QEMU: Emulating Your Way to Success - Ben Dooks, Codethink

QEMU: Emulating Your Way to Success - Ben Dooks, Codethink

QEMU is a versatile virtualiser and emulator that runs and emulates many of today's modern systems. It can be helpful in many projects from developing new Linux systems or drivers, creating test rigs, bootstrapping distributions to tinkering with new systems without having to leave the comfort of your PC. Codethink has used QEMU in a number of projects in various configurations and in this talk we will share methods of using QEMU, configuration examples, interfaces and internals that make this all happen. The talk will look at how low level kernel features can be tested in isolation from the machine it is running on and how QEMU can transform what CPU features are exposed to the kernel-under-test to allow a consistent test environment and even emulate features that might not be available on the host. Another example will be how QEMU was used to provide emulation of pre-production hardware to allow software development before new silicon made it out of the fab. We will go over some of the issues around this and the work required to make it happen. Other examples include virtualisation of test farms, the use of QEMU to help with cross-bootstrap of operating systems, migration support and where else it gets used.