Install QEMU User Space Emulator on Ubuntu 26.04

QEMU User space emulator provides the ability to run binaries compiled for different CPU architectures on a host system. It is commonly used for cross-architecture testing and software validation. This tutorial demonstrates how to install QEMU User space emulator on Ubuntu 26.04.

Install QEMU User

Run the following command to update package lists:

sudo apt update

Install the QEMU User package:

sudo apt install -y qemu-user

The package installs emulators for various architectures. To confirm successful installation, version checks can be performed for a few commonly used emulators:

qemu-aarch64 --version

qemu-riscv64 --version

qemu-loongarch64 --version

Testing QEMU User

Download the aarch64 (64-bit ARM) architecture binary for testing purposes:

curl -sSLo yq https://github.com/mikefarah/yq/releases/latest/download/yq_linux_arm64

Grant execute permissions to the binary:

chmod a+x yq

Create a sample YAML file:

printf "status: success\ndata:\n  - name: John\n    age: 25\n  - name: James\n    age: 29" > test.yaml

Attempt to execute the aarch64 binary directly:

./yq e '.' test.yaml

Running the binary directly produces a result indicating that execution is not possible on the host architecture:

bash: ./yq: cannot execute binary file: Exec format error

Run the binary through the QEMU User space emulator:

qemu-aarch64 ./yq e '.' test.yaml

Expected result:

status: success
data:
  - name: John
    age: 25
  - name: James
    age: 29

Uninstall QEMU User

If decided to uninstall QEMU User space emulator and clear unnecessary dependencies, run the following command:

sudo apt purge --autoremove -y qemu-user