Q FAQ

This is a work in progress FAQ for the qemu port Q for OS X.

For questions concerning qemu itself or particular guest OSes I've linked the corresponding FAQs.

Mike

Questions of the Moment:
Q: I can't convert my Windows XP VPC7 Image, what's up?
First: There are .vhd formats, that can't be read by Q(emu) at the moment (dynamically expanding). Second, Q(emu) emulates different hardware than VPC. If this is a preconfigured system from M$, You can expect that a) there are drivers on it, that will crash it on qemu or b) the drivers that are needed for qemu are not on the disk. Guests that where manually installed on VPC normally convert OK.

Possible workaround: Convert the "dynamically expanding images" to fixed size images, then import them with build d606 or newer. Guests which where imported with older builds of Q can't write to the diskimage!

Manuals:

Howtos:

QEMU FAQs:

Features:

  • Q: How do I share files between the Host and Guest?
  • A: Choose a custom folder or "Q Shared Files" from the "smb filesharing" selector on the editPC panel. This will provide a SMB share of the chosen folder to the guest. To make mounting inside Windows guests easier use the "Q Windows Drivers". To show them in the guest, check the corresponding button in the editPC panel. Then in the guest double-click the corresponding exe file to install the drivers. You can place files in the shared folder by simply dragging them to the guest's window.

At the moment, Windows filesharing has to be turned off under OS X to use this feature without hassle.

User Interface:

  • Q: Where are all these features hidden/ I can't see the toolbar icon for X?
  • A: Ctrl-click or right-click the toolbar and choose customize... Then add the feature icons you need.
  • Q: How can I make a right-click with my one-button-mouse or my notebook?
  • A: Press the COMMAND-key (Apple-key) while pressing the mouse-button.
  • Q: How can I enable Fullscreen mode?
  • A: Press COMMAND-f. (Does not work if you have enabled Quickdraw mode).
  • Q: How do I access the CD-ROM in my Mac's drive?
  • A1: if the guest is shutdown
    • edit the guest, and check "use builtin cd-rom" in the hardware tab.
    • insert the cdrom
    • start the guest
  • A2: if You insert a new CD while the guest is running:
    • select eject CD-ROM from the toolbar Menu
    • select "use builtin cd-rom" to load the new CD-ROM

Networking:

  • Q: I can't ping machines in my network/www.WHATEVER.com
  • A: The builtin QEMU *firewall* only lets you ping the qemu DHCP server at 10.0.2.2 .
  • Q: How can I reach a guests server service like ssh/http/ftp/smb/xserver from the host ?
  • A: Checkoz the "network" tab in the Q Guest Preferences.

Oldstyle: Add a "-redir" option for every port you would like to redirect from the host to the guest.
Example for a webserver:
-redir tcp:8080::80''[[BR]] This will let you access the guests webserver from your hosts webbrowser with the url  http://localhost:8080/

  • Q: Why is the guest asking for a password when mounting the QEMU share (Q Shared Files)?
  • A: You are running Window Sharing in OS X. Either disable Windows Sharing, or mount the shared OS X folders with the corresponding username and password of your OS X user account.

Win2k/XP example to access your home folder:
open the DOS-console and enter:
net use q: \\10.0.2.4\yourOSXUserName yourOSXUserPassword /USER:yourOSXUserName /PERSISTENT:no

Windows Emulation:

  • Q: What Windows version is best to use?
  • A: General: Use the oldest version of Windows that is supported by the applications you plan to use. See:  Qemu Forum for more information.
  • Q: How do I resize the Guests Window?
  • A: Right-click (command-click) on the Windows desktop. Select "Properties". Select "Settings". Now choose a new screen resolution.
  • Q: How to pass the Windows activation?
  • A: It seams that passing the activation step is easier when the standard VGA adapter is chosen. You can always revert to the Cirrus Logic VGA card afterwards.
  • Q: How to install the best graphics mode?
  • A: First disable any hardware acceleration for VGA in the advanced tab of the screen properties. Then choose the resolution and color depth you need.
  • Q: What are the Q Drivers for?
  • A: They configure the guest to take advantage of the "Q Shared Files" (see: How do I share Files between the Host and Guest?). They reduce CPU usage for Windows9x/ME when the OS is idleling.
  • Q: Windows: I only see a 1MB partition!
  • A: Disable "Mount Q Windows Drivers" on the editPC panel.
  • Q: Windows XP/2000: Can't run Windows Update.
  • A: Enable -win2k-hack during Windows Update.
  • Q: Windows 2000: Can't install (Partition/Formatting Problem).
  • A: Enable -win2k-hack during the installation.

It needs to be replaced with a later version. Best from Service Pack 4.

Hint: If you have upgraded your Windows 2000 Guest PC to Service Pack 3 you can follow this guide to replace the msgina.dll with the original one from your installation CD:  http://www.netadmintools.com/art190.html

If you installed from an installation CD with Service Pack 3 integrated ask a friend or use another Windows 2000 PC to download Service Pack 4 and extract the file "msgina.dl_" using WinRAR. If you have the file, go to Q and create a new 1MB raw image. Drag the image on Mac OS X Harddisk-Utility and click "open" in it's toolbar. Then format it MS-DOS. In the finder drag the msgina.dl_ file onto the disk image and eject/unmount it. Go back to Q, edit the Windows 2000 Guest PC select the disk image as floppy and choose to boot from CD-Rom. Proceed with the guide from above but instead using "EXPAND d:/i386/..." use a: as disk drive letter. Reboot and you should be fine.

Technical:

  • Q: What does the "OpenGL" mode for Q?
  • A: OpenGL is used to draw the guests display output to your screen. This will save CPU time and can speedup emulation. You have to have enough Video RAM to enable that feature (>16mb?). It does not emulate OpenGL for the guest.
  • Q: Where does Q store files?
  • A: Q Folders and Files:
    • /Applications/Q.app/
    • ~/Documents/QEMU/ (with all the VWs .qvm files
    • ~/Library/Prefferences/ch.kberg.q.plist
    • ~/Library/Prefferences/ch.kberg.qemu.plist
    • ~/Desktop/Q Shared Files/ (if smb filesharing was activated)
  • Q: What are .qvm Files
  • A: The .qvm files are packages that contain all the neccessary information and images of a guest. Inside you'll find a configuration.plist (contains the configuration data), the disk images created by Q, save.vm (the vm state of a saved guest and thumbnail.png (the last state of the guests display as a png image)). You can start a guest by double-clicking it's .qvm package.
  • Q: What is the difference between .raw and .qcow(2) images?
  • A: Raw images are 1:1 images, consuming exactly the space they represent. When renamed to .img, they can be mounted inside OS X. Qcow is the qemu native image format. It's a compressed format: the image will grow while you add files to it, but it will not recompress after you delete them or compress newly added files. If you want to do that please refer to the qemu documentation.