Installation

Create a disk image:

qemu-img create -f qcow2 9front.qcow2.img 10G

Boot 9front.iso:

qemu -hda 9front.qcow2.img -cdrom 9front.iso -boot d -vga std -m 768 -net nic,macaddr=52:54:00:00:EE:03

Install.

Booting

qemu -hda 9front.qcow2.img -cdrom 9front.iso -boot c -vga std -m 768 -net nic,macaddr=52:54:00:00:EE:03

Virtio

Current versions of plan9front and qemu/kvm support faster paravirtualized devices. This can be enabled with:

... -drive file=9front.qcow2.img,if=virtio

the device should show up as

/dev/sdF0

Networking

Linux VDE

Install vde2.

Setup a tap interface:

sudo tunctl -u $USER -t tap0

Start a virtual switch connected to the tap interface:

vde_switch --tap tap0 -daemon

Connect the switch to the network of the host. Use DHCP:

slirpvde --dhcp --daemon

When booting 9front, add the following to the qemu command line arguments:

-net vde

OpenBSD tun(4)

Tested: OpenBSD/amd64 4.9-CURRENT, qemu-0.9.1p18, kqemu-1.3.0pre11p3

Configure a tun(4) interface with an IP address selected for your qemu network. Configure bridging between the tun(4) interface and your machine's external interface. Finally, configure NAT or rules to pass traffic for the qemu network in pf.conf. Reboot.

To launch qemu as a regular user:

sudo sh -c "sudo -C 4 -u $USER qemu -m 768 \
-net nic,vlan=0,model=rtl8139,macaddr=52:54:00:12:34:56 \
-net tap,vlan=0,fd=3,script=no -no-fd-bootchk \
-hda 9front.qcow2.img 3<>/dev/tun0"

See also: hostname.if(5), pf.conf(5) and tun(4)

Windows TAP

this is tested with this qemu for window distribution. download and run the installer from openvpn to install the windows TAP driver. create a new TAP interface with the "Add a new TAP virtual ethernet adapter" from the openvpn start menu. go to the network manager and rename that new TAP interface to something more sane like: "qemu-tap". configure ip addresses or bridge that interface with the network manager.

now you should be able to run qemu on that interface:

qemu.exe -net nic -net tap,ifname="tap-qemu" ...

Audio

one can get sound in qemu with -soundhw sb16 and putting the following line in plan9.ini:

audio0=type=sb16