5 QEMU and Debian

QEMU works well with Debian Linux. To ``install'' Debian Linux, first create a single file that appears to be a drive. You can use the command qemu-img. For example, to create a disk image file that is 10GB, do the following:

qemu-img create f:\debian.img 2G

Note that I chose f: assuming it is a flash drive.

Next, you need to download the network installation CDROM image from Debian. At the time of this writing, the CDROM image is at http://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/3.1_r2/i386/iso-cd/debian-31r2-i386-netinst.iso. Check the Debian web site (http://www.debian.org if this file is no longer available.

Now, make a copy of qemu-win.bat, and call the new one qemu-deb.bat. Change the command line as follows:

• add the option -boot d to boot from CDROM.
• change the option -hda ... to -hda f:\debian.img.
• add the option -cdrom ... to identify the CDROM image of the network installer, ... should be replaced by the path to the ISO file downloaded from Debian.

If all works well, the installer should start up with you enter the command qemu-deb.

The actual process to install Debian Linux will be discussed in another module.