Build TASTE on QEMU 1.0 for Windows platforms

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Build TASTE on QEMU 1.0 for Windows platforms

This page is for advanced users who wish to create their own TASTE installation from scratch on a virtual machine running QEMU.

This guide walks through all the necessary steps to have a virtual i386 machine running Debian with the TASTE toolset installed. QEMU 1.0 is used as a PC system emulator on a Windows platform. Also, note that the virtual machine running Debian is console based.

Installing QEMU 1.0 for Windows

First, download QEMU 1.0 for Windows from [1]. Extract the downloaded zip to a directory of your choosing (e.g. C:\Qemu).

Installing Debian on QEMU 1.0

To provide the Debian virtual machine with full networking capabilities a TAP interface needs to be used. This requires installing a VPN on the host OS and establish a bridge with the host's physical network. To do so, download OpenVPN 2.2.2 and install it.

Then, go to: Control Panel\Network and Internet\Network Connections. You will see a new network interface. Rename it with a simple name like QemuTap.

Now, use ICS to share the connection of the physical Ethernet/WiFi network interface with QemuTap. Right click on the Ethernet/WiFi network interface that is connected to the Internet and select Properties, then Sharing and then select Allow other network users to connect through this computer's Internet connection and select QemuTap.

After, right click on the QemuTap network interface and select Properties, select Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) and click on Properties, select Use the following IP address and enter and IP address and submask (e.g. 192.168.10.1/255.255.255.0).

Download Debian Squeeze stable netinst from: http://www.debian.org/CD/netinst/#netinst-stable. Place the Debian ISO image in the QEMU directory previously created (e.g. C:\Qemu).

Now, navigate to the directory, press Shift + right mouse button in the directory and select Open command window here.

The next step is to create a virtual hard disk drive to allocate the virtual machine with Debian. This is accomplished with the following:

C:\Qemu>qemu-img.exe create -f raw assertvm.img 5G
Formatting 'assertvm.img', fmt=raw size=5368709120

This command will create a sparse file (under a NTFS file system it will only use the required memory and not the whole 5 GB) called assertvm.img with the capacity to grow up to 5GB. The raw image is a plain binary file of the disc image which is very portable.

Using the same command window type the following to start the Debian installation:

C:\Qemu>qemu-system-i386.exe -L bios -m 512 -hda assertvm.img -net nic -net tap,ifname=QemuTap -localtime -no-acpi -cdrom debian-6.0.4-i386-netinst.iso -boot d

Notice that bios is the folder inside the QEMU directory with the BIOS, VGA BIOS and keymaps. assertvm.img is the previously created virtual hard disk drive. QemuTap is the name given to the virtual network interface. Finally, debian-6.0.4-i386-netinst.iso is the file name for the Debian ISO.

A window will open with the Debian install screen. Select Advanced Options\Expert Install. Follow the instructions and configure the Debian machine to your needs. Have in mind the following pointers:

  • There should not be any need to load components from the CD in Load installer components from CD.
  • The network has to be configured manually assigning an IP address from the same subnet used for the virtual network interface (e.g. 192.168.10.0/255.255.255.0) and adding as gateway the virtual network's interface IP (e.g. 192.168.10.1).
  • For Select and install software only the SSH server should be selected to achieve a minimal install with a ssh server.

Once the installation is finished you should be able to access your new Debian virtual machine using the following command:

C:\Qemu>qemu-system-i386.exe -L bios -m 512 -hda assertvm.img -net nic -net tap,ifname=QemuTap -localtime -no-acpi

Building the TASTE toolchain

Take a look at Manual installation on a native platform.