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Creation and revision dates

This page was created on 2010/08/11. Last revised 2010/08/11.

What is QEMU and why use it

QEMU provides a virtual machine that will run Slitaz within XP. It allows to test an operating system environment without rebooting out of XP; you can eg test Slitaz this way.

Compared with eg Virtual Box (which I am also using regularly), QEMU is initially much faster and easier to set up. You will also have less problems if you are somewhat memory constrained (which you are, if you have less than 1.0 or 1.5 GB RAM). Performancewise, both virtualisation plateforms looked similar to me.

If you just want to try Slitaz and VirtualBox is not yet installed on your machine, prefer the QEMU solution described here.

Requirements

This works on XP with Slitaz 3.0 (should work with all version of Slitaz).

Install QEMU

Go to Pendrivelinux.com and download the QEMU PC hardware emulator installer (QPU804.exe) This executable is actually a self-extracting archive. When you run it you just need to tell the installer where to unzip the contents. The result will be a folder named QPU804.

Copy the SliTaz ISO to that folder. You now have a virtualized SliTaz installation that can run alongside Windows. The QEMU set up can execute any ISO that you put on that folder (you can also install the QPU804 files and the SliTaz ISO in a flash drive subdirectory and run the virtual machine from that location).

Start QEMU

Execute QPU804.bat to start your virtual machine (it will advertise it is running Ubuntu but really it will run the ISO you copied to that folder, Slitaz.iso in this case).

Getting in and out of the QEMU Window

To move the mouse out of the QEMU screen window press ctrl keep it pressed and press alt key simultaneously. To go back there just left click in the window.

Sharing files between XP and Slitaz

If you start a file manager window within Slitaz, you will see a partition labeled “QEMU VVFAT”; if you go there you will see a file which is shared with XP, located in the XP “QPU804\shared folder” folder.

Screen resolution

I ended up with a 800×600 screen, (I believe). I did played a little bit with the options to get a different resolution - with no success. You may want to read the QEMU documentation and play with the available options from both QEMU and Slitaz to get a higher resolution.

The only thing I really succeded was to add the -full-screen option to the qemu command line of the QPU804.BAT file, to get a full screen Slitaz.

I want to keep the changes I made in Slitaz

Private data

Copy any private data created in Slitaz the shared directory, it will survive a virtual machine reboot.

Keeping system changes

If you updated the system and would like to keep your changes for the next time, go to System→ Create a liveCD (refer to the LiveCD section of the documentation).

The writeISO panel will create a bootable image of Slitaz with your latest changes and store that file in /home/slitaz/distro/slitaz.iso.

In the Slitaz environment, Copy-paste that slitaz.iso file to the shared folder. Then from XP you will be able to copy that iso file from QPU804\shared folder to QPU804 folder, replacing the existing ISO file. Next time you start QEMU, it will boot from you new ISO which brings you back to the same environment.

Installing QEMU

Alternatively, refer to the QEMU documentation to start QEMU with a “virtual disk” file, where you will be able to install Slitaz using the System Tools → Slitaz Installer.

(Not tested with Slitaz but tested with other systems in the past)

 
en/guides/qemu.1281485336.txt.gz · Last modified: 2010/08/11 02:08 by stork