[Resolved](https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-newbie-8/minimal-distro-on-qemu-with-arm64-4175748607/).
On Fri, Mar 14, 2025 at 5:53 PM Peanut Password <psswdrcvry...@gmail.com> wrote: > > Hello, apologies if this isn't the right venue; this is a beginner's > question (just for play/learning). > > On native x86 machines, I can build the Linux kernel, take the > `bzImage` output file, and plug it straight into QEMU with > `qemu-system-x86_64 -kernel path/to/bzImage`. The readout will be a > kernel panic complaining about no initrd. > > I would like to get to the same stage on a native arm64 machine. I > believe I want to use `-M virt`, and I'm not sure of any further > settings that need to be passed in. As far as I can tell, the Linux > kernel detects the arm64 environment and builds successfully. My naive > guess is that the output file `Image.gz` is analogous to x86's > `bzImage`. However, running `qemu-system-aarch64 -M virt -kernel > path/to/Image.gz` just opens the QEMU monitor (the same result as > running `qemu-system-aarch64 -M virt` alone) with no further output > (e.g., no kernel panic). Unpacking the gz file to `Image` doesn't work > either. > > What am I missing?
