QEMU virt (virtual machine)
None (generic QEMU virtual platform, RV32/RV64 configurable, up to 512 cores)
Virtual platform
QEMU Project
- Specs
- Pure virtual platform: up to 512 RV64GC cores, CLINT/PLIC, a PCIe host bridge, 8 virtio-mmio devices, NS16550 UART, optional AIA/IOMMU; memory, disks and networking are all virtualised through command-line options, with no real GPU/VPU/NPU.
- Price
- Free and open source (GPLv2), available from every distro's package repos
- Preinstalled / official OS
- debian / ubuntu
- Doc languages
- en
- Checked
- 2026-11-01
The common starting point for every board: validate the kernel/rootfs on virt first, then move to real hardware — it saves a lot of flashing and debugging time.
Distros
- Debian Official riscv64 is a first-class architecture since Debian 13; the official netinst ISO installs straight into virt
- Ubuntu Official Official riscv64 cloud image, booted with EDK2 (pflash) or -kernel
- Fedora Community Fedora RISC-V provides QEMU install docs and images
- Alpine Linux Official riscv64 minirootfs only, no virt ISO; bring your own kernel/initramfs
- Arch Linux RISC-V Official archriscv provides a riscv64 ISO that boots in QEMU
- openSUSE Community openSUSE Ports has riscv64; the site returns 403 to curl, so the direct link is unverified
- Gentoo Official riscv64 stage3 plus handbook coverage for QEMU systems
- Void Linux Partial The riscv64 port exists; you build the QEMU image yourself
- NixOS Community riscv64 is not an official support tier; cross-build required
- ALT Linux Official ALT Ports riscv64 provides a QEMU image
- FreeBSD Official riscv64 supports QEMU virt
- NetBSD Official The riscv64 port supports QEMU
- OpenBSD Official riscv64 supports QEMU virt
- openEuler Official The openEuler RISC-V SIG provides a QEMU image
- Buildroot Official qemu_riscv64_virt_defconfig — one make and the system boots
- Yocto / OpenEmbedded Official qemuriscv64 machine officially supported
Download
Docs and videos
- QEMU wiki: RISC-V platform notes Doc en
- Debian wiki: RISC-V port Doc en
- Fedora: RISC-V installation guide Doc en
- Gentoo RISC-V project Doc en
- openEuler RISC-V SIG Doc en
Pitfalls
- -bios default only loads OpenSBI, with no U-Boot/EDK2; booting an Ubuntu/Fedora cloud image needs pflash with a 32MiB EDK2 firmware, otherwise you get a black screen
- virt has no GPU/VPU/NPU — don't use it to validate graphics, hardware video decoding or AI acceleration
- The serial port is always ttyS0; to quit -nographic mode press Ctrl-A then X
- From Ubuntu 26.04 RVA23S64 is required, so older QEMU builds without the extensions won't boot; 24.04 is still RVA20
- Alpine riscv64 ships only a minirootfs with no virt ISO, so prepare the kernel and initramfs yourself
Sources11
- qemu.org/docs/master/system/riscv/virt.html
- qemu.org/download/
- cloud-images.ubuntu.com/releases/24.04/release/ubuntu-24.04-server-cloudimg-riscv64.img
- cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current/riscv64/iso-cd/
- archriscv.felixc.at/images/archlinux-2026.08.27-riscv64.iso
- dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v3.22/releases/riscv64/alpine-minirootfs-3.22.1-riscv64.tar.gz
- buildroot.org/downloads/
- wiki.qemu.org/Documentation/Platforms/RISCV
- wiki.debian.org/RISC-V
- fedoraproject.org/wiki/Architectures/RISC-V/Installing
- qemu.org/docs/master/system/riscv/virt.html
The full source list and how each claim is judged: Sources