Getting Started with RISC-V on QEMU

The best way to understand RISC-V is to run it — and you do not need to buy a board to start. With QEMU, you can emulate a complete RISC-V Linux system on the laptop you already own, whether it is x86 or Apple Silicon. This is exactly how I started before getting real RISC-V hardware.

In this tutorial we will install QEMU, run a single RISC-V binary in user mode, then boot a full RISC-V Ubuntu system in system mode.

Commands below are written for Linux and macOS. On Windows, run them inside WSL2.

What You’ll Need

• A host machine (x86-64 or ARM64) with a few GB of free disk
• A package manager (apt, dnf, or Homebrew)
• Basic comfort with the terminal

Step 1: Install QEMU

QEMU ships RISC-V targets in its standard packages.

Debian / Ubuntu:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y qemu-system-misc qemu-user-static qemu-utils

Fedora / RHEL:

sudo dnf install -y qemu-system-riscv qemu-user-static qemu-img

macOS (Homebrew):

brew install qemu

Verify the RISC-V targets are present:

qemu-system-riscv64 --version
qemu-riscv64 --version   # user-mode emulator

Step 2: Run a Single RISC-V Binary (User Mode)

User-mode emulation is the fastest way to execute a RISC-V program. It translates the binary’s instructions to your host CPU and reuses your host kernel — no full VM required.

First, cross-compile a small C program for RV64. Install the toolchain:

# Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt install -y gcc-riscv64-linux-gnu

Create hello.c:

#include <stdio.h>

int main(void) {
    printf("Hello from RISC-V (RV64)!\n");
    return 0;
}

Cross-compile it statically and run it through QEMU user mode:

riscv64-linux-gnu-gcc -static -o hello hello.c
file hello          # -> ELF 64-bit LSB executable, UCB RISC-V
qemu-riscv64 ./hello
# Hello from RISC-V (RV64)!

You just executed native RISC-V machine code on a non-RISC-V machine. The -static flag avoids having to point QEMU at a RISC-V sysroot for shared libraries; for dynamic binaries, pass -L /usr/riscv64-linux-gnu.

Step 3: Boot a Full RISC-V Linux System (System Mode)

System mode emulates an entire virtual machine. The cleanest path in 2026 is a prebuilt distro image. Ubuntu publishes RISC-V images for the generic QEMU virt machine.

Download the cloud image and prepare a disk:

# Ubuntu RISC-V cloud image (preinstalled)
wget https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/releases/24.04/release/ubuntu-24.04-server-cloudimg-riscv64.img -O ubuntu-riscv64.img

# Give it some room to grow
qemu-img resize ubuntu-riscv64.img +10G

You also need the UEFI firmware (U-Boot/EDK2). On Debian/Ubuntu it comes with qemu-efi-riscv64:

sudo apt install -y u-boot-qemu opensbi

Boot the machine:

qemu-system-riscv64 \
  -machine virt -nographic \
  -m 4G -smp 4 \
  -bios /usr/lib/riscv64-linux-gnu/opensbi/generic/fw_jump.bin \
  -kernel /usr/lib/u-boot/qemu-riscv64_smode/uboot.elf \
  -drive file=ubuntu-riscv64.img,format=qcow2,if=virtio \
  -device virtio-net-device,netdev=net0 \
  -netdev user,id=net0,hostfwd=tcp::2222-:22

Key flags explained:

• -machine virt — QEMU’s generic RISC-V board, the de-facto standard target
• -bios fw_jump.bin — OpenSBI, the Supervisor Binary Interface firmware that runs in M-mode and hands off to the kernel (a concept unique to RISC-V’s privilege model)
• -smp 4 -m 4G — four virtual harts (hardware threads) and 4 GB RAM
• hostfwd=tcp::2222-:22 — forwards host port 2222 to the guest’s SSH so you can ssh -p 2222 ...

When it boots, log in and confirm the architecture:

uname -m        # riscv64
cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep isa
# isa : rv64imafdc_...   (the extensions your virtual CPU exposes)

That isa line is RISC-V’s modularity made visible — it lists exactly which extensions are active, the same letters described in What Is RISC-V.

Step 4: Pick the CPU and Extensions

QEMU lets you choose the emulated core and toggle extensions, which is great for testing portability against the RVA23 profile:

# List available RISC-V CPUs
qemu-system-riscv64 -cpu help

# Emulate a specific profile-like config, enabling the vector extension
qemu-system-riscv64 -machine virt -cpu rv64,v=true,vlen=128 ...

Being able to flip the V (vector) extension on and off is handy when you are validating AI or HPC code — the same workloads pushing RISC-V into the datacenter.

Troubleshooting

• Boot hangs at OpenSBI: check the -bios path; firmware locations differ slightly across distros.
• No network in guest: confirm the virtio-net-device + -netdev user pair; user networking needs no host setup.
• Slow boot: expected — emulation translates every instruction. Reduce -smp if your host is constrained.
• Apple Silicon: QEMU runs fine, but it is emulation (TCG), not virtualization, so do not expect native speed.

Where to Go Next

Once you are comfortable in the emulator, the natural next step is real silicon. My RISC-V development boards guide covers what to buy in 2026, and if you are curious about AI on open hardware, see running OpenClaw and Ollama on RISC-V.

QEMU made RISC-V approachable for me long before I held a board at RISC-V Summit Europe 2026. It is the cheapest, fastest on-ramp to the open ISA.