Qemu/Chroot Into a Different Architecture

Table of content

Directions on using the qemu-user-static package to chroot into a system using emulation. This uses the qemu binaries on the host system to emulate the chroot system.

Setting up the chroot

Preparing the chroot environment

Mount the system you're going to chroot into. 

mount /dev/sdb2 /mnt
mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/boot

Package Installation

Install the following packages on the host

  • The emulation binaries will be placed in /usr/bin/qemu-*-static. These are standalone emulation applications and don't require dependencies in chroot.

  • The arch-install-scripts provide the "arch-chroot" wrapper script. 

apt install qemu-user-static arch-install-scripts

Copying the binaries to the chroot $PATH

The chroot system must have the emulation binary in its own path. Place the qemu-arm-static binary in the /usr/bin/ folder. 

cp /usr/bin/qemu-arm-static /mnt/usr/bin

Chroot into the system

This was tested on Raspbian ARM for the Raspberry Pi 

arch-chroot /mnt qemu-arm-static /bin/bash
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