Qemu 0.8.1

[Matthias]

Qemu now supports full virtualization with the Qemu Accelerator Module. That means that also Kernel code is being virtualized (before, only user-mode code was virtualized and kernel code was emulated), which translates to a huge performance boost I yet have to try it, but with this new release it should be about as fast as VMware.

[Cristan]

Right on time for 0.3! It would probably make the "preloaded with qemu" a lot faster, which is good .

[Matthias]

Right on time for 0.3! It would probably make the "preloaded with qemu" a lot faster, which is good .

Currently, the qemu virtualization module isn't integrated into the qemu archives. That would have to change for ReactOS on Qemu to become significantly faster...

//edit:
OK, i messed around a bit with Qemu on Linux.
With the last version of Qemu it was sufficient to type the following to start qemu:
qemu /path/to/hdd-image
For the Kernel Mode acceleration new in Qemu 0.8.1, you have to add the parameter -kernel-kqemu:
qemu /path/to/hdd-image -kernel-kqemu
I've tried it, and there is a _massive_ increase in speed, if feels almost like you were working on a real machine, it's absolutely astonishing!

[aeridus]

I tried the experimental Kqemu in WindowsXP, but it crashed my system.

[Cristan]

Well, the guys from ReactOS did their homework. The Qemu package of ReactOS 0.3 RC1 is based on Qemu 0.8.1 .

[atarixle]

Is the qemu-network-device supported in future ReactOS-qemu-packages (like in the VMware-Player-Package)?

[Cristan]

I don't know about the future, but 0.3 RC1 has support for the Qemu network drive . I've downloaded firefox, and surfed around a bit, so it all works .

[steveh]

I'm using qemu 0.8.1 with kqemu-1.3.0pre7.tar.gz on Suse Linux 10.0.

I think it's faster than the previous versions.
But i found one small problem:
Sometimes the mouse behaviour in the qemu window as well as in the fullscreen mode, get's weired.
Especially after having moved the mouse very quickly, the mouse doesn't move quite to the left or lower border anymore, as if the mouse was caught within a "virtual screen" smaller than the real screen.

Moving the mouse a lot, or switching several times between full and windowed screen mode, sometimes resolves the problem, but sometimes it lasts until next qemu shutdown.

I have a classic logitech ps2 wheelmouse.

Generally, i'm sure it is NOT a reactos problem. The mouse shows the same behaviour if Win98 is run in this accelerated qemu.

Maybe next qemu/kqemu versions will be improved? "pre7" means it's a release candidate, is it? Unfortunately i did not find something like "kqemu0.8.1", else i would have tried that?

[atarixle]

But i found one small problem:
Sometimes the mouse behaviour in the qemu window as well as in the fullscreen mode, get's weired.

I know this problem. The first release of qemu-0.8.1 for Windows had the same problem, but in the 3rd windows-release (qemu-0.8.1-windows-3), this problem is fixed. More: http://www.h7.dion.ne.jp/~qemu-win/

[steveh]

Now i tested reactos with qemu081 and kqemu-1.3.0pre8.tar.gz, reactos 22377

I think he problem with the mouse has gone better, though not completely away. But there is a new problem:
intensive "virtual" network access, for example "get firefox" does no longer produce blue reactos screens, as some people reported in the forum,
but often freezes the linux gui complety,
so i have to press "alt+ctrl+backspace" to restart the Xorg server as a last resort.

I would like to check it without the accelerator.
How to disable / enable kqemu? Possible in the "ctrl+alt+2" menu while reactos is running in qemu?

[Matthias]

Now i tested reactos with qemu081 and kqemu-1.3.0pre8.tar.gz, reactos 22377

I think he problem with the mouse has gone better, though not completely away. But there is a new problem:
intensive "virtual" network access, for example "get firefox" does no longer produce blue reactos screens, as some people reported in the forum,
but often freezes the linux gui complety,
so i have to press "alt+ctrl+backspace" to restart the Xorg server as a last resort.

I would like to check it without the accelerator.
How to disable / enable kqemu? Possible in the "ctrl+alt+2" menu while reactos is running in qemu?

I had the same problems with Qemu, but you can avoid to restart the X server. When qemu crashes, just switch to a virtual console with Ctrl+Alt+F1, log in and type
pkill -9 qemu
then log out (with the "exit" command) and switch back to X with Ctrl+Alt+F7

[Megari]

I have now tested the new release both with QEMU 0.8.1 + kqemu-1.3.0pre8 with and without kernel code virtualization. I also tested with pure emulation, but the results didn't change except for dramatic difference in speed. Kudos to QEMU for the kernel code virtualization, it makes all the difference. I just hope it would be free (as in free speech).

Unfortunately, I have to say that I am experiencing difficulties getting anything useful done despite the major advances the project has made. I am experiencing the "constrained mouse pointer" and "freezing of display" problems mentioned above, but find them minor issues (the latter one being more serious, though). However, what I find a real blocker is the fact that I can't really use Firefox because it stops doing anything unless I keep moving the mouse around. This makes browsing practically impossible as it seems to take minutes to even perform a name lookup (nb. it does succeed eventually), not to mention loading a webpage.

In addition, it seems that ibrowser tends to cause reboots of ROS (regardless of virtualization/emulation options). This can be caused by a messed up ibrowser installation later resumed, though. Gotta try a fresh reinstall.

I also tested 0.3.0RC1 with VMware Player. It works quite much better: Firefox works as expected with no need to move the mouse around, ibrowser doesn't cause crashes on a regular basis etc... I was able to do a lot, such as install ABC, Bittorrent, Shareaza and uTorrent (they don't work, though - does someone know of a torrent client working on ReactOS?)

However, I wonder how you guys managed to make the VMware image since a fresh installation will not boot - bootvid.sys BSODs no matter what video settings were initially chosen.

I wonder if the QEMU issues stem from a flaw in QEMU or in ReactOS. Nevertheless, it would be nice to see the problems fixed in either project.

Edit: I wonder if the problem with Firefox is an interrupt issue? Having to move the mouse in order to make something happen sure sounds like one.

[Megari]

Hmm, weird. Suddenly I ceased to experience the Firefox problem with QEMU - now I can browse all right even without moving the mouse around. Works well. For some reason the window won't minimize.

However, I got this BSOD after browsing for a while:

Code: Select all

A problem has been detected and ReactOS has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer.

WORKER_THREAD_RETURNED_AT_BAD_IRQL

Technical information:

*** STOP: 0x000000E1 (0xcccccccc, 0x00000002, 0xcccccccc, 0x80e48970)

Frames:
<ntoskrnl.exe: 1676>
<ntoskrnl.exe: 1881b>
<ntoskrnl.exe: 4dcff>
<ntoskrnl.exe: 54175>