docs/system/linuxboot.rst

   1 .. _direct_005flinux_005fboot:
   2
   3 Direct Linux Boot
   4 -----------------
   5
   6 This section explains how to launch a Linux kernel inside QEMU without
   7 having to make a full bootable image. It is very useful for fast Linux
   8 kernel testing.
   9
  10 The syntax is:
  11
  12 .. parsed-literal::
  13
  14    |qemu_system| -kernel bzImage -hda rootdisk.img -append "root=/dev/hda"
  15
  16 Use ``-kernel`` to provide the Linux kernel image and ``-append`` to
  17 give the kernel command line arguments. The ``-initrd`` option can be
  18 used to provide an INITRD image.
  19
  20 If you do not need graphical output, you can disable it and redirect the
  21 virtual serial port and the QEMU monitor to the console with the
  22 ``-nographic`` option. The typical command line is:
  23
  24 .. parsed-literal::
  25
  26    |qemu_system| -kernel bzImage -hda rootdisk.img \
  27                     -append "root=/dev/hda console=ttyS0" -nographic
  28
  29 Use Ctrl-a c to switch between the serial console and the monitor (see
  30 :ref:`pcsys_005fkeys`).