Ah, good question! I found an image and instructions at http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Architectures/ARM/HowToQemu#Using_QEMU_without_libvirt that was a bit easier to work through, and sure enough, it works on Linux but not on OS X.
Linux precise64 3.2.0-37-generic: vagrant@precise64:/opt/qemu-images/arm/fedora$ /home/vagrant/qemu-2.2.0/arm-softmmu/qemu-system-arm -M versatilepb -kernel zImage-qemu-versatile-3.0.8-4.fc17.armv5tel -hdc rootfs-f12 -append "root=0800 console=ttyAMA0" -nographic audio: Could not init `oss' audio driver Uncompressing Linux... done, booting the kernel. Linux version 3.0.8 (jcapik@vega) (gcc version 4.1.2 20070925 (Red Hat 4.1.2-33.fa1)) #16 Wed Mar 28 15:07:56 CEST 2012 CPU: ARM926EJ-S [41069265] revision 5 (ARMv5TEJ), cr=00093177 CPU: VIVT data cache, VIVT instruction cache Machine: ARM-Versatile PB Memory policy: ECC disabled, Data cache writeback sched_clock: 32 bits at 24MHz, resolution 41ns, wraps every 178956ms ... ------------------------- OS X (just built QEMU 2.2.0 from source): $ /Users/epall/bigcode/qemu/arm-softmmu/qemu-system-arm -M versatilepb -kernel zImage-qemu-versatile-3.0.8-4.fc17.armv5tel -hdc rootfs-f12 -append "root=0800 console=ttyAMA0" -nographic Uncompressing Linux... done, booting the kernel. -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of qemu- devel-ml, which is subscribed to QEMU. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1406016 Title: qemu-system-arm hangs at start on OS X Status in QEMU: New Bug description: Both from release 2.1.2 and built from a recent source, qemu-system- arm seems to hang immediately after starting up, never getting to the point of actually booting. I've tried qemu-system-mipsel with another image and it worked fine, so this seems to be specific to the ARM runtime. I've tried two different ARM kernels, and I also ran into this with QEMU 2.1.2 release, installed from a bottle using homebrew. Host: Mac OS X 10.9.5 (Darwin Kernel Version 13.4.0) QEMU version: built from HEAD@ab0302ee76 Build command: ./configure --enable-cocoa --target-list=arm-softmmu,mipsel-softmmu && make Run command: qemu-system-arm -M vexpress-a9 -cpu cortex-a9 -m 256 -sd disk.img -net nic,macaddr=52:54:00:fa:ce:13 -kernel vmlinuz-3.2.0-4-vexpress -initrd initrd.gz -append "root=/dev/ram" -display vnc=localhost:17 -net user,hostfwd=tcp::5022-:22 -append "console=ttyS0" I also tried this, with a different kernel & root: qemu-system-arm -kernel zImage -cpu arm1176 -m 256 -M versatilepb -no- reboot -serial stdio -hda rootfs-chromium.ext2 -append "root=/dev/sda" Thread dump: (lldb) thread list Process 34364 stopped * thread #1: tid = 0x135966, 0x00007fff89f4a746 libsystem_kernel.dylib`__psynch_mutexwait + 10, queue = 'com.apple.main-thread', stop reason = signal SIGSTOP thread #2: tid = 0x13598b, 0x00007fff89f4ae6a libsystem_kernel.dylib`__workq_kernreturn + 10 thread #3: tid = 0x13598c, 0x00007fff89f4b662 libsystem_kernel.dylib`kevent64 + 10, queue = 'com.apple.libdispatch-manager' thread #7: tid = 0x1359b2, 0x00007fff89f4acc2 libsystem_kernel.dylib`__sigwait + 10 thread #9: tid = 0x1359c1, 0x00000001091bc5d9 thread #11: tid = 0x1359cc, 0x00007fff89f4a716 libsystem_kernel.dylib`__psynch_cvwait + 10 thread #12: tid = 0x1359da, 0x00007fff89f46a1a libsystem_kernel.dylib`mach_msg_trap + 10, name = 'com.apple.audio.IOThread.client' ------- * thread #1: tid = 0x135966, 0x00007fff89f4a746 libsystem_kernel.dylib`__psynch_mutexwait + 10, queue = 'com.apple.main-thread', stop reason = signal SIGSTOP * frame #0: 0x00007fff89f4a746 libsystem_kernel.dylib`__psynch_mutexwait + 10 frame #1: 0x00007fff8e05f779 libsystem_pthread.dylib`_pthread_mutex_lock + 372 frame #2: 0x000000010033e8e9 qemu-system-arm`qemu_mutex_lock(mutex=<unavailable>) + 25 at qemu-thread-posix.c:76 frame #3: 0x000000010002d742 qemu-system-arm`qemu_mutex_lock_iothread + 98 at cpus.c:1137 frame #4: 0x00000001002c84b5 qemu-system-arm`main_loop_wait [inlined] os_host_main_loop_wait(timeout=<unavailable>) + 191 at main-loop.c:242 frame #5: 0x00000001002c83f6 qemu-system-arm`main_loop_wait(nonblocking=<unavailable>) + 278 at main-loop.c:494 frame #6: 0x000000010014961a qemu-system-arm`qemu_main [inlined] main_loop + 73 at vl.c:1789 frame #7: 0x00000001001495d1 qemu-system-arm`qemu_main(argc=<unavailable>, argv=<unavailable>, envp=<unavailable>) + 17057 at vl.c:4353 frame #8: 0x000000010029b45e qemu-system-arm`-[QemuCocoaAppController startEmulationWithArgc:argv:](self=<unavailable>, _cmd=<unavailable>, argc=<unavailable>, argv=<unavailable>) + 30 at cocoa.m:897 To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/qemu/+bug/1406016/+subscriptions
