You can download the pre-built Linux kernel suitable for running in the QEMU emulator from
http://downloads.yoctoproject.org/releases/yocto/yocto-2.1/machines/qemu.
Be sure to use the kernel that matches the architecture you want to simulate.
Download areas exist for the five supported machine architectures:
qemuarm
, qemumips
, qemuppc
,
qemux86
, and qemux86-64
.
Most kernel files have one of the following forms:
*zImage-qemuarch
.bin vmlinux-qemuarch
.bin Where:arch
is a string representing the target architecture: x86, x86-64, ppc, mips, or arm.
You can learn more about downloading a Yocto Project kernel in the "Yocto Project Kernel" bulleted item in the Yocto Project Development Manual.