Run the emulation with: qemu-system-i386 -M pc -kernel output/images/bzImage -drive file=output/images/rootfs.ext2,if=virtio,format=raw -append "rootwait root=/dev/vda console=tty1 console=ttyS0" -serial stdio -net nic,model=virtio -net user # qemu_x86_defconfig Optionally add -smp N to emulate a SMP system with N CPUs. The login prompt will appear in the graphical window.