Getting Started

This chapter starts from a clean checkout and walks through the host check, component builds, guest assets, the first co-simulation session, and the verification inside the guest.

What this chapter covers

Recommended path

First time: follow Requirements, Install and build, Guest image, First session and Verify the guest in that order.
Guest assets already built: start with First session.
On macOS or Windows: read Development container first, then follow the same order. A bootable KVM guest still needs a Linux host and KVM.
Interested in platform details and dependencies: read Linux host or Development container.

Expectations

Item	Expectation
Disk	About 120 GB free: the guest image is about 55 GB plus build artifacts
Memory	16 GB or more; use `just build-gem5 1` if linking runs out of memory
First build	Tens of minutes to hours, depending on CPU count and cache state
First session	A few minutes to a ready GPU; the setup service alone takes about 40 s
Artifact locations	Build outputs under `build/`, session directories under `.cosim/`

Tip

All build, launch and check tasks are recipes in the top-level justfile. Run just --list for the complete list.