macos-qemu-rpi

Bash scripts to run Raspbian (ARM architecture) on macOS Catalina using QEMU

Note on Native Emulation Alternative

As of October 2020, consider leveraging QEMU's native emulation of the Raspi2/3 that became available instead of running the scripts in this directory. Navigate to the native-emulation/ directory to try native emulation. QEMU version 5.1 or higher is required.

See https://github.com/dhruvvyas90/qemu-rpi-kernel/tree/master/native-emuation for background information on the use of QEMU's native emulation.

Installation

Install homebrew, if you haven't already. Next, run the following script:

./install.sh

Running Raspbian in QEMU

./run.sh

This script doesn't require macOS, but the Raspbian image/kernel and QEMU are required.

Note that this scripts forwards port TCP/5022 on the host (e.g., macOS) to port TCP/22 on the Raspbian guest where Raspbian's SSH server is listening. To run Raspbian in QEMU, no other application including Raspbian may listen on port TCP/5022 on the host.

Logging into Raspbian

Either log in via the QEMU console or use SSH:

ssh -F /dev/null -o "PreferredAuthentications password" -o "PasswordAuthentication yes" -p 5022 pi@127.0.0.1

If you can't connect, sshd probably failed to start in QEMU. In this case, log in via the QEMU console, and then run sudo service ssh restart to restart sshd in QEMU.

To get a root shell, run the following:

sudo bash

Note that no desktop manager is running, as the "Lite" image is used. See https://www.raspberrypi.org/software/operating-systems/ for pointers to other images.

Shutting Down Raspbian

Log into Raspbian, and then execute sudo halt in the Raspbian shell.

Tutorials

Advanced configuration instructions under Raspbian are provided at https://azeria-labs.com/emulate-raspberry-pi-with-qemu/

Acknowledgements

Scripts in this repository are based on https://gist.github.com/hfreire/5846b7aa4ac9209699ba#gistcomment-3075728 . Credit goes to @janwillemCA, @tinjaw, and the other contributors to that GitHub gist.