Bootstrapping Raspberry Pi OS on QEMU: A Step-by-Step Guide for M1 Mac Users

As a developer or enthusiast, you may want to emulate Raspberry Pi OS on your M1 Mac using QEMU. In this article, we will explore the process of booting Linux successfully on Raspi3b with QEMU. We'll also discuss some common issues and their solutions.

Prerequisites

To get started, make sure you have QEMU version 6.2.0 or later installed on your M1 Mac. You can verify this by running `qemu-system-aarch64 -M raspi3b` in your terminal. Additionally, you'll need to create a bootable Micro SD card for Raspberry Pi OS Lite 64-bit using Raspberry Pi imager.

Step-by-Step Instructions

To emulate Raspberry Pi OS on QEMU, follow these steps:

1. Create an image of the SD card using the `Linux dd` command.

2. Resize the SD card image to a power-of-2 size using `qemu-img resize`.

3. Use `qemu-system-aarch64 -M raspi3b` to launch QEMU with the resized SD card image.

4. Add the necessary kernel and dtb files as arguments, for example:

```

qemu-system-aarch64 -M raspi3b -kernel /buildroot-2020.02.8/output/images/sdcard.img -sd rpios64.img -append 'rw earlyprintk loglevel=8 console=ttyAMA0,115200 dwc_otg.lpm_enable=0' -dtb buildroot-2020.02.8/output/images/bcm2837-rpi-3-b.dt -serial stdio

```

5. Once QEMU is running, you can connect to the VNC server using a VNC client like Vinagre (version 3.22).

Troubleshooting Common Issues

If you encounter issues while booting Linux on Raspi3b with QEMU, here are some common solutions:

* If the display is black, try adjusting the console settings or enabling earlyprintk.

* If the VNC server doesn't start, check the kernel and dtb files for any errors.

In this article, we've covered the steps to boot Raspberry Pi OS on QEMU using an M1 Mac. By following these instructions, you should be able to successfully emulate Raspi3b with QEMU. If you encounter any issues or have further questions, feel free to ask in the comments section below.

Additional Information

For those interested in virtualizing specific operating systems, UTM (QEMU) and Parallels are both viable options on M1 Macs. While both have their advantages and limitations, UTM (QEMU) tends to perform better for Linux virtualization, whereas Parallels excels at Windows virtualization.

I hope you found this article helpful in your journey to boot Raspberry Pi OS on QEMU with an M1 Mac. Happy emulating!

Qemu m1 linux