WinXP on Qemu/m1

My experience with using Qemu to run Windows XP. Please read all notes below before trying any of this.

The result is a working installation of Windows XP, including sound. The graphics is more than 1024x768@24bits. No 3D acceleration. The performance is good enough for desktop use and simple games, may not be good enough for gamers. PCmark05 says Pentium speed is 1300MHz (real ones were never more than 300MHz). 3D Pinball Space Cadet works fairly well.

Host used:

MacBook Air (M1) macOS Ventura version 14.4.1
QEMU emulator version 9.0.0 (homebrew)

Command to create disks:

  qemu-img create -f qcow2 winXP.img 3G
  qemu-img create -f raw data.img 1G

Command to run qemu:


  /opt/homebrew/bin/qemu-system-i386 -nodefaults -drive file=./winXP.img,format=qcow2,if=ide,index=0 -drive file=./data.img,format=raw,if=ide,index=1 -cdrom ../Downloads/WinXPproSP2.iso -boot menu=on -cpu coreduo -m 1G -vga std -net nic,model=pcnet -rtc base=localtime -accel tcg -machine hpet=off -serial none -parallel none -audiodev coreaudio,id=coreaudio,out.frequency=48000 -audio coreaudio -device ac97

Notes

Assumes the Windows CD is bootable.
Used Service Pack 2 at first, may need to be updated to SP3 for sound.
qemu writes messages about Could not create a backend for voice ac97.mc. This is probably about audio beeing oneway. That is, microphone and line in does not work.
I used raw format for the data disk and formatted it to FAT. That way I can access it in finder.

References

lysweb3@jonass.user.lysator.liu.se

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This page was last modified July 2024.