How to quit the QEMU monitor when not using a GUI?

Question

I'm running QEMU on Linux without GUI.

After running starting my custom kernel with QEMU, I can't kill and return to host by pressing Ctrl+C.

Is there any way to get back to host OS?

Ciro Santilli OurBigBook.com · Answer 1 · 2022-10-03T15:26:50.423

Ctrl-A X

For -nographic just enter:

Ctrl-A X

which means

first press Ctrl + A (A is just key a, not the alt key),
then release the keys,
afterwards press X.

Alternatively:

enter the QEMU monitor with Ctrl-A C then type:
```
quit
```
and press enter. See also: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/14165158/how-to-switch-to-qemu-monitor-console-when-running-with-curses
use the QEMU monitor (same as Ctrl-A C) with telnet:
```
qemu-system-x86_64 -monitor telnet::45454,server,nowait -serial mon:stdio
```
and on a host terminal:
```
telnet localhost 45454
```
and then quit from there.

-serial mon:stdio is required to keep Ctrl+C working: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/49716931/how-to-run-qemu-with-nographic-and-monitor-but-still-be-able-to-send-ctrlc-to/49751144#49751144
shut down the VM from guest normally, e.g. with a powerdown command from a Linux guest shell if you are able. This of course goes through the normal shutdown sequence instead of immediately killing the VM, but sometimes it is just the simplest approach.

It does not work for all machines however: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/31990487/how-to-cleanly-exit-qemu-after-executing-bare-metal-program-without-user-interve

Tested in Ubuntu 17.10, QEMU 2.10.1.

@vharron yes, my amazing explanation skills have finally been surpassed — Ciro Santilli OurBigBook.com, Sep 25 '19 at 21:19
The telnet trick worked for me, as my qemu was being started on a port. — Codigo Morsa, Feb 07 '23 at 22:40

score 12 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 20 '17 at 09:55

12

To close a QEMU process in your shell:

ctrl+a, then x

answered Dec 20 '17 at 09:55

Noich

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When using -nographics and -monitor need to include -serial mon:stdio que keep ctrl+a working. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/49716931/how-to-run-qemu-with-nographic-and-monitor-but-still-be-able-to-send-ctrlc-to/49751144#49751144 – arvati Jul 03 '20 at 10:41

score 8 · Answer 3 · edited Oct 29 '19 at 23:46

8

Press Cntl-Alt-2 and then use the close button on the menu.

You can find more useful shortcuts here

edited Oct 29 '19 at 23:46

Ramhound

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answered Oct 29 '19 at 19:23

YanivGK

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I found the `Ctrl` part unnecessary. `Alt-2` does the job. – Jet Blue Sep 16 '20 at 23:03

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 10 '16 at 23:21

1

Ok, found a solution.

Opened new terminal session: ctrl+alt+f2
Used ps to find PID of previous tty: ps -fu
Killed previous tty: kill -HUP PID

answered Jun 10 '16 at 23:21

triple fault

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This is a really inferior solution to the most upvoted answer here. I will not downvote the answer, since it was entered before the better solutions. – EFraim Aug 21 '18 at 08:05

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Jul 11 '21 at 04:15

This is just in addition to other answers, where ctrl-a x works but you've aliased over it. If you're like me, you're using tmux with ctrl-b replaced with ctrl-a, which is why you can't use ctrl-a x. A simple solution to this is to use tmux's send-keys utility to send ctrl-a x to qemu.

In a running tmux window, press ctrl-a : to bring up the tmux prompt, then type send-keys C-a x Enter and qemu will quit.

How to quit the QEMU monitor when not using a GUI?

5 Answers5