# Can qemu work in a console only



## neilms (Oct 17, 2013)

I installed qemu on my FreeBSD laptop. I only use programs in console mode, no X-Windows at all. My question is whether it is possible to run a guest operating system with my setup. I have used the display option -curses when starting the emulation but the text becomes garbled as if nothing gets scrolled away. Can anyone help.


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## wblock@ (Oct 17, 2013)

If the virtualized operating system uses only character output, it will work.  Or rather, I've done that with FreeBSD: `% qemu -m 16 -cpu pentium -hda fbsd1.img -enable-kqemu`


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## neilms (Oct 17, 2013)

This does not work: `qemu -curses -net user -net nic -m 256 -hda minix.img`. It starts the emulation but the screen becomes unreadable as if old characters are not scrolling away. The last command you noted is not even recognized. (-enable-Kqemu)

I wonder if I might get better results with bochs?


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## wblock@ (Oct 17, 2013)

Try it without -curses.  -enable-kqemu probably requires QEMU be rebuilt with that option.


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## oops (Oct 17, 2013)

The following invocation should force any text-mode bootloader to use serial console redirected to standard output.
`$ qemu-system-i386 -nographic -option-rom sgabios.bin ...`
After that you instruct the Linux/[size=-1][Free? -- mod.][/size]BSD/etc. kernel (and getty(8) for multiuser) to configure the com1 port for the serial console and enjoy.


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## neilms (Oct 18, 2013)

oops said:
			
		

> The following invocation should force any text-mode bootloader to use serial console redirected to standard output.
> `$ qemu-system-i386 -nographic -option-rom sgabios.bin ...`
> After that you instruct the Linux/[size=-1][Free? -- mod.][/size]BSD/etc. kernel (and getty(8) for multiuser) to configure the com1 port for the serial console and enjoy.



I don't understand your post. Are you able to explain this more fully?


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## neilms (Oct 18, 2013)

wblock@ said:
			
		

> Try it without -curses.  -enable-kqemu probably requires QEMU be rebuilt with that option.



This requires a Windows environment. I get a message cannot open SDL display and the system hangs. I then have to reboot by removal of the power.


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