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xPack QEMU RISC-V v8.2.6-1 released

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

Version 8.2.6-1 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 and 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 Windows: Windows 7 with the Universal C Runtime (UCRT), Windows 8, Windows 10, Windows 11
  • x64 macOS: 10.13 or later
  • arm64 macOS: 11.6 or later
  • 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)

Install​

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

xpm install @xpack-dev-tools/qemu-riscv@8.2.6-1.1 -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 8.2.6, from 16 July 2024.

Changes​

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

The supported boards and CPUs are:

$ .../xpack-qemu-riscv-8.2.6-1/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-8.2.6-1/bin/qemu-system-riscv32 -cpu help
any
lowrisc-ibex
max
rv32
sifive-e31
sifive-e34
sifive-u34

$ .../xpack-qemu-riscv-8.2.6-1/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-8.2.6-1/bin/qemu-system-riscv64 -cpu help
any
max
rv64
shakti-c
sifive-e51
sifive-u54
thead-c906
veyron-v1
x-rv128

Bug fixes​

  • none

Enhancements​

  • none

Known problems​

  • in order to build on macOS 10.13, the Intel 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:

22654422dd45a2eafa2d76f9e238e02b678dcb28dbd5d70fbfd55d569538d446
xpack-qemu-riscv-8.2.6-1-darwin-arm64.tar.gz

55a959a7a55406f8cc26903e00fb50c268689e64ebc6950760e42f1067765f96
xpack-qemu-riscv-8.2.6-1-darwin-x64.tar.gz

765e8f1069e328d01ec672da34a7b6302a492ee8c53ddf98a0991852bafcbfda
xpack-qemu-riscv-8.2.6-1-linux-arm.tar.gz

e5fc75bb3f1948dd1d0ca6c6561ae9353a1982254158f95c4668ea3fa618800d
xpack-qemu-riscv-8.2.6-1-linux-arm64.tar.gz

ffbc9a65c5cbc71f0a2cd80a230999c5abe0a101e6b091cb3a8b80031d44f65d
xpack-qemu-riscv-8.2.6-1-linux-x64.tar.gz

2e610c6238e23ce13f7a55701c8b8cd8ee780e9750d87efe336da2cfbfe211b2
xpack-qemu-riscv-8.2.6-1-win32-x64.zip

Deprecation notices​

GNU/Linux minimum requirements​

The minimum requirement is GLIBC 2.27, available starting with Ubuntu 18, Debian 10 and RedHat 8. Support for RedHat 7 was dropped in 2022.

32-bit support​

Support for 32-bit x86 GNU/Linux and x86 Windows was dropped in 2022.

Pre-deprecation notice for 32-bit Arm GNU/Linux​

Due to the large user base of 32-bit Raspberry Pi systems, support for 32-bit Arm GNU/Linux (armv7l) will be preserved for a little while, but expect it to be dropped by 2025, so it is recommended to consider an upgrade to a RPi 4 or 5 with at least 4 GB (preferably 8 GB) of RAM.

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.

Analytics​

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