Running Redox in a virtual machine

Download the bootable images

This section will guide you to download the Redox images.

(You need to use the *harddrive.img image variant for QEMU or VirtualBox)

The bootable images for Redox 0.8.0 are located here. To try Redox using a virtual machine such as QEMU or VirtualBox, download the demo variant, check the SHA256 sum to ensure it has downloaded correctly.

sha256sum $HOME/Downloads/redox_demo_x86_64*_harddrive.img

If you have more than one .img file in the Downloads directory, you may need to adjust this command.

You can also try the server, desktop and desktop-minimal variants.

(If this version doesn't boot on your virtual machine program, use the weekly images below)

Weekly Images

If you want to test the latest Redox changes you can use our bootable images created each week by opening this link and downloading your preferred variant.

Linux Instructions

You can then run the image in your preferred emulator. If you don't have an emulator installed, use the following command (Pop!_OS/Ubuntu/Debian) to install QEMU:

sudo apt-get install qemu-system-x86

This command will run qemu with various features Redox can use enabled:

SDL_VIDEO_X11_DGAMOUSE=0 qemu-system-x86_64 -d cpu_reset,guest_errors -smp 4 -m 2048 \
    -chardev stdio,id=debug,signal=off,mux=on,"" -serial chardev:debug -mon chardev=debug \
    -machine q35 -device ich9-intel-hda -device hda-duplex -netdev user,id=net0 \
    -device e1000,netdev=net0 -device nec-usb-xhci,id=xhci -enable-kvm -cpu host \
	-drive file=`echo $HOME/Downloads/redox_demo_x86_64*_harddrive.img`,format=raw

If you get an error with the filename, change the echo $HOME/Downloads/redox_demo_x86_64*_harddrive.img command to the name of the file you downloaded.

Windows Instructions

To install QEMU on Windows, follow the instructions here. The installation of QEMU will probably not update your command path, so the necessary QEMU command needs to be specified using its full path. Or, you can add the installation folder to your PATH environment variable if you will be using it regularly.

Following the instructions for Linux above, download the same redox_demo image. Then, in a Command window, cd to the location of the downloaded Redox image and run the following very long command:

"C:\Program Files\qemu\qemu-system-x86_64.exe" -d cpu_reset,guest_errors -smp 4 -m 2048 -chardev stdio,id=debug,signal=off,mux=on,"" -serial chardev:debug -mon chardev=debug -machine q35 -device ich9-intel-hda -device hda-duplex -netdev user,id=net0 -device e1000,netdev=net0 -device nec-usb-xhci,id=xhci -drive file=redox_demo_x86_64_2022-11-23_638_harddrive.img,format=raw

Note: If you get a filename error, change redox_demo_x86_64*_harddrive.img to the name of the file you downloaded.

Note: If necessary, change "C:\Program Files\qemu\qemu-system-x86_64.exe" to reflect where QEMU was installed. The quotes are needed if the path contains spaces.

Using the emulation

As the system boots, it will ask you for a screen resolution to use, e.g. 1024x768. After selecting a screen size, the system will complete the boot, start the Orbital GUI, and display a Redox login screen. Login as user user with no password. The password for root is password. Use Ctrl+Alt+G to toggle the mouse behavior if you need to zoom out or exit the emulation. If your emulated cursor is out of alignment with your mouse position, type Ctrl+Alt+G to regain full cursor control, then click on your emulated cursor. Ctrl+Alt+F toggles between full screen and window views.

See Trying Out Redox for things to try.

If you want to try Redox in server mode, add -nographic -vga none to the command line above. You may wish to switch to the redox_server edition. There are also i686 editions available, although these are not part of the release.

The Redox Operating System