples of how to launch Qemu because one may want to adjust them to their wishes/need. One should also know how Mageia's installer is working (mainly needed for the stage 1). At last but not least, this doc is about Qemu but can be used also to install Mageia on kirkwood systems as long as they're supported by the 2.6.38 mainline kernel. Needed stuff ------------ - Obviously, a machine with Qemu installed. - an empty virtual disc image - Kernel and all.rdz for versatile as found in the install/images/ directory of Mageia ARM repository - Access through nfs or http to a copy of Mageia ARM repository with the IP address. Booting the Installer / installation process -------------------------------------------- Just do : $ qemu-system-arm -m 256M -M versatilepb -hda disk.img \ -kernel vmlinuz-2.6.38.7-versatile-1.mga \ -initrd all.rdz-2.6.38.7-versatile-1.mga \ -append "ramdisk_size=128000" \ -serial pty -monitor stdio This will allocation a new node in /dev/pts/ for the serial port and start the installer in the usual Qemu window. One should see the kernel booting and then the Installer's stage 1 should ask to choose installation method. Choose nfs or http, fill the information asked. It will download the stage2 and boot the graphical installer. If using the hostname doesn't work, try with the IP address (you need the FQDN to get things working). Once in the usual graphical installation, go through the usual steps but at the package choice screen (the one right after partitioning), please choose either Gnome or the custom installation. The ARM port is in its early stage so there are missing packages. Warnings: - Qemu in this mode doesn't support more than 256M of RAM - If you want to use nfs, note that in default case, qemu will use ports > 1024 for nfs, but this will prevent access to the nfs share. You'll have to temporary add 'insecure' to the share configuration. Please read the nfs documentation about this as it's important. - At the screen configuration screen, choose fbdev/framebuffer and not vesa, because vesa doesn't exist on ARM. Booting the newly installed Mageia in Qemu ------------------------------------------ The new command line is : $ qemu-system-arm -m 256M -M versatilepb -hda disk.img \ -kernel vmlinuz-2.6.38.7-versatile-1.mga \ -append "root=/dev/sda1 rootwait rw" \ -serial pty -monitor stdio The system will boot and you'll see the usual boot messages, and at the end, you'll get the login. If you've chosen Gnome and configured Xorg, you should see gdm soon. Congrats, you've successfully installed Mageia for ARM on Qemu ! At this stage, if someone want login on the serial port, do (as root) : - add the following line in your /etc/inittab S0:12345:respawn:/sbin/agetty -L 115200 ttyAMA0 vt100 - if you want root login on it too, add in /etc/securetty : ttyAMA0 - run "telinit q" to ask init to reload its configuration. The login prompt should then appear in qemu serial port. --- 2011/06/08