Thanks to all who replied. sys-firmware/seabios needed the "binary" flag and sys-firmware/ipxe needed the "qemu" and "vmware" flags. It's starting now, and most of my problems are solved.
I still have permission problems as a regular user with qemu-kvm, but qemu-system-i386 works. Root can start qemu-kvm. "modprobe kvm-intel" from a root xterm, followed by "qemu-kvm blahblahblah" from a regular user (i.e. "waltdnes") fails... Could not access KVM kernel module: Permission denied failed to initialize KVM: Permission denied Before anybody asks... # grep kvm /etc/group kvm:x:78:waltdnes,user2 One more question... I rebuilt qemu with sdl enabled, and now have the Gentoo install ISO booting up in a window via sdl with... qemu-system-i386 -cpu qemu32 -m 3072 -hda sda.raw -cdrom installx86.iso -boot d But the screen refreshes are somewhat slow. I'd prefer to do it with vnc. What is the way to boot up and connect with vnc now? Starting with... qemu-system-i386 -vnc :0 -cpu qemu32 -m 3072 -hda sda.raw -cdrom installx86.iso -boot d ...gives no output at all. "ps -ef" shows the qemu process is present. I've installed tightvnc, but documentation is almost non-existant. Google turns up tons of download sites and instructions for Windows, complete with screen captures of cutsie-wootsie dialogue windows. I need just 2 things please... 1) What vnc parameters to enter into the qemu commandline? 2) What "vncviewer" or "vncconnect" parameters do I use to get to the qemu session? I just had a scary thought... the vnc "help" mentions connecting to the the client display. But the install cd boots up to a text console. Please don't tell me that tightvnc can't connect to a plain text console. -- Walter Dnes <waltd...@waltdnes.org> I don't run "desktop environments"; I run useful applications
