routeros-qemu-chrlisted

MikroTik RouterOS CHR (Cloud Hosted Router) with QEMU. Use when: running RouterOS in QEMU, booting CHR images, debugging CHR boot failures, setting up VirtIO devices for RouterOS, choosing between SeaBIOS and UEFI boot, configuring QEMU port forwarding for RouterOS REST API, setting up inter-VM socket networking or host-side L2 capture of guest broadcasts (e.g. MNDP), or selecting QEMU acceleration (KVM/HVF/TCG).
tikoci/routeros-skills · ★ 18 · API & Backend · score 81

Install: claude install-skill tikoci/routeros-skills

# 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