Re: [Qemu-devel] No useful documentation.

[Jamie Lokier]

Daniel Carrera wrote:
> In any event, since you find it so easy to use, could you please tell me
> how to use it?

I don't use it any more, I only needed it for a couple of days as it
happens.  So I've completely forgotten everything, sorry ;-)

Well, 

> The only reason why now I have a fair idea of how it works is because
> someone told me (on a different list). And it only took them 2
> sentences. They said that the way qemu works is, you first create a
> blank disk image and then boot the virtual machine from a CD ROM and
> install normally.
>
  There, that's just one sentence. That's an example of useful
> documentation, and notice that it's not long. Indeed, it's quite
> short.

I guess that's where I found it clear to me.

You see, I started from the view that Qemu is a PC simulator.

So it must simulate a hard disk, a CD ROM, a network card, etc.
Everything just like a real PC, but in a window.

So the process of installing an OS on it is exactly the same as
installing an OS on an ordinary PC.  Which is usually from CD these
days, but you can use a floppy too.

The only difference really is everything is simulated, so you use a
file containing a CD image instead of a real CD, a file containing a
hard disk image instead of a real hard disk, some options to simulate
a network card instead of a real one, etc., some options to simulate a
mouse and video card, etc.

The actual procedure for installing Windows or whatever is pretty much
identical to doing it on a real PC.

That doesn't mean it's easy, but the hard (or tedious) part is
generally not with using Qemu, but with using a PC to install Windows
or whatever.

That can be quite difficult sometimes, but those wouldn't really be
Qemu questions as long as it's simulating a PC ok - they'd be OS
installation questions for any kind of PC.

> To make this complete, all I need now is a command to tell me how
> to actually boot qemu and point it to both the CD DROM (e.g. the
> Ubuntu install CD, or the Windows install CD) an my newly-created
> blank disk image.

I think Nathaniel just posted a list of command line options.

Though, "qemu --help" and "man qemu" seem to list them too.

> I should note another thing: Because the problem
> I'm pointing to is so fundamental, you're much less likely to hear
> about it. You're not going to hear about it much if the problem is
> that people can't even get started. You're only going to hear about
> problems that occur after someone gets started. I notice in your
> question that you assumed that I knew how to install at least one OS
> with qemu; I don't.

Actually I didn't assume that.

I assumed you knew how to install at least one OS on an ordinary PC.

Installing it in Qemu is pretty much the same, other than using
simulated devices instead of real ones.  And the simulated devices are
really easy to specify.  There's a command line option to say that a
.iso file contains a simulated CD-ROM image (the same .iso file you'd
use for writing a CD-ROM), another option to say what file contains
the simulated hard disk, another option to say that you want to boot
from CD-ROM (simulated) instead of simulated floppy.  I don't have
Qemu installed right now to say what those options are exactly, but I
remember that's not much more than those, if anything, and then you
get a window which looks just like a PC booting off CD-ROM... and you
do the same as you would with a real one from then on.
   
-- Jamie