Direct Linux Boot — QEMU documentation

# Direct Linux Boot

This section explains how to launch a Linux kernel inside QEMU without having to make a full bootable image. It is very useful for fast Linux kernel testing.

The syntax is:

    qemu-system-x86_64 -kernel bzImage -drive file=rootdisk.img,format=raw -append "root=/dev/sda"

Use `-kernel` to provide the Linux kernel image and `-append` to give the kernel command line arguments. The `-initrd` option can be used to provide an INITRD image.

If you do not need graphical output, you can disable it and redirect the virtual serial port and the QEMU monitor to the console with the `-nographic` option. The typical command line is:

    qemu-system-x86_64 -kernel bzImage -drive file=rootdisk.img,format=raw                  -append "root=/dev/sda console=ttyS0" -nographic

Use `Ctrl`+`a` `c` to switch between the serial console and the monitor (see Keys in the graphical frontends).