[Bug 1913505] Re: Windows XP slow on Apple M1

[Programmingkid]

> On Jan 29, 2021, at 1:20 AM, qemu-devel-request@nongnu.org wrote:
> 
> Message: 14
> Date: Fri, 29 Jan 2021 06:06:41 -0000
> From: Thomas Huth <1913505@bugs.launchpad.net>
> To: qemu-devel@nongnu.org
> Subject: [Bug 1913505] Re: Windows XP slow on Apple M1
> Message-ID:
>       
> <161190040137.32137.17544748693681218726.malone@chaenomeles.canonical.com>
>       
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
> 
> Did you compile QEMU on your own? If so, which parameters did you use
> for the "configure" script?
> 
> -- 
> You received this bug notification because you are a member of qemu-
> devel-ml, which is subscribed to QEMU.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1913505
> 
> Title:
>  Windows XP slow on Apple M1
> 
> Status in QEMU:
>  New
> 
> Bug description:
>  Qemu installed by using brew install qemu -s on M1
> 
>  QEMU emulator version 5.2.0
>  XP image from: https://archive.org/details/WinXPProSP3x86
> 
>  Commands run:
>  $ qemu-img create -f qcow2 xpsp3.img 10G
>  $ qemu-system-i386 -m 512 -hda xpsp3.img -cdrom 
> WinXPProSP3x86/en_windows_xp_professional_with_service_pack_3_x86_cd_vl_x14-73974.iso
>  -boot d
> 
>  It's taken 3 days now with qemu running at around 94% CPU and
>  installation hasn't finished. The mouse pointer moves and occasionally
>  changes between the pointer and hourglass so it doesn't seem to have
>  frozen.
> 
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Hi, I followed your directions on reproducing this issue. My times were very 
different from yours. 

I used my own patch to make qemu-system-i386 on my M1 Mac running Mac OS 11.1. 
It is on the list if you want to try it.

For Windows XP, I used my own copy. It was build 2600 and Service Pack 3. 

Installing Windows XP took about 23 minutes. After the installation was 
completed Windows tried to start up but probably crashed so I had to reboot the 
VM. After that it started up without problems.

Here are some benchmarks I did:

For my ARM-based QEMU I saw these start up times to the login screen: 1:20, 
1:19, 1:16, 1:18

For a QEMU binary I made a few years ago that is x86_64-based, I saw these 
times: 1:09, 1:09

The ARM-based QEMU is at version 5.2.50 (git commit 
9cd69f1a270235b652766f00b94114f48a2d603f).

The x86_64-based QEMU is at version 2.10.1.

I would have bet that the ARM-based QEMU would run circles around the x86_64 
version, but the opposite happened.

These are my theories about what could be wrong:
- A patch somewhere made QEMU slow
  -- feature bloat
  -- bugs
  -- emulated hardware issues
- The ARM TCG isn't as good as the x86_64 version
- Non-optimal command-line options

Please let me know if you have any ideas or suggestions.

Thank you.