Re: [Qemu-discuss] Native 32bit Windows Compile of QEMU 2.1.1 and/or QEMU 2.0.2

[Paul Gydos]

This is an interesting article by my collegue Mike Levin who was trying to do the same task about 2 years ago - he gave up and instead used a pre-compiled binary for Windows. He was doing this to build Levinux which although has similiar goals was really more ambitious since it was really a portable virtual computer which you could port to all the different popular x86 Operating Systems - I simply want mine to be able to launch and give you the same operating system inside QEMU no matter which system you launch if from - it doesn't have to be able to be portable from system to system - Levinux has many of the same goals of being a very small footprint with virualizer and system - being a busybox based command line linux which also includes python2 and git - I'm still with all that but I'm sticking with busybox's version of vi instead of including vim and I'm builiding mine on 4MLinux Core instead of TinyCore's MicroCore - I chucked Microcore because its trying to do a lot of cool things which I'm not trying to get into with my learning linux and have to be undone - but though I'm really sold on this following recipe of QEMU + 4MLInux Core + Python2 + Git + a couple of applications which I will add on top of this - I am sidelined by this interesting challenge of compiling QEMU in Windows - so now here is his article about the challenges and lessons received by Mike's attempt to do it: http://mikelev.in/2012/10/compiling-qemu-for-windows-help/

On Mon, Sep 15, 2014 at 9:46 AM, Jerry Stuckle <address@hidden> wrote:

On 9/14/2014 11:37 PM, Paul Gydos wrote:
> I am currently trying to compile on a 32 bit Windows 7 Pro SP1 system a
> recent and up-to-date QEMU (2.1.1 or 2.0.2 right from the primary
> download page as opposed to from git)right in my CMD command prompt
> window preferably, but willing to do it any way a reasonable beginner
> can do it.
>
> The virtual machine I need will simply be a an x86.
>
> It has been suggested to use GTK+ instead of the currently listed
> dependencies for creating a MinGW environment. It has also been
> suggested to use a 32 bit version of MinGW-W64 instead of mingw32. After
> the person making suggestions ceased making suggestions and then said he
> didn't have actual experience doing this.
>
> So far all documentation I have found is years and years old and leads
> to failure. There seems to be an endless number of possible combinations
> of the needed tools, which is the combination that will work?
>
> I realize that windows is not popular among the open and free community
> but for my case use it is essential. My case use is to introduce new
> students coming from multiple popular platforms Win7/Win8.1, Ubuntu
> 14.04 LTS, Etc. to an exact alike simple command line linux plus busybox
> system with a c library. The system will also have python2 and git and
> the goal is to learn how to navigate a simple linux system, but mostly
> to learn vi, git, and python2 so that they learn how to use a simple and
> classic text editor, I'm going to build my OS on top of the 4MLinux Core
> and keep it as light as possible even though it has current linux
> kernel, current busybox, and a current glibc. I'm hoping to put that all
> inside a current qemu.
>
> I have used QEMU Manager to run the 4MLinux Core. However I would like
> to become proficient in QEMU and I would like an up to date build which
> I have full command line access to. It seems wise to have all that I
> would need to compile my build if I actually want to be accessing QEMU
> in that manner - but hey I'm a noob to this so what do I know.
>
> I am willing to follow reasonable directions to make my environment,
> including specific files, changing environmental variables like PATH,
> from someone who actually has experience doing it.
>
> I will document every step I follow, and make public my findings for
> documentation purposes breaking it down ad nauseum for the newbie. I
> believe that qemu is a wonderful tool and would like to see the newbie
> community have more access to it.
>
> It does seem that up-to-date QEMU documentation that would be helpful to
> the beginner and doesn't exclude the Windows community couldn't hurt the
> project.
>
> Any help please? I have notes on what I have done thus far but since I
> have no evidence that I'm going the right direction I'm putting this out
> as a more general topic,

Paul,

I have to agree with others.  I think QEMU is overkill for your needs.

I have a Windows machine (out of necessity, unfortunately), but do a lot
of Linux development.  I use VirtualBox for running X86 Linux systems.
I also use QEMU for emulating ARM-based systems.

QEMU is great at emulating different hardware.  But if you're running an
X86 system on X86 hardware, there are better solutions.

Jerry