Re: [Qemu-devel] user emulation status?

[Thiemo Seufer]

Tomasz Chmielewski wrote:
> According to the list of supported guest OSes on  
> http://bellard.org/qemu/status.html, these architectures have "OK/green"  
> status for user emulation:
>
> x86, ARM, SPARC, PPC, MIPS, m68k, SH-4.
>
> If these architectures are really fully supported by Qemu, it should be  
> possible to run a chroot of another architecture (i.e. on x86 we chroot  
> to ARM base filesystem/pcakages).
>
> I thought I'd give it a try, with current Qemu SVN, by installing Debian  
> for different architectures with debootstrap command (debootstrap allows  
> to install base filesystem/packages).
>
>
> Debian Etch supports ARM, SPARC, PPC and MIPS, so I only tested those on  
> x86 PC.
>
>
> Results:
>
> 1. ARM - support is really great.
> debootstrap installs base filesystem/packages without any errors in an  
> ARM chroot made on x86 PC.
> It's even possible to start some GUI applications.
>
>
> 2. MIPS - support is not so great.
> It's not possible to install a base filesystem.
> Chrooting from x86 to an already existing MIPS filesystem works, but  
> lots of commands just break (i.e., dpkg exits with "Invalid argument";  
> some stracing reveals more details).

I concentrate mostly on the MIPS system emulation. I figure the usermode
emulation needs a fair bit of debugging, particularily the 64-bit
variants.


Thiemo