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xPack QEMU RISC-V v7.2.5-1 released

· 4 min read
Liviu Ionescu (ilg)
Liviu Ionescu (ilg)

Version 7.2.5-1 is a new release; it follows the upstream QEMU release.

The xPack QEMU RISC-V is a standalone cross-platform binary distribution of QEMU.

There are separate binaries for Windows (x64), macOS (x64, arm64) and GNU/Linux (x64, arm64 and arm).

Raspberry Pi

The main targets for the GNU/Linux Arm binaries are the Raspberry Pi class devices (armv7l and aarch64; armv6 is not supported).

Download​

The binary files are available from GitHub Releases.

Prerequisites​

  • x64 GNU/Linux: any system with GLIBC 2.27 or higher (like Ubuntu 18 or later, Debian 10 or later, RedHat 8 or later, Fedora 29 or later, etc)
  • arm64/arm GNU/Linux: any system with GLIBC 2.27 or higher (like Raspberry Pi OS, Ubuntu 18 or later, Debian 10 or later, RedHat 8 or later, Fedora 29 or later, etc)
  • x64 Windows: Windows 7 with the Universal C Runtime (UCRT), Windows 8, Windows 10
  • x64 macOS: 10.13 or later
  • arm64 macOS: 11.6 or later

On GNU/Linux, QEMU requires the X11 libraries to be present. On Debian derived distribution they are already in the system; on RedHat & Arch derived distributions they must be installed explicitly.

Install​

The easiest way to install this specific version, is by using xpm:

xpm install @xpack-dev-tools/qemu-riscv@7.2.5-1.1 -verbose

Comprehensive instructions for installing xPack QEMU RISC-V on different platforms can be found in the Install Guide.

Compliance​

The xPack QEMU RISC-V currently is based on the official QEMU, with no major changes.

The current version is based on:

  • QEMU version 7.2.5, commit 9abcf97 from August 7, 2023.

Changes​

Compared to the master qemu-system-riscv*, there are no major changes.

The supported boards and CPUs are:

$ .../xpack-qemu-riscv-7.2.5-1/bin/qemu-system-riscv32 -machine help
Supported machines are:
none                 empty machine
opentitan            RISC-V Board compatible with OpenTitan
sifive_e             RISC-V Board compatible with SiFive E SDK
sifive_u             RISC-V Board compatible with SiFive U SDK
spike                RISC-V Spike board (default)
virt                 RISC-V VirtIO board
$ .../xpack-qemu-riscv-7.2.5-1/bin/qemu-system-riscv32 -cpu help
any
lowrisc-ibex
rv32
sifive-e31
sifive-e34
sifive-u34

$ .../xpack-qemu-riscv-7.2.5-1/bin/qemu-system-riscv64 -machine help
Supported machines are:
microchip-icicle-kit Microchip PolarFire SoC Icicle Kit
none                 empty machine
shakti_c             RISC-V Board compatible with Shakti SDK
sifive_e             RISC-V Board compatible with SiFive E SDK
sifive_u             RISC-V Board compatible with SiFive U SDK
spike                RISC-V Spike board (default)
virt                 RISC-V VirtIO board
$ .../xpack-qemu-riscv-7.0.0-1/bin/qemu-system-riscv64 -cpu help
any
rv64
shakti-c
sifive-e51
sifive-u54
x-rv128

Bug fixes​

  • none

Enhancements​

  • none

Known problems​

  • in order to build on macOS 10.13, the x64 macOS version has some functionality related to bridged virtual interfaces disabled.

Documentation​

The original documentation is available on-line:

Build​

The binaries for all supported platforms (Windows, macOS and GNU/Linux) were built using the xPack Build Box (XBB), a set of build environments based on slightly older distributions, that should be compatible with most recent systems.

For the prerequisites and more details on the build procedure, please see the Maintainer Info page.

CI tests​

Before publishing, a set of simple tests were performed on an exhaustive set of platforms. The results are available from:

Tests​

TBD

Checksums​

The SHA-256 hashes for the files are:

a589460d65248ca64b8cf74204f75c18de179873d25dbcae0c83aeb845c2170a
xpack-qemu-riscv-7.2.5-1-darwin-arm64.tar.gz

bf810abc8bec85579c4307105b5a85029708d3828d852fb62c3c9c7fff91b861
xpack-qemu-riscv-7.2.5-1-darwin-x64.tar.gz

4b578a831648a9bdb6dd38ce3a5f4be826f6b54d6d3a407b7b718a51c76a0425
xpack-qemu-riscv-7.2.5-1-linux-arm.tar.gz

9e991c1686a048ebe95814261fde4cc4429454a0a375b3525f621212c4398c32
xpack-qemu-riscv-7.2.5-1-linux-arm64.tar.gz

cdbabf87429f2998db35c7f8116d5c992c56ad6123c224254564115c17524c34
xpack-qemu-riscv-7.2.5-1-linux-x64.tar.gz

0b9c8b39554154d25c96d842e685a9f620cdf7ec6e8aaff26201e63eaba29405
xpack-qemu-riscv-7.2.5-1-win32-x64.zip

Deprecation notices​

32-bit support​

Support for 32-bit x86 GNU/Linux and x86 Windows was dropped in 2022. Support for 32-bit Arm GNU/Linux (armv7l) will be preserved for a while, due to the large user base of 32-bit Raspberry Pi systems.

GNU/Linux minimum requirements​

Support for RedHat 7 was dropped in 2022, and the minimum requirement was raised to GLIBC 2.27, available starting with Ubuntu 18 and RedHat 8.

Pre-deprecation notice for Ubuntu 18.04​

Ubuntu 18.04 LTS Bionic Beaver reached the end of the standard five-year maintenance window for Long-Term Support (LTS) release on 31 May 2023.

As a courtesy, the xPack GNU/Linux releases will continue to be based on Ubuntu 18.04 for another year.

From 2025 onwards, the GNU/Linux binaries will be built on Debian 10, (GLIBC 2.28), and are also expected to run on RedHat 8.

Users are urged to update their build and test infrastructure to ensure a smooth transition to the next xPack releases.

Download analytics​

Credit to Shields IO for the badges and to Somsubhra/github-release-stats for the individual file counters.