W/out SDL installed:

[root@frostbite ~]# qemu -hda arch-qemu.hdd -cdrom arch-0.7-base.iso -boot d -m 128 -monitor stdio
qemu: error while loading shared libraries: libSDL-1.2.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

With SDL installed (X not configured; console/server setup only):

[root@frostbite ~]# qemu -hda arch-qemu.hdd -cdrom arch-0.7-base.iso -boot d -m 128 -monitor stdio
Could not initialize SDL - exiting