FS#50408 - [qemu] i386 system moved to qemu-arch-extras with 2.6.0-2

Attached to Project: Arch Linux
Opened by Ng Oon-Ee (ngoonee) - Tuesday, 16 August 2016, 03:35 GMT
Last edited by David Runge (dvzrv) - Friday, 22 April 2022, 06:34 GMT
Task Type General Gripe
Category Packages: Extra
Status Closed
Assigned To Anatol Pomozov (anatolik)
David Runge (dvzrv)
Architecture x86_64
Severity Low
Priority Normal
Reported Version
Due in Version Undecided
Due Date Undecided
Percent Complete 100%
Votes 0
Private No

Details

Description:
A bit of a surprise that qemu-system-i386 is no longer packaged with [qemu] and has been moved to [qemu-arch-extras].

Opinion - i386 is one of the primary use-cases and should be supported with the main package, as its obviously more 'core' than arm/mips and the other architectures.

Additional info:
* package version(s)
qemu-2.6.0-2
This task depends upon

Closed by  David Runge (dvzrv)
Friday, 22 April 2022, 06:34 GMT
Reason for closing:  Won't fix
Additional comments about closing:  All system emulators are provided in separate split packages with qemu >= 7.0.0.
The meta package qemu-emulators-full can be used to install all of them.
Comment by Jan Alexander Steffens (heftig) - Tuesday, 16 August 2016, 13:46 GMT
My reasoning was that you can substitute the x86_64 variant for it in basically all cases, since x86_64 is a superset of i386.
Comment by Ng Oon-Ee (ngoonee) - Thursday, 18 August 2016, 05:26 GMT
Was not aware that you could install i386 OS on the x86_64 variant. Will give that a try and report back here, thanks.
Comment by kozaki (kozaki) - Thursday, 01 September 2016, 08:09 GMT
How about emulating "pure" 32-bit cpus: does `qemu-system-x86_64 -cpu {pentium,athlon}` achieve the same as `qemu-system-i386`? Beside feeling awkward upon typing command ;-}
I'm checking too and will report thereafter.
Comment by kozaki (kozaki) - Sunday, 04 September 2016, 14:52 GMT
On a preliminary note, I run some quick and dirty testing with qemu v2.6.0 system-i386 / x86_64 / and v2.6.1 system-x86_64, with a Debian guest running Linux 3.7.10-486-smp and Mate that I run with `-cpu pentium3` (three time each).

- uptime 3', idle
95-110 / 95-110 / 115-120 MiB

- and with an identical browser+session + 3' wait:
215-245 / 225-260 / 255-265 MiB

So basically this guest shows 8-18% more RAM usage between v2.6.0 i386 and v2.6.1 x86_64 (and 2-13% more between v2.6.1 and 2.6.1 x86_64), including the variations between consecutives launches with the same qemu binary. I run this so I know whether I need to install extra/qemu-arch-extra or not.
Comment by Sébastien Luttringer (seblu) - Sunday, 02 October 2016, 15:43 GMT
I was equally confused to not find the -i386 binary emulator.

When I did the split, I keep the both official arches to make easy to emulate one another from i686 and x86_64.

Using "-cpu pentium2" did the trick for my current need. Do qemu-system-i386 can use this trick to emulate 64bits system?

If we can substitute x86_64 emulator for all cases, why upstream still provides 2 binaries?
Comment by Jan Alexander Steffens (heftig) - Sunday, 02 October 2016, 21:00 GMT
No, the reverse is not true. The i386 emulator cannot emulate x86_64 systems, and the x86_64 emulator runs only slowly on i386 hosts.

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