docs/system/linuxboot.rst

.. _direct_005flinux_005fboot:

Direct Linux Boot
-----------------

This section explains how to launch a Linux kernel inside QEMU without
having to make a full bootable image. It is very useful for fast Linux
kernel testing.

The syntax is:

.. parsed-literal::

   |qemu_system| -kernel bzImage -drive file=rootdisk.img,format=raw -append "root=/dev/sda"

Use ``-kernel`` to provide the Linux kernel image and ``-append`` to
give the kernel command line arguments. The ``-initrd`` option can be
used to provide an INITRD image.

If you do not need graphical output, you can disable it and redirect the
virtual serial port and the QEMU monitor to the console with the
``-nographic`` option. The typical command line is:

.. parsed-literal::

   |qemu_system| -kernel bzImage -drive file=rootdisk.img,format=raw \
                    -append "root=/dev/sda console=ttyS0" -nographic

Use :kbd:`Ctrl+a c` to switch between the serial console and the monitor (see
:ref:`GUI_keys`).
docs/system: convert Texinfo documentation to rST Apart from targets.rst, which was written by hand, this is an automated conversion obtained with the following command: makeinfo --force -o - --docbook \ -D 'qemu_system_x86 QEMU_SYSTEM_X86_MACRO' \ -D 'qemu_system QEMU_SYSTEM_MACRO' \ $texi \| pandoc -f docbook -t rst+smart \| perl -e ' $/=undef; $_ = <>; s/^- − /- /gm; s/QEMU_SYSTEM_MACRO/\|qemu_system\|/g; s/QEMU_SYSTEM_X86_MACRO/\|qemu_system_x86\|/g; s/(?=::\n\n +\\|qemu)/.. parsed-literal/g; s/:\n\n::$/::/gm; print' > $rst In addition, the following changes were made manually: - target-i386.rst and target-mips.rst: replace CPU model documentation with an include directive - monitor.rst: replace the command section with a comment - images.rst: add toctree - target-arm.rst: Replace use of :math: (which Sphinx complains about) with :sup:, and hide it behind \|I2C\| and \|I2C\| substitutions. Content that is not @included remains exclusive to qemu-doc.texi. Signed-off-by: Paolo Bonzini <pbonzini@redhat.com> Reviewed-by: Peter Maydell <peter.maydell@linaro.org> Reviewed-by: Alex Bennée <alex.bennee@linaro.org> Tested-by: Alex Bennée <alex.bennee@linaro.org> Signed-off-by: Peter Maydell <peter.maydell@linaro.org> Message-id: 20200228153619.9906-20-peter.maydell@linaro.org Message-id: 20200226113034.6741-19-pbonzini@redhat.com [PMM: Fixed target-arm.rst use of :math:; remove out of date note about images.rst from commit message; fixed expansion of \|qemu_system_x86\|; use parsed-literal in invocation.rst when we want to use \|qemu_system_x86\|; fix incorrect subsection level for "OS requirements" in target-i386.rst; fix incorrect syntax for making links to other sections of the manual] Reviewed-by: Peter Maydell <peter.maydell@linaro.org> Signed-off-by: Peter Maydell <peter.maydell@linaro.org> 2020-02-28 15:36:05 +00:00			`.. _direct_005flinux_005fboot:`

			`Direct Linux Boot`
			`-----------------`

			`This section explains how to launch a Linux kernel inside QEMU without`
			`having to make a full bootable image. It is very useful for fast Linux`
			`kernel testing.`

			`The syntax is:`

			`.. parsed-literal::`

docs: replace `-hda` with `-drive` & update `root=` kernel parameter According to QEMU manual: Older options like `-hda` are essentially macros which expand into `-drive` options for various drive interfaces. The original forms bake in a lot of assumptions from the days when QEMU was emulating a legacy PC, they are not recommended for modern configurations. Signed-off-by: Integral <integral@archlinuxcn.org> Reviewed-by: Michael Tokarev <mjt@tls.msk.ru> Signed-off-by: Michael Tokarev <mjt@tls.msk.ru> 2025-04-06 16:45:18 +08:00			`\|qemu_system\| -kernel bzImage -drive file=rootdisk.img,format=raw -append "root=/dev/sda"`
docs/system: convert Texinfo documentation to rST Apart from targets.rst, which was written by hand, this is an automated conversion obtained with the following command: makeinfo --force -o - --docbook \ -D 'qemu_system_x86 QEMU_SYSTEM_X86_MACRO' \ -D 'qemu_system QEMU_SYSTEM_MACRO' \ $texi \| pandoc -f docbook -t rst+smart \| perl -e ' $/=undef; $_ = <>; s/^- − /- /gm; s/QEMU_SYSTEM_MACRO/\|qemu_system\|/g; s/QEMU_SYSTEM_X86_MACRO/\|qemu_system_x86\|/g; s/(?=::\n\n +\\|qemu)/.. parsed-literal/g; s/:\n\n::$/::/gm; print' > $rst In addition, the following changes were made manually: - target-i386.rst and target-mips.rst: replace CPU model documentation with an include directive - monitor.rst: replace the command section with a comment - images.rst: add toctree - target-arm.rst: Replace use of :math: (which Sphinx complains about) with :sup:, and hide it behind \|I2C\| and \|I2C\| substitutions. Content that is not @included remains exclusive to qemu-doc.texi. Signed-off-by: Paolo Bonzini <pbonzini@redhat.com> Reviewed-by: Peter Maydell <peter.maydell@linaro.org> Reviewed-by: Alex Bennée <alex.bennee@linaro.org> Tested-by: Alex Bennée <alex.bennee@linaro.org> Signed-off-by: Peter Maydell <peter.maydell@linaro.org> Message-id: 20200228153619.9906-20-peter.maydell@linaro.org Message-id: 20200226113034.6741-19-pbonzini@redhat.com [PMM: Fixed target-arm.rst use of :math:; remove out of date note about images.rst from commit message; fixed expansion of \|qemu_system_x86\|; use parsed-literal in invocation.rst when we want to use \|qemu_system_x86\|; fix incorrect subsection level for "OS requirements" in target-i386.rst; fix incorrect syntax for making links to other sections of the manual] Reviewed-by: Peter Maydell <peter.maydell@linaro.org> Signed-off-by: Peter Maydell <peter.maydell@linaro.org> 2020-02-28 15:36:05 +00:00
			Use ``-kernel`` to provide the Linux kernel image and ``-append`` to
			give the kernel command line arguments. The ``-initrd`` option can be
			`used to provide an INITRD image.`

			`If you do not need graphical output, you can disable it and redirect the`
			`virtual serial port and the QEMU monitor to the console with the`
			``-nographic`` option. The typical command line is:

			`.. parsed-literal::`

docs: replace `-hda` with `-drive` & update `root=` kernel parameter According to QEMU manual: Older options like `-hda` are essentially macros which expand into `-drive` options for various drive interfaces. The original forms bake in a lot of assumptions from the days when QEMU was emulating a legacy PC, they are not recommended for modern configurations. Signed-off-by: Integral <integral@archlinuxcn.org> Reviewed-by: Michael Tokarev <mjt@tls.msk.ru> Signed-off-by: Michael Tokarev <mjt@tls.msk.ru> 2025-04-06 16:45:18 +08:00			`\|qemu_system\| -kernel bzImage -drive file=rootdisk.img,format=raw \`
			`-append "root=/dev/sda console=ttyS0" -nographic`
docs/system: convert Texinfo documentation to rST Apart from targets.rst, which was written by hand, this is an automated conversion obtained with the following command: makeinfo --force -o - --docbook \ -D 'qemu_system_x86 QEMU_SYSTEM_X86_MACRO' \ -D 'qemu_system QEMU_SYSTEM_MACRO' \ $texi \| pandoc -f docbook -t rst+smart \| perl -e ' $/=undef; $_ = <>; s/^- − /- /gm; s/QEMU_SYSTEM_MACRO/\|qemu_system\|/g; s/QEMU_SYSTEM_X86_MACRO/\|qemu_system_x86\|/g; s/(?=::\n\n +\\|qemu)/.. parsed-literal/g; s/:\n\n::$/::/gm; print' > $rst In addition, the following changes were made manually: - target-i386.rst and target-mips.rst: replace CPU model documentation with an include directive - monitor.rst: replace the command section with a comment - images.rst: add toctree - target-arm.rst: Replace use of :math: (which Sphinx complains about) with :sup:, and hide it behind \|I2C\| and \|I2C\| substitutions. Content that is not @included remains exclusive to qemu-doc.texi. Signed-off-by: Paolo Bonzini <pbonzini@redhat.com> Reviewed-by: Peter Maydell <peter.maydell@linaro.org> Reviewed-by: Alex Bennée <alex.bennee@linaro.org> Tested-by: Alex Bennée <alex.bennee@linaro.org> Signed-off-by: Peter Maydell <peter.maydell@linaro.org> Message-id: 20200228153619.9906-20-peter.maydell@linaro.org Message-id: 20200226113034.6741-19-pbonzini@redhat.com [PMM: Fixed target-arm.rst use of :math:; remove out of date note about images.rst from commit message; fixed expansion of \|qemu_system_x86\|; use parsed-literal in invocation.rst when we want to use \|qemu_system_x86\|; fix incorrect subsection level for "OS requirements" in target-i386.rst; fix incorrect syntax for making links to other sections of the manual] Reviewed-by: Peter Maydell <peter.maydell@linaro.org> Signed-off-by: Peter Maydell <peter.maydell@linaro.org> 2020-02-28 15:36:05 +00:00
docs: use :kbd: role in sphinx docs Sphinx supports the :kbd: role for notating keyboard input. They get formatted as <kbd> HTML elements in the readthedocs theme we currently use for Sphinx. Besides the better visual formatting, it also helps with accessibility as screen readers can announce the semantics of the <kbd> element to the user. Signed-off-by: Manos Pitsidianakis <manos.pitsidianakis@linaro.org> Message-ID: <20250709-docs_rst_improvements-v2-1-cb5096ad0022@linaro.org> Signed-off-by: Alex Bennée <alex.bennee@linaro.org> Message-ID: <20250710104531.3099313-7-alex.bennee@linaro.org> 2025-07-10 11:45:29 +01:00			Use :kbd:`Ctrl+a c` to switch between the serial console and the monitor (see
docs: Remove unused weirdly-named cross-reference targets In the doc sources, we have a few cross-reference targets with odd names "pcsys_005fxyz". These are the legacy of the semi-automated conversion of the old info docs to rST (the '005f' is because ASCII 0x5f is '_' and the old info link names had underscores in them). Remove the targets which nothing links to, and rename the two targets which are used to something a bit more descriptive. Signed-off-by: Peter Maydell <peter.maydell@linaro.org> Message-id: 20230421163642.1151904-1-peter.maydell@linaro.org Reviewed-by: Markus Armbruster <armbru@redhat.com> 2023-05-12 15:43:38 +01:00			:ref:`GUI_keys`).