[SOLVED] Can't install Arch Linux under QEMU. Help Needed!

[brackenhill-mob]

I want to return to OpenWrt after a while with ipFire, but I have one NodeJS comms app (our corporate video conferencing app) which won't install in OpenWrt because there is no package that provides libdl.so (at least I haven't been able to find it). I'm running on a large x86 PC.

So my solution is to install Arch Linux as a VM under QEMU, as I know our app works (I had to do this on ipFire too).

But how do I do this with only qemu-system-x86_64? I've used this in the past without issue on several VPSs running Ubuntu and Arch, but on OpenWrt I cannot view the screen - I just see "VNC server running on ::1:5900" as the network doesn't load - it pops up in DHCP for about 3 seconds and then dies.

I've got a VM of Debian and Ubuntu running using the Wiki page but I cannot get Arch to run the installer. I tried extracting the kernel from Arch's netboot ISO which starts to load and then kernel panics. I have to get Arch to load as it is the only approved flavour of Linux for our company due to the way we harden it.

I've tried adding -cdrom and various varieties of -drive but drawn a blank.

This is the code I'm using (adapted from my working version of the script on the Wiki)

qemu-system-x86_64 -enable-kvm -cpu host -smp 2 -m 4G \
	-cdrom arch.iso \
	-drive file=arch.qcow2,if=virtio \
	-device virtio-net-pci,mac=E2:F2:6A:01:9D:C9,netdev=br0 \
	-netdev bridge,br=br-lan,id=br0 \
	-nographic

I'm not familiar with qemu-system-x86_64 - I've always used libvirt - so I'm keen to learn. I'm obviously being dumb but I'm stumped so all help gratefully received.

[brada4]

Install more practical vm host - debian, alpine, arch, ubuntu. Then openwrt can route between interfaces if needed, along with dozen re-attachable vms with 24x7 work desktops

[andyboeh]

Did I understand correctly that you would like to use OpenWrt as your main operating system on this machine and run just one single service in a VM?

If so, would running your service in a docker container or an LXC container be an option? I have two OpenWrt machines with LXC containers, they perform quite well.

[brackenhill-mob]

Yes, that's correct. I've never used docker or lxc containers. How well will they cope with video comms apps?

For my own peace of mind, I still want to figure out how to get non-debian OS's to install into qemu...

[Triwoog]

Ive never run qemu with openwrt as a host BUT I run a lot of arch in qemu's with arch host. I also usually run uefi guests.

Maybe these options can help (they may be outdated as I set them alooong time ago and just keep re-using)

-machine type=q35,accel=kvm,kernel_irqchip=on,hpet=off \
-cpu host,kvm=off,hv_vendor_id=nullzilla,hv_relaxed,hv_vpindex,hv_time,hv_synic,hv_stimer,hv_spinlocks=0x1fff \
-smp 2,sockets=1,cores=1,threads=2 \


for the drive I use: 
-drive format=qcow2,file=drive0.qcow2

for cdrom I use: 
-drive file=arch.iso,index=2,media=cdrom

[Triwoog]

I just created a quick machine with arch as host and guest. I don't have an openwrt machine on an x86

I see arch now has premade vm's.
I grabbed the basic qcow2 from the VM section from https://archlinux.org/download/ and saved it as drive0.qcow2
Read the readme shown in the VM section. It also has the user/pass as arch/arch.

I then created the start script to run it (don't forget the chmod +x script)

#!/bin/sh
vmname="a_test"
macaddr="aa:aa:aa:aa:00:01"

qemu-system-x86_64 \
-name $vmname,process=$vmname \
-enable-kvm \
-machine type=q35,accel=kvm,kernel_irqchip=on,hpet=off \
-cpu host,kvm=off,hv_vendor_id=nullzilla,hv_relaxed,hv_vpindex,hv_time,hv_synic,hv_stimer,hv_spinlocks=0x1fff \
-smp 2,sockets=1,cores=1,threads=2 \
-m 4G -mem-prealloc \
-usb -device usb-tablet \
-vga qxl \
-vnc :1 \
-nographic \
-drive format=qcow2,file=drive0.qcow2,if=virtio \
-net nic,macaddr=$macaddr -net bridge,br=br_qemus

Side Notes:
-I am wondering if you are seeing the nic during the "pxe boot" section when you mention 3 seconds.
-also, as a reminder vnc :1 is port 5901

[Triwoog]

cdrom install version

grabbed the latest arch linux iso and saved it as arch.iso
created a new qcow2 image: qemu-img create -f qcow2 drive0.qcow2 20G

used the start script (dont forget to chmod +x startscript

#!/bin/bash
vmname="a_test"
macaddr="aa:aa:aa:aa:00:01"

qemu-system-x86_64 \
-name $vmname,process=$vmname \
-enable-kvm \
-machine type=q35,accel=kvm,kernel_irqchip=on,hpet=off \
-cpu host,kvm=off,hv_vendor_id=nullzilla,hv_relaxed,hv_vpindex,hv_time,hv_synic,hv_stimer,hv_spinlocks=0x1fff \
-smp 2,sockets=1,cores=1,threads=2 \
-m 4G -mem-prealloc \
-usb -device usb-tablet \
-vga qxl \
-vnc :1 \
-nographic \
-drive format=qcow2,file=drive0.qcow2,if=virtio \
-drive file=arch.iso,index=2,media=cdrom \
-net nic,macaddr=$macaddr -net bridge,br=br_qemus \
-boot menu=on

It immediately loads into selection screen.
cli looks like:

vnc looks like:

After the selection screen the cli terminal stops working (as expected)
After the selection screen the vnc client needed to reconnect.

It ran archinstall
I haven't used archinstall before (it's relatively a new thing). But I think this is as far as you were looking.

side note:
-I usually use a lot more options (don't forget vnc in this example is not protected)
-I use spice in a lot of my machines. especially gui. audio, usb passthrough from client, etc...
-I like using remmina as the client. It supports spice, rdp, vnc, etc... nicely.
-I found it annoying to use \ in the start scripts a LOOONG time ago as its extra steps to add/remove lines. Doing it this way you can just comment out what you don't want and add/remove as you wish
I do it like:

#!/bin/bash
vmname="a_test"
macaddr="aa:aa:aa:aa:00:01"
port_vnc=1

OPTS=""
OPTS="$OPTS -name $vmname,process=$vmname"
OPTS="$OPTS -enable-kvm"
OPTS="$OPTS -machine type=q35,accel=kvm,kernel_irqchip=on,hpet=off"
OPTS="$OPTS -cpu host,kvm=off,hv_vendor_id=nullzilla,hv_relaxed,hv_vpindex,hv_time,hv_synic,hv_stimer,hv_spinlocks=0x1fff"
OPTS="$OPTS -smp 2,sockets=1,cores=1,threads=2"
OPTS="$OPTS -m 4G -mem-prealloc"
OPTS="$OPTS -usb -device usb-tablet"
OPTS="$OPTS -vga qxl"
OPTS="$OPTS -vnc :$port_vnc"
OPTS="$OPTS -nographic"
OPTS="$OPTS -drive format=qcow2,file=drive0.qcow2,if=virtio"
OPTS="$OPTS -drive file=arch.iso,index=2,media=cdrom"
OPTS="$OPTS -net nic,macaddr=$macaddr -net bridge,br=br_qemus"
OPTS="$OPTS -boot menu=on"

echo qemu-system-x86_64 $OPTS
echo ========================
echo
qemu-system-x86_64 $OPTS

[brackenhill-mob]

Wow, I've just woken up and seen your messages @Triwoog - thank you so much

@Triwoog

-I am wondering if you are seeing the nic during the "pxe boot" section when you mention 3 seconds.

I think you are 100% correct!

@Triwoog

After the selection screen the cli terminal stops working (as expected)
After the selection screen the vnc client needed to reconnect.

I think this could be my issue. How do I get a vnc client to reconnect? I presume on the OpenWrt host rather than my PC (as there isn't an IP I can attach to)?

I've got to prepare to go to work now, but I'll try your steps above later today and report back

Thanks again

[brackenhill-mob]

@Triwoog You are my hero! Thank you so much.

The solution was to put the IP address of the OpenWrt box in the -vnc line as in

-vnc 192.168.1.1:5901

So simple. I would never have realised this without your nudge to reconnect the vnc client. A huge thank you.