QEMU: how to create ubuntu vm

Create Ubuntu VM

• Download Ubuntu Server for ARM https://ubuntu.com/download/server/arm
• Create a hard disk:

qemu-img create -f qcow2 disk.qcow2 10G

• Create an empty file for persisting UEFI variables:

dd if=/dev/zero conv=sync bs=1m count=64 of=ovmf_vars.fd

• Run qemu with the following command-line arguments:

qemu-system-aarch64 \
    -accel hvf \
    -m 2048 \
    -cpu cortex-a57 -M virt,highmem=off  \
    -drive file=/usr/local/share/qemu/edk2-aarch64-code.fd,if=pflash,format=raw,readonly=on \
    -drive file=ovmf_vars.fd,if=pflash,format=raw \
    -serial telnet::4444,server,nowait \
    -drive if=none,file=disk.qcow2,format=qcow2,id=hd0 \
    -device virtio-blk-device,drive=hd0,serial="dummyserial" \
    -device virtio-net-device,netdev=net0 \
    -netdev user,id=net0 \
    -vga none -device ramfb \
    -cdrom /path/to/ubuntu.iso \
    -device usb-ehci -device usb-kbd -device usb-mouse -usb \
    -monitor stdio

• You should be able to install Ubuntu as normal
• If you want a desktop environment, you can install it using sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop