Do you have to use -hda or the stdio IO call? Also note that you will need to add the -enable-kvm
flag at a minimum, but I would encourage you to first try installing virt-manager
and/or use libvirt
as it will fully configure qemu in a way to support good performance.
qemu always uses the most compatible configuration by default, but can easily get within a few percentage points of bare metal performance if configured properly.
As an example on how many options may be needed for an optimal install here is is the contents of the /proc/$pid/cmdline from a VM I just spun up.
qemu-system-x86_64
-enable-kvm
-name guest=ubuntu16.04_32_bit_test,debug-threads=on
-S
-object secret,id=masterKey0,format=raw,file=/var/lib/libvirt/qemu/domain-1-ubuntu16.04_32_bit_t/master-key.aes
-machine pc-i440fx-zesty,accel=kvm,usb=off,dump-guest-core=off
-cpu Skylake-Client
-m 1024
-realtime mlock=off
-smp 1,sockets=1,cores=1,threads=1
-uuid 4aaf9c8f-f8b5-477b-ac18-d273318dfe90
-no-user-config
-nodefaults
-chardev socket,id=charmonitor,path=/var/lib/libvirt/qemu/domain-1-ubuntu16.04_32_bit_t/monitor.sock,server,nowait
-mon chardev=charmonitor,id=monitor,mode=control
-rtc base=utc,driftfix=slew
-global kvm-pit.lost_tick_policy=discard
-no-hpet
-no-reboot
-global PIIX4_PM.disable_s3=1
-global PIIX4_PM.disable_s4=1
-boot strict=on
-device ich9-usb-ehci1,id=usb,bus=pci.0,addr=0x5.0x7
-device ich9-usb-uhci1,masterbus=usb.0,firstport=0,bus=pci.0,multifunction=on,addr=0x5
-device ich9-usb-uhci2,masterbus=usb.0,firstport=2,bus=pci.0,addr=0x5.0x1
-device ich9-usb-uhci3,masterbus=usb.0,firstport=4,bus=pci.0,addr=0x5.0x2
-device virtio-serial-pci,id=virtio-serial0,bus=pci.0,addr=0x6
-drive file=/var/lib/libvirt/images/ubuntu16.04_32_bit_test.qcow2,format=qcow2,if=none,id=drive-virtio-disk0
-device virtio-blk-pci,scsi=off,bus=pci.0,addr=0x7,drive=drive-virtio-disk0,id=virtio-disk0,bootindex=2
-drive file=/home/gdahlman/Downloads/ubuntu-16.04.2-server-i386.iso,format=raw,if=none,id=drive-ide0-0-0,readonly=on
-device ide-cd,bus=ide.0,unit=0,drive=drive-ide0-0-0,id=ide0-0-0,bootindex=1
-netdev tap,fd=26,id=hostnet0,vhost=on,vhostfd=28
-device virtio-net-pci,netdev=hostnet0,id=net0,mac=52:54:00:22:78:27,bus=pci.0,addr=0x3
-chardev pty,id=charserial0-deviceisa-serial,chardev=charserial0,id=serial0
-chardev spicevmc,id=charchannel0,name=vdagent
-device virtserialport,bus=virtio-serial0.0,nr=1,chardev=charchannel0,id=channel0,name=com.redhat.spice.0
-device usb-tablet,id=input0,bus=usb.0,port=1
-spice port=5900,addr=127.0.0.1,disable-ticketing,image-compression=off,seamless-migration=on
-device qxl-vga,id=video0,ram_size=67108864,vram_size=67108864,vram64_size_mb=0,vgamem_mb=16,max_outputs=1,bus=pci.0,addr=0x2
-device intel-hda,id=sound0,bus=pci.0,addr=0x4
-device hda-duplex,id=sound0-codec0,bus=sound0.0,cad=0
-chardev spicevmc,id=charredir0,name=usbredir
-device usb-redir,chardev=charredir0,id=redir0,bus=usb.0,port=2
-chardev spicevmc,id=charredir1,name=usbredir
-device usb-redir,chardev=charredir1,id=redir1,bus=usb.0,port=3
-device virtio-balloon-pci,id=balloon0,bus=pci.0,addr=0x8
-msg timestamp=on
root@rodin
Using qemu from the command line will work, but it will not be high performance.
The libvirt virt-install
command will help you with this from the command line and it's --os-variant
flag will take care of most of the quirks and optimizations for you.