Running Windows XP on Ubuntu with QEmu (QuickStart Guide)

Just for the fun of it I tried running XP on my Hardy box. Here are the quick start steps I used to make it work.

Step 1 - Making the file later used as the disk image.

dd if=/dev/zero of=win.iso bs=1M count=4300

This will make an 4GB .iso file on the current directory.


Step 2 - Installation

Insert the XP cd to your CD-ROM and execute the following in the terminal.

qemu -hda ./win.iso -cdrom /dev/cdrom -boot d -m 256 -localtime -usb


Syntax Explanation

-hda ./win.iso = This means win.iso is used as the hard disk 0 image.

-cdrom /dev/cdrom = Uses the CD-ROM image for the installation

-boot d = Boot on CD-ROM

-m 256 = Sets the virtual RAM size to 256MB

-localtime = Set the real time clock to local time

-usb = Enable the USB driver


Then the normal XP installation procedure begins and you can install it as you would normally do on a normal machine.

Step 3 - Running the installed image

To run the XP image at any time run the following.

qemu -hda ./win_dev.iso -boot c -m 256 -localtime -usb


Key Combinations

* Ctrl + Alt releases the cursor
* Ctrl + Alt + f toggles full screen