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| -rw-r--r-- | docs/system/target-arm.rst | 66 |
1 files changed, 64 insertions, 2 deletions
diff --git a/docs/system/target-arm.rst b/docs/system/target-arm.rst index c7df6fc1f9..86ea6f2f56 100644 --- a/docs/system/target-arm.rst +++ b/docs/system/target-arm.rst @@ -1,9 +1,71 @@ .. _ARM-System-emulator: -ARM System emulator +Arm System emulator ------------------- -Use the executable ``qemu-system-arm`` to simulate a ARM machine. +QEMU can emulate both 32-bit and 64-bit Arm CPUs. Use the +``qemu-system-aarch64`` executable to simulate a 64-bit Arm machine. +You can use either ``qemu-system-arm`` or ``qemu-system-aarch64`` +to simulate a 32-bit Arm machine: in general, command lines that +work for ``qemu-system-arm`` will behave the same when used with +``qemu-system-aarch64``. + +QEMU has generally good support for Arm guests. It has support for +nearly fifty different machines. The reason we support so many is that +Arm hardware is much more widely varying than x86 hardware. Arm CPUs +are generally built into "system-on-chip" (SoC) designs created by +many different companies with different devices, and these SoCs are +then built into machines which can vary still further even if they use +the same SoC. Even with fifty boards QEMU does not cover more than a +small fraction of the Arm hardware ecosystem. + +The situation for 64-bit Arm is fairly similar, except that we don't +implement so many different machines. + +As well as the more common "A-profile" CPUs (which have MMUs and will +run Linux) QEMU also supports "M-profile" CPUs such as the Cortex-M0, +Cortex-M4 and Cortex-M33 (which are microcontrollers used in very +embedded boards). For most boards the CPU type is fixed (matching what +the hardware has), so typically you don't need to specify the CPU type +by hand, except for special cases like the ``virt`` board. + +Choosing a board model +====================== + +For QEMU's Arm system emulation, you must specify which board +model you want to use with the ``-M`` or ``--machine`` option; +there is no default. + +Because Arm systems differ so much and in fundamental ways, typically +operating system or firmware images intended to run on one machine +will not run at all on any other. This is often surprising for new +users who are used to the x86 world where every system looks like a +standard PC. (Once the kernel has booted, most userspace software +cares much less about the detail of the hardware.) + +If you already have a system image or a kernel that works on hardware +and you want to boot with QEMU, check whether QEMU lists that machine +in its ``-machine help`` output. If it is listed, then you can probably +use that board model. If it is not listed, then unfortunately your image +will almost certainly not boot on QEMU. (You might be able to +extract the filesystem and use that with a different kernel which +boots on a system that QEMU does emulate.) + +If you don't care about reproducing the idiosyncrasies of a particular +bit of hardware, such as small amount of RAM, no PCI or other hard +disk, etc., and just want to run Linux, the best option is to use the +``virt`` board. This is a platform which doesn't correspond to any +real hardware and is designed for use in virtual machines. You'll +need to compile Linux with a suitable configuration for running on +the ``virt`` board. ``virt`` supports PCI, virtio, recent CPUs and +large amounts of RAM. It also supports 64-bit CPUs. + +Board-specific documentation +============================ + +Unfortunately many of the Arm boards QEMU supports are currently +undocumented; you can get a complete list by running +``qemu-system-aarch64 --machine help``. .. toctree:: |