A VmWare alternative

[Zachary Kline]

Hiya,
    I'll be glad to show you how I run Qemu under Windows.  I warn you that 
Window-Eyes will be of no help whatsoever in reading the Qemu console 
window.  In fact, I suggest either creating a custom set file for it and 
using the Hotkeys option in the general menu to turn them off, or just 
unloading WE entirely.  That, of course, isn't very convenient.  If you turn 
off hotkeys in qemu alone you'll get response when alt+tab is pressed to get 
you out of that window.  Anyway, here's what I do:
To start with, I haven't installed Qemu into c:\program files.  I just did 
C:\qemu,, with the bios in the same place.  So to get that option I do -L ., 
which like under Unix stands for current directory.
A sample command line is:
qemu -serial com3 -boot d -net tap,ifname="tap" -net 
nic,model=rtl8139 -soundhw ens1370 -hda debian.img -cdrom debian.iso -L .
This is what I used to get Debian installed, with the Dectalk express 
connected to a USB-to-serial converter which acted as COM3 under Windows. 
It will work as ttyS0 under Linux, of course.
The boot d option is just to specify booting from the ISO image.  I 
personally haven't done much with floppy images or actual drives.
Once Qemu runs, you'll possibly get a Windows properties dialogue asking 
about whichever COM port you used.  Just hit enter to close it and you'll be 
in a Qemu console window.  Type the command to get speakup up and running, 
in the case of a Debian install it would be:
speakup speakup_synth=dectlk speakup_ser=0
>From that point, assuming you unloaded WE or created a set file properly, 
things will just run as normal.  You can alt+tab out of the Qemu window at 
any time.
Hope this helps some.
Thanks,
Zack.
PS: If not, please feel free to ask me anything you'd like.