Qemu Compilation

Timeline

Timeline

2025-11-21

1. init

This article describes the Qemu compilation process, including preparation of the compilation environment, compilation methods for the aarch64 architecture, optionally enabling O0 and -g3 debug information, steps for compiling glib and qemu, and the operation of automatically generating compile_commands.json during compilation. Finally, it explains how to use the .gdbinit in the QEMU source directory for gdb debugging.

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Environment

os

Compilation

Compile aarch64

Optional: Enable O0, -g3 debug information

wget https://download.qemu.org/qemu-10.2.0.tar.xz

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:deadsnakes/ppa
sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install python3.9 python3-pip ninja-build
python3.9 -m pip install --user tomli sphinx sphinx_rtd_theme
# Set environment variables in ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc
export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"
# The glib version installed via apt is too old, while qemu-10.2.0 requires 2.66.0 or higher.
sudo apt-get install libglib2.0-dev pkg-config

Compile glib

python3.9 -m pip install --user meson ninja
meson setup _build \
    --prefix="$(pwd)/_install" \
    --libdir=lib \
    --buildtype=release \
    -Ddefault_library=shared

# Compilation
ninja -C _build

# Install
ninja -C _build install

Compile qemu

# Temporarily set environment variables
export PKG_CONFIG_PATH="$HOME/tools/glib-2.72.4/_install/lib/pkgconfig:$PKG_CONFIG_PATH"
# Use rpath to embed the library path when compiling
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH="$HOME/tools/glib-2.72.4/_install/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH"

./configure \
    --target-list=aarch64-softmmu \
    --prefix=$(pwd)/_install \
    --python=/usr/bin/python3.9 \
    --extra-ldflags="-Wl,-rpath,$HOME/tools/glib-2.72.4/_install/lib"

# Optional: Enable O0, -g3 debug information
./configure \
    --target-list=aarch64-softmmu \    
    --prefix=$(pwd)/_install \
    --python=/usr/bin/python3.9 \
    --extra-ldflags="-Wl,-rpath,$HOME/tools/glib-2.72.4/_install/lib" \
    --extra-cflags="-O0 -g3"

make -j$(nproc)
make install

# After compilation, confirm that it should output: RUNPATH /home/zhaohang/tools/glib-2.72.4/_install/lib
objdump -p _install/bin/qemu-system-aarch64 | grep RUNPATH

# It is recommended to set environment variables in ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc
export PATH="$HOME/tools/qemu-10.2.0/bin:$PATH"

compile_commands.json

The compilation will automatically generate compile_commands.json

cp build/compile_commands.json .

gdb debugging

There is a .gdbinit in the QEMU source directory. Running gdb in this directory will automatically execute the script scripts/qemu-gdb.py. For specific debugging methods, refer to:

Qemu Debug

https://even629.com/posts/2511231

For gdb usage, refer to:

GDB

https://even629.com/posts/42870