1324b2298SPaolo Bonzini.. _direct_005flinux_005fboot: 2324b2298SPaolo Bonzini 3324b2298SPaolo BonziniDirect Linux Boot 4324b2298SPaolo Bonzini----------------- 5324b2298SPaolo Bonzini 6324b2298SPaolo BonziniThis section explains how to launch a Linux kernel inside QEMU without 7324b2298SPaolo Bonzinihaving to make a full bootable image. It is very useful for fast Linux 8324b2298SPaolo Bonzinikernel testing. 9324b2298SPaolo Bonzini 10324b2298SPaolo BonziniThe syntax is: 11324b2298SPaolo Bonzini 12324b2298SPaolo Bonzini.. parsed-literal:: 13324b2298SPaolo Bonzini 14324b2298SPaolo Bonzini |qemu_system| -kernel bzImage -hda rootdisk.img -append "root=/dev/hda" 15324b2298SPaolo Bonzini 16324b2298SPaolo BonziniUse ``-kernel`` to provide the Linux kernel image and ``-append`` to 17324b2298SPaolo Bonzinigive the kernel command line arguments. The ``-initrd`` option can be 18324b2298SPaolo Bonziniused to provide an INITRD image. 19324b2298SPaolo Bonzini 20324b2298SPaolo BonziniIf you do not need graphical output, you can disable it and redirect the 21324b2298SPaolo Bonzinivirtual serial port and the QEMU monitor to the console with the 22324b2298SPaolo Bonzini``-nographic`` option. The typical command line is: 23324b2298SPaolo Bonzini 24324b2298SPaolo Bonzini.. parsed-literal:: 25324b2298SPaolo Bonzini 26324b2298SPaolo Bonzini |qemu_system| -kernel bzImage -hda rootdisk.img \ 27324b2298SPaolo Bonzini -append "root=/dev/hda console=ttyS0" -nographic 28324b2298SPaolo Bonzini 29324b2298SPaolo BonziniUse Ctrl-a c to switch between the serial console and the monitor (see 30*d6359e15SPeter Maydell:ref:`GUI_keys`). 31