For some reason, this image doesn't have the correct rc*.d links for xdm, so xdm doesn't start at boot and you'll just get a grey screen when you connect via VNC. The correct Debian way of fixing this is: update-rc.d -f xdm remove update-rc.d xdm start 99 2 3 4 5 . stop 01 0 1 6 . ... or you can just add the missing symlinks by hand. Of course, without accelerated floating point, the X11 display is so mind- bogglingly slow under QEMU that this fix is scarcely relevant. If you need useable X11 on an ARM VM, I suggest that you try an ARM EABI (armel) VM instead.