# [SOLVED] Qemu-system-i386 is missing!

## sparc

Hi,

As the title says, the qemu-system-i386 executable is missing after installing either qemu or qemu-kvm packages. Other architectures, including x86_64, are there and functioning properly.

Just for completeness let me add that I of course have the useflag set properly, qemu-i386 exists, and what I'm mostly interested in is app-emulation/qemu-0.11.1 which compiles flawlessly with gcc-4.5.1-r1.

EDIT: this binary has been removed in favor of the equivalent qemu-system-x86_64. If anybody needs this command to exist (to avoid a lot of editing, like me), you can just create a symlink as follows:

```

# ln -sf /usr/bin/qemu-system-x86_64 /usr/bin/qemu-system-i386

```

regardsLast edited by sparc on Wed Dec 08, 2010 1:09 pm; edited 2 times in total

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## V-Li

 *Quote:*   

> sudo /usr/local/kvm/bin/qemu-system-x86_64 -hda vdisk.img -cdrom /path/to/boot-media.iso \ 
> 
>    -boot d  -m 384
> 
> (kvm doesn't make a distinction between i386 and x86_64 so even in i386 you should use `qemu-system-x86_64`)BR 
> ...

 

from http://www.linux-kvm.org/page/HOWTO1

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## sparc

Ok, now I'm confused.

First of all, in Ubuntu and other distributions qemu-system-i386 exists and some people use it and they publish makefiles using it (and yes I'm talking about new and active projects). All of this for me is just a very important makefile (of around 4000 lines) giving the error qemu-system-i386 not found!

Second, what you posted is from qemu-kvm. What if I do not want kvm? Why is qemu acting like qemu-kvm even with the kvm use flag disabled?

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## V-Li

I am not an expert regarding it, but as far as I can see qemu-kvm can be used without any KVM support. For Ubuntu, which version?

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## sparc

I have to ask my professor for the exact version. What I do know is that they use the latest stable version in ubuntu.

In any case, I am mostly referring to the original app-emulation/qemu and NOT app-emulation/qemu-kvm

The thing is that even if qemu-kvm has no regard for i386, the original qemu project does have. Also, the app-emulation/qemu package has a kvm flag which supposedly adds the same support that app-emulation/qemu-kvm flag has embedded (this I do not get by the way, it confuses everyone).

The thing is that I should get the qemu-system-i386 binary if I compile app-emulation/qemu WITHOUT the kvm flag, as it is supposed to be with the original app-emulation/qemu project and as it is in Ubuntu and other distros.

PS: thanks for taking the time to get into this, I appreciate it

EDIT: I will email the maintainer of the qemu package about it.

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## Hu

The newest app-emulation/qemu in Portage is very old.  Releases from app-emulation/qemu-kvm should be used instead.  Though some KVM code has been merged upstream, the code you get from the KVM project is a better choice if you plan to use the kernel KVM support.

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## sparc

Thanks for the reply Hu but it is totally unrelated to my issue. I have tried every possible package in the Gentoo portage tree and with all of them qemu-system-i386 is missing. Now I understand that this binary is unnecessary but you have to keep in mind that other distros have it, qemu used to have it, all in all I have a 40.000 lines makefile published last month that uses it. So why does gentoo breaks, not only backward compatibility, but inter-distro compatibility? For gods shake it can be as simple as a symlink to the x86-64 version... But not everyone knows or should know what a symlink is.

In my opinion this is simply a very bad paradigm on how to maintain a package!

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## sparc

After contacting the maintainer he confirmed everything; even my assumption that a simple symlink would suffice. However, in order to make things work for my research, I had to learn a big amount of information about qemu that I never wanted and probably will never need again in the future. All of this would have been avoided with a simple comment in the emerge output or in the ebuild.

As a fellow developer I know that it is hard to keep in mind what every user might need, however I believe that a change as big as removing a commonly used binary in a package, qualifies for a simple comment. Thanks for all your replies. Topic marked solved.

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## V-Li

Whose fault is it now?  Did QEmu upstream drop the -i386 binary and Gentoo goes along with that or is it an oversight on the maintainer's side?

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