routeros-qemu-chr

# RouterOS CHR with QEMU ## What Is CHR Cloud Hosted Router (CHR) is MikroTik's x86_64 and aarch64 RouterOS image designed for virtual machines. Free license allows unlimited use with 1 Mbps speed limit — sufficient for development, testing, API work, and packet sniffer debugging. A free 60-day trial removes the speed limit entirely (requires a free mikrotik.com account). See [CHR licensing reference](./references/chr-licensing.md) for full details on license tiers, trial activation, and expiry behavior. ## Image Variants | Image | Architecture | Boot method | Source | |---|---|---|---| | `chr-<ver>.img` | x86_64 | SeaBIOS (MBR chain-load) | download.mikrotik.com | | `chr-<ver>-arm64.img` | aarch64 | UEFI (EDK2 pflash) | download.mikrotik.com | | `chr-efi.img` (fat-chr) | x86_64 | UEFI (OVMF) | tikoci/fat-chr GitHub | **Standard x86 image has a proprietary boot partition** — it looks like an EFI System Partition in GPT but is NOT FAT. UEFI firmware (OVMF) cannot read it. Only SeaBIOS can boot it via MBR chain-load. The `fat-chr` repackaged image converts this to standard FAT16 with `EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.EFI`, enabling UEFI boot. Required for Apple Virtualization.framework on X86 macOS, optional everywhere else. **Disk layout** (128 MiB, both architectures): Hybrid GPT+MBR, partition 1 = boot (~33 MiB), partition 2 = ext4 root (~94 MiB). ## Downloading CHR Images ```typescript // Resolve current version const channel = "stable"; // or: long-term, testing, development cons...