QEMU for Kernel Development

Purpose

Guide agents through QEMU-based kernel and driver development workflows: building/booting custom kernels, attaching virtio block/network, using Buildroot or minimal initramfs, and rapid module test cycles — focused on kernel dev vs general skills/virtualization/qemu-kvm.

When to Use

Test kernel patch without bare metal
Develop driver against virtio or emulated DT platform
CI kernel boot smoke test
NFS or 9p root for fast edit-compile-test

Workflow

1. Minimal direct kernel boot (arm64 virt)

qemu-system-aarch64 \
  -machine virt -cpu cortex-a57 -smp 4 -m 2G \
  -kernel arch/arm64/boot/Image \
  -append "console=ttyAMA0 root=/dev/vda rw" \
  -drive if=virtio,file=rootfs.ext4,format=raw \
  -netdev user,id=net0 -device virtio-net-device,netdev=net0 \
  -nographic

x86_64:

qemu-system-x86_64 -enable-kvm -m 4G -smp 4 \
  -kernel arch/x86/boot/bzImage \
  -append "console=ttyS0 root=/dev/vda rw" \
  -drive file=rootfs.img,format=raw,if=virtio \
  -nographic

2. Buildroot rootfs loop

cd buildroot
make qemu_aarch64_virt_defconfig
make
# output/images/Image, rootfs.ext4

Integrate custom kernel: set BR2_LINUX_KERNEL_CUSTOM_VERSION or external tree.

3. Out-of-tree module test

# on host — cross build
make -C $KERNEL_SRC M=$PWD modules
# in guest or via initramfs
insmod mydriver.ko
dmesg | tail

Share tree with 9p:

-fsdev local,id=dev,path=$PWD,security_model=none \
-device virtio-9p-pci,fsdev=dev,mount_tag=hostshare
# guest: mount -t 9p -o trans=virtio hostshare /mnt

4. GDB stub for kernel

qemu-system-aarch64 ... -s -S
gdb vmlinux
(gdb) target remote :1234
(gdb) break start_kernel

Use CONFIG_KGDB for live kernel debugging after boot.

5. Device tree overrides

qemu-system-aarch64 -machine virt -dtb myboard.dtb ...

virt machine provides virtio devices; platform drivers can target QEMU -device models.

6. Agent usage

/qemu-for-kernel-development Boot arm64 virt with custom Image and virtio rootfs for driver CI

Common Problems

Symptom	Cause	Fix
Kernel panic no root	Wrong `root=`	`root=/dev/vda` for virtio blk
No console output	Missing `console=` on cmdline	`console=ttyAMA0` / `ttyS0`
Module vermagic error	Built against wrong tree	Same `KERNEL_SRC` as booted image
Slow without KVM	TCG emulation	`-enable-kvm` on x86 host
DTB mismatch	Wrong machine	Use `virt` DTB from kernel `make dtbs`

Related Skills

skills/virtualization/qemu-kvm — KVM, VFIO, libvirt
skills/qemu/qemu-embedded-simulation — bare-metal MCU QEMU
skills/kernel/kernel-testing — KUnit, kselftest
skills/kernel-dev/device-tree — DT for virt/platform
skills/debuggers/gdb — remote GDB basics