How to install Ubuntu 13.10 Desktop in QEMU?

Question

Following are the details of my system: Fedora Core-18, i686.

I am trying to install ubuntu in the qemu. Following are the commands I executed:

qemu-img create ubuntu.img 8G
qemu-system-i386 -hda ubuntu.img -boot d -cdrom ./ubuntu-13.10-desktop-i386.iso -m 512

After executing the second command the window pops up and it shows UBUNTU getting started but after that the window just becomes black with no activity.

Solution 1

The problem is that you are emulating and not virtualizing, and emulating is resource consuming, so the boot takes a very long time to finish.

To speed things up, add the -enable-kvm flag to enable KVM virtualization:

qemu-system-i386 -hda ubuntu.img -boot d -cdrom ./ubuntu-13.10-desktop-i386.iso -m 512 -enable-kvm

This has also been asked at: https://askubuntu.com/questions/419958/why-am-i-getting-a-black-screen-when-booting-vm-using-qemu

Solution 2

You don't specify whether you're using QEMU or KVM, but as @BodhiZazen said in the comments, I don't think vanilla QEMU can support high end graphics such as what Unity requires.

If you're actually trying to use KVM, then I'd recommend using the GUI tool virt-manager to perform your VM Guest installations rather than the command line. It's easier to mount ISO media and reconfigure the Guest VM through the GUI.

Screenshots

   

   

You can see more of virt-manager in action on the project's website and read about it features there as well.

Comments

[Panther]

I think the problem is that qemu lacks graphical support for unity. Try booting lubutnu (or other ubuntu variant).

[slm]

Are you using regular Qemu or KVM?

[user2453475]

I was using qemu. I will switch on to kvm.

[TPS]

Edit and explain something about how this link is useful.

[Anurag Phadnis]

Thanks for your comment, but that link is just a reference! Said just to mention the reference.