QEMU-based x86_64 chroot for Raspberry Pi 4B or later with (in-built) Stata® and other x86_64 software support

This script a) creates a QEMU VM qcow2 file from an automatically downloaded ISO image, b) rsyncs (copies) its filesystem into a chroot, c) upgrades it when necessary, d) configures the chroot to launch x86_64 software on machines with arm64 (aarch64) CPU architecture.

Tailored for Raspberry Pi 4B (64-bit microcomputer) or later and SW like Stata® (in-built support), Conda (Anaconda, Miniconda) 3+, Adobe Acrobat DC (Legacy) etc.

NB CrossOver 20+ doesn’t yet seem to be working under chroot, please use Wine instead!

Requirements:

• Debian/Ubuntu-based system (preferably Raspberry Pi OS)
• qemu (with x86_64 support) - has to be built (see below)!
• qemu-user-static
• samba
• libguestfs-tools
• udisks2
• zsh (I switched to Zsh some years ago, sorry)

# qemu and qemu-system (the build takes ca. 1-2 hours)
# courtesy of https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=246886
####
sudo apt install build-essential ninja-build libepoxy-dev libdrm-dev libgbm-dev libx11-dev libvirglrenderer-dev libpulse-dev libsdl2-dev git libglib2.0-dev libfdt-dev libpixman-1-dev zlib1g-dev libepoxy-dev libdrm-dev libgbm-dev libx11-dev libvirglrenderer-dev libpulse-dev libsdl2-dev git
git clone https://git.qemu.org/git/qemu.git
cd qemu
git submodule init
git submodule update --recursive
./configure --enable-sdl  --enable-opengl --enable-virglrenderer --enable-system --enable-modules --audio-drv-list=pa --enable-kvm
ninja -C build
sudo ninja install -C build

# qemu-user-static, samba, libguestfs-tools, udisks2, and zsh
####
sudo apt install qemu-user-static samba libguestfs-tools udisks2 zsh

NB You can backup the build for repeated use with tar czfv ~/qemu.tar.gz ~/qemu before deleting it with rm -rf ~/qemu.

Configuration:

user____________="pi" Raspberry Pi (host) user ("pi")
user_chroot_____="pi" Chroot user ("pi" is recommended)
display_________=0 Raspberry Pi display (0)
path_filesystem_="/tmp" SD Card, USB drive etc.
path_software___="/tmp" SD Card, USB drive etc.
path_backup_file="/home/pi/Documents/non_qcow2.tar.gz" Backup tar.gz archive for chroot_x86_64 --backup
qemu_image_url__="https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current/amd64/iso-cd/debian-10.10.0-amd64-netinst.iso" ISO image URL
qemu_image_size_="16G" QEMU VM, image size, at least 16GB (maximum size)
qemu_smp________=2 QEMU VM, number of cores, 50% of host (recommended)
qemu_m__________="4G" QEMU VM, RAM size, 50% of host (recommended)
qemu_ssh_port___=22000 QEMU VM, SSH port
path_local_sw___="/usr/local" Path to Stata® and other SW
path_mountpoint_="/mnt" Mountpoint location in host
path_chroot_____="/var/chroot_x86_64" Chroot location in host
path_user_chroot="/home/pi" Chroot user home folder (~)
vm_on_upgrade___=1 Run QEMU VM on chroot_x86_64 --upgrade (1 for yes, 0 for no)
rsync_ignore____="/home/pi/ ${path_local_sw___}/stata17/" Chroot locations to ignore on chroot_x86_64 --upgrade and to backup with chroot_x86_64 --backup (no patterns allowed!)

NB If chroot_x86_64 --upgrade is interrupted, unsynced files (defined in $rsync_ignore____) can be found in ~/.rsync_ignore/!

Usage:

chroot_x86_64 --install to install the chroot environment
chroot_x86_64 --setup to setup the chroot environment
chroot_x86_64 --upgrade to upgrade the chroot environment
chroot_x86_64 --backup to backup unsynced folders/files
chroot_x86_64 --restore to restore the chroot environment
chroot_x86_64 <cmd> to run under chroot

Running Stata (change paths and version if necessary):

Requires libncurses5 and libgtk2.0-0 installed in QEMU VM and rsynced to chroot.
If intended to be run over SSH, don’t forget to set DISPLAY export DISPLAY=:0.

Slower but with Java and Python (Azul Zulu JDK build shipped with Stata doesn’t seem to be working under qemu-user-static, probably because of dynamic library loading):
qemu-x86_64 /usr/local/stata17/stata (Stata IC console)
qemu-x86_64 /usr/local/stata17/xstata (Stata IC GUI)
qemu-x86_64 /usr/local/stata17/stata-se (Stata SE console)
qemu-x86_64 /usr/local/stata17/xstata-se (Stata SE GUI)

# For Jupyter kernel (to launch from chroot):
echo "#!/bin/bash" | sudo tee /var/chroot_x86_64/usr/local/bin/stata-se
echo "chmod 0600 ~/.ssh/id_rsa; ssh -oAddressFamily=inet -oStrictHostKeyChecking=no -t -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa pi@localhost 'cd; qemu-x86_64 /usr/local/stata17/stata-se'" | sudo tee -a /var/chroot_x86_64/usr/local/bin/stata-se

Faster but without Java and Python:
/usr/local/stata17/stata (Stata IC console)
/usr/local/stata17/xstata (Stata IC GUI)
/usr/local/stata17/stata-se (Stata SE console)
/usr/local/stata17/xstata-se (Stata SE GUI)

NB Most Stata commands are C-based (especially compiled Mata .mo and .mlib files), only a small fraction are Java-based (for example, sdmxuse) or Python-based (for example, pyconvertu).
NB The ado directory and hidden .stata17 folder will be created in host ~/.

Running other software:

sudo chroot_x86_64 <cmd> (Any command, for example, acroread).
NB The hidden folders will be created in chroot, for example, /var/chroot_x86_64/home/pi/.

Happy usage!