DebianOnQEMU

Debian qcow2 multi-arch images on QEMU.

If this project helps you, please give it a star!

You may be also interested in the side project: qemu-full

Quick Start

Download vmlinuz, initrd and qcow2 image from the release page, and start your virtual machine with QEMU.

In most cases, you want to access the virtual machine via SSH, so don't forget to add a port forwarding or bridge your network interfaces.

Below are a few quick start command lines. Note the file names should be replaced by the ones you download.

AMD64

docker run -p 5555:5555 -v `pwd`:/work --rm -it lazymio/qemu-full \
qemu-system-x86_64 -m 512 -kernel ./vmlinuz-5.10.0-13-amd64 \
                   -initrd ./initrd.img-5.10.0-13-amd64 \
                   -append "console=ttyS0 debug root=/dev/sda net.ifnames=0" \
                   -hda ./debian-bullseye-amd64.qcow2 -nographic \
                   -nic user,model=virtio-net-pci,hostfwd=tcp::5555-:22

i386

docker run -p 5555:5555 -v `pwd`:/work --rm -it lazymio/qemu-full \
qemu-system-i386 -m 512 -kernel ./vmlinuz-5.10.0-26-686 \
                 -initrd ./initrd.img-5.10.0-26-686 \
                 -append "console=ttyS0 debug root=/dev/sda net.ifnames=0" \
                 -hda ./debian-bullseye-i386.qcow2 -nographic \
                 -nic user,model=virtio-net-pci,hostfwd=tcp::5555-:22

ARM

docker run -p 5555:5555 -v `pwd`:/work --rm -it lazymio/qemu-full:v8.2.0 \
qemu-system-arm -m 512 -M virt -cpu cortex-a15 \
                -kernel ./vmlinuz-5.10.0-26-armmp \
                -initrd ./initrd.img-5.10.0-26-armmp \
                -device virtio-blk-device,drive=hd0 \
                -drive if=none,file=debian-bullseye-armhf-armmp.qcow2,id=hd0 \
                -append "root=/dev/vda rw console=ttyAMA0 rodata=n net.ifnames=0" \
                -device virtio-net-device,netdev=usernet \
		-netdev user,id=usernet,hostfwd=tcp::5555-:22 -nographic

Refer to QEMU ARM doc for details.

ARM64

docker run -p 5555:5555 -v `pwd`:/work --rm -it lazymio/qemu-full \
qemu-system-aarch64 -m 512 -M virt -cpu cortex-a57 -kernel ./vmlinuz-5.10.0-26-arm64 \
                    -initrd ./initrd.img-5.10.0-26-arm64 \
                    -append "console=ttyAMA0 debug root=/dev/sda net.ifnames=0" \
                    -hda ./debian-bullseye-arm64.qcow2 -nographic \
                    -nic user,model=virtio-net-pci,hostfwd=tcp::5555-:22

cortext-a8 or cortext-a9 are not supported.

RISCV64

docker run -p 5555:5555 -v `pwd`:/work --rm -it lazymio/qemu-full \
qemu-system-riscv64 -m 512 -M virt -kernel ./vmlinux-6.6.8-riscv64\
                    -initrd ./initrd.img-6.6.8-riscv64 \
                    -append "rw console=ttyS0 debug root=/dev/vda net.ifnames=0" \
                    -device virtio-blk-device,drive=hd0 \
                    -object rng-random,filename=/dev/urandom,id=rng0 -device virtio-rng-device,rng=rng0 \
                    -drive file=./debian-bullseye-riscv64.qcow2,id=hd0 -nographic \
                    -device virtio-net-device,netdev=usernet -netdev user,id=usernet,hostfwd=tcp::5555-:22 

Refer to QEMU doc and Debian doc for more configurations.

S390x

docker run -p 5555:5555 -v `pwd`:/work --rm -it lazymio/qemu-full \
qemu-system-s390x -m 512 -machine s390-ccw-virtio -cpu max,zpci=on \
                    -kernel ./vmlinuz-5.10.0-26-s390x -initrd ./initrd.img-5.10.0-26-s390x \
                    -append "console=ttyAMA0 debug root=/dev/vda rw net.ifnames=0"\
                    -hda ./debian-bullseye-s390x.qcow2 \
                    -nographic -nic user,model=virtio,hostfwd=tcp::5555-:22

Refer to QEMU doc for details.

PPC

docker run -p 5555:5555 -v `pwd`:/work --rm -it lazymio/qemu-full \
qemu-system-ppc64 -m 512 -cpu power9 -kernel ./vmlinux-5.10.0-26-powerpc64le \
                  -initrd ./initrd.img-5.10.0-26-powerpc64le \
                  -append "console=hvc0 debug root=/dev/sda net.ifnames=0" \
                  -hda ./debian-bullseye-ppc64el.qcow2 -nographic \
                  -nic user,model=virtio-net-pci,hostfwd=tcp::5555-:22

MIPS

docker run -p 5555:5555 -v `pwd`:/work --rm -it lazymio/qemu-full \
qemu-system-mipsel -m 512 -M malta -kernel ./vmlinuz-5.10.0-26-4kc-malta \
                   -initrd ./initrd.img-5.10.0-26-4kc-malta \
                   -append "console=ttyAMA0 debug root=/dev/sda net.ifnames=0" \
                   -hda ./debian-bullseye-mipsel-malta.qcow2 -nographic \
                   -nic user,model=virtio-net-pci,hostfwd=tcp::5555-:22

docker run -p 5555:5555 -v `pwd`:/work --rm -it lazymio/qemu-full \
qemu-system-mips64el -m 512 -M malta -cpu 5KEc -kernel ./vmlinuz-5.10.0-26-5kc-malta \
            -initrd ./initrd.img-5.10.0-26-5kc-malta \
            -append "console=ttyAMA0 debug root=/dev/sda net.ifnames=0" \
            -hda ./debian-bullseye-mips64el-malta.qcow2 \
            -nographic -nic user,model=virtio-net-pci,hostfwd=tcp::5555-:22

Loongarch64

So far, Loongarch64 Debian ports are not complete but we can boot Loong Archlinux and run debian userland inside.

docker run -p 5555:5555 -v `pwd`:/work --rm -it lazymio/qemu-full:v8.2.0 \
qemu-system-loongarch64 -m 1024m -cpu la464-loongarch-cpu \
                    -M virt -append "console=ttyS0 rw debug root=/dev/vda" \
                    -kernel ./vmlinuz-loong64 -initrd ./initrd.img-loong64 \
                    -bios ./bios-loong64-8.1.bin \
                    -hda ./debian-bullseye-loong64.qcow2 --nographic \
                    -nic user,model=virtio-net-pci,hostfwd=tcp::5555-:22

After the system is up, SSH into it and use:

[root@debian-bullseye-loong64 ~]# cd /debian/
[root@debian-bullseye-loong64 debian]# chroot .
root@debian-bullseye-loong64:/# cat /etc/issue
Debian GNU/Linux trixie/sid \n \l

root@debian-bullseye-loong64:/# uname -a
Linux debian-bullseye-loong64 6.7.0-rc2-2 #1 SMP PREEMPT Mon, 27 Nov 2023 08:42:49 +0000 loongarch64 GNU/Linux
root@debian-bullseye-loong64:/# apt
apt 2.7.7 (loong64)
Usage: apt [options] command

apt is a commandline package manager and provides commands for
searching and managing as well as querying information about packages.
It provides the same functionality as the specialized APT tools,
like apt-get and apt-cache, but enables options more suitable for
interactive use by default.

Most used commands:
  list - list packages based on package names
  search - search in package descriptions
  show - show package details
  install - install packages
  reinstall - reinstall packages
  remove - remove packages
  autoremove - automatically remove all unused packages
  update - update list of available packages
  upgrade - upgrade the system by installing/upgrading packages
  full-upgrade - upgrade the system by removing/installing/upgrading packages
  edit-sources - edit the source information file
  satisfy - satisfy dependency strings

See apt(8) for more information about the available commands.
Configuration options and syntax is detailed in apt.conf(5).
Information about how to configure sources can be found in sources.list(5).
Package and version choices can be expressed via apt_preferences(5).
Security details are available in apt-secure(8).
                                        This APT has Super Cow Powers.
root@debian-bullseye-loong64:/#

Or using a docker approach:

pacmam -Syu docker
mkdir -p /etc/docker
# This is important to avoid ip addresses conflicting with host's docker!
echo > /etc/docker/daemon.json <<EOF
{
	"default-address-pools": [
		{"base": "10.99.0.0/16", "size":24}
	]
}
EOF
systemctl start docker && systemctl enable docker
echo "FROM scratch" > /debian/Dockerfile
echo "ADD . /" >> /debian/Dockerfile
cd /debian && docker build -t debian_rootfs .
docker run -it --rm debian_rootfs bash

Once Debian ports is available we can jump over ArchLinux and boot Debian directly.

Usage

SSH

Two users created: root:root and debian:debian and ssh server is up by default.

Resize disk

On host:

qemu-img resize ./debian-bullseye-loong64.qcow2 16G

On emulated targets:

parted /dev/vda resizepart 1 100%
resize2fs /dev/vda
reboot