bochs(1)

📦
version 3.1 · 5 versions
, in fedora 43, fedora 44, nixpkgs unstable

💖 bochs(1) — bestie edition 💖

okay so. this is the manual page for bochs, from The Bochs Project, and it's genuinely one of the most iconic little pieces of software ever. grab a snack, we're doing this. 🍓

✨ NAME ✨

bochs — Portable x86 Emulator. that's it, that's the whole vibe. 👑

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

bochs [bochs_options] [bochsrc_options]

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so bochs is a portable Intel Architecture 32 (x86) emulator, and the way it just… runs on most popular operating systems? main character energy, no cap. 💅

and inside the emulator? bestie, it can run so many operating systems. like, Linux and Microsoft(R) Windows(R) are both on the list. it's giving "I contain multitudes." 🌈

🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

okay so here's the thing. if you run Bochs without one of the options below, it will search for a configuration file called .bochsrc in the current directory and your home directory, and then show you the start menu. that's the default behaviour, bestie. ✨

  • -q — skips the start menu after the configuration file loads. bye menu 👋
  • -f configfile — names the configuration file you want to use. this is the "hey, use this one" flag.
  • -qf configfile — the combo move 💫 skips the start menu and uses the config file you specified.
  • -n — Bochs doesn't load a configuration file at all. in that case you have to set the whole emulation up yourself using bochsrc options on the command line, or in the start menu. do it live, i guess 😭
  • -benchmark N — run Bochs in benchmark mode for N millions of emulated ticks. numbers go brrr 🔥
  • -dumpstats N — dump Bochs stats every N millions of emulated ticks.
  • -r path — restore the Bochs state from path. nap time's over, we're resuming 🫶
  • -log filename — specify the Bochs log file name.
  • -unlock — unlock Bochs images left over from a previous session. the ghosts of your last run, freed ✨
  • -h, --help — print a summary of the command line options for Bochs and exit.
  • -h, --help features — display available features / devices and exit.
  • -h, --help cpu — display supported CPU models and exit.

💜 debugger options 💜

the following options are only available if Bochs is compiled with debugger support. so if they don't work… that's why, bestie.

  • -dbg — start the Bochs internal debugger on startup.
  • -dbg_gui — start the Bochs internal debugger with gui on startup.
  • -dbg_gui:globalini — start the Bochs internal debugger gui using the ini file from the BXSHARE path.
  • -rc filename — execute debugger commands stored in file.
  • -dbglog — specify the Bochs internal debugger log file name.

🧚 overriding stuff, and the quote rule 🧚

you can override the settings from the configuration file with command line arguments, using the same syntax as the bochsrc file. periodt.

⚠️ if you have any spaces in your command line arguments, they should be enclosed in single quotes. this is not optional, this is self-care.

for info on Bochs command line and configuration file arguments, go look at the man page bochsrc(5). iykyk 📖

Example:

bochs -q 'boot:a' 'floppya: 1_44=a.img, status=inserted'

see how the quoted bits have spaces in them? yeah. exactly. 🎯

💀 LICENSE 💀

this program is distributed under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation. see the LICENSE and COPYING files located in /usr/share/doc/bochs/ for details on the license and the lack of warranty. (yes. the lack of warranty. read it. 🫣)

🌟 AVAILABILITY 🌟

the latest version of this program can be found at:

https://bochs.sourceforge.io/getcurrent.html

🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

The Bochs IA-32 Emulator site on the World Wide Web:

https://bochs.sourceforge.io

Online Bochs Documentation:

https://bochs.sourceforge.io/doc/docbook

👑 AUTHORS 👑

The Bochs emulator was created by Kevin Lawton (kevin@mandrakesoft.com), and is currently maintained by the members of the Bochs x86 Emulator Project. you can see a current roster of members at:

https://bochs.sourceforge.io/getinvolved.html

🙈 BUGS 🙈

please report all bugs to the bug tracker on our web site. just go to https://bochs.sourceforge.io, and click "Bug Reports" on the sidebar under "Feedback".

and when you do, provide a detailed description of the bug, the version of the program you're running, the operating system you're running the program on, and the operating system you're running in the emulator. all four. don't be shy with the details, the devs need them. 💖

and that's the whole page, bestie!! this was bochs version 3.1, dated 07 Mar 2025, from The Bochs Project — go emulate something iconic, ily, bye!! 🎀✨🦋

📦 where this page comes from