Re: [Qemu-discuss] SunOS 4.1.4 / Solaris 1.1.2 on qemu-system-sparc 2.4

[Maximilian H.]

The block size of the cdrom is only interesting if you want to install a
sunos 4.1.4 from a cdrom image like I do. I also have some cdroms with
compiled binaries for sunos4 from which I can install the applications
that I require. Of course I can get around that.

Also I just checked my notes. A normal cdrom device appears to have a
block size of 2k, whereas sunos 4 expects a block size of 512 bytes.
That was changed finally only in Solaris 2.7 or 2.6. I got that wrong in
my earlier posts here, the whole setup is so old that I loose memory of
details...

The instructions here https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/QEMU/SunOS_4.1.4 are
quite excellent, but because they use the wrong scsi id for the disk and
cannot use the cdrom normally the instructions have to move around some
problems with the disks and the cdrom.





> Like you, I was setting HostIDs for LM.
> 
> However, if your original machine is a SS-20, selecting this machine
> type and then setting the MAC address to match the original machine,
> will give you the original host ID.  It is a combination of the host
> type (SS-20) and the MAC address.  If you use my command line from the
> article as your starting point, you should get the correct hostid and
> things should work.
> 
> I would not send much time on the cg3.  I'd set up remote X and just use
> an X session - it will be much simpler and allow you to run the VM in
> the background and connect to it over the network.  I found that worked
> much better for me.
> 
> It also allowed me to script backups which did a snapshot of the VM
> disks, allowed me to backup, then drop the snapshots.  I ended up with a
> much better backup schedule of the VM that was possible on the original
> hardware (which was important for the client and I guess may be
> something you would want too).
> 
> I don't know about the block sizes - I'm not sure it is that important
> anyway, unless I'm missing something about your setup.
> 
> Jim
> 
> 
> On 08/09/2015 4:43 AM, Maximilian Heise wrote:
>> Hello Jim, Hello Everybody,
>>
>> I found out that I could disable the unwanted cdrom drive by passing
>> -nodefaults as a command line argument, so now probe-scsi in OBP does
>> not show an unwanted/unintended cdrom device anymore.
>>
>> @Jim: What did you change in the source regarding NVRAM ?
>>
>> Setting those NVRAM things is very desireable. Things like the hostid
>> and ethernet address can be changed there, the license manager that we
>> still use does make use of the hostid.
>>
>> Yes, a seperate Xterminal would work. However the cg3 framebuffer is
>> working with the original SUN firmware, and if I get the keymapping then
>> it would be useable.
>>
>> And is there are way to specify on the command line the firmware to be
>> loaded for the cg3 framebuffer. Right now I use -L "$PWD" as a command
>> line argument, but in 1y I will gave forgotten that this causes the file
>> "QEMU,cgthree.bin" in the local directory to be loaded for that.
>>
>> Is there a way to set the blocksize of a qemu device for sparc ?
>>
>> BR
>> Max.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>> I had a similar situation and documented it here :
>>> http://kb.networksystemssolutions.info/index.php/Sparc_Virtualization
>>>
>>> It was for a Sparc-20 with Solaris 2.6.
>>>
>>> It's kind of hit or miss at times and seems to require particular CPU
>>> settings in my experience.  I had the advantage of being able to image
>>> the disk and clean it up on a Linux box but you may not be so fortunate.
>>>
>>> If you need keyboard handling, my personal approach would be to either
>>> use telnet if you can get away with text only (but for CAD/CAM, that's a
>>> non-starter).
>>>
>>> For graphics, I'd set up an X terminal and log on remotely via that and
>>> run the VM in the background with the network bridged into the main
>>> network, so it will respond the XDM queries.
>>>
>>> I cheated with NVRAM and fiddled with the source for what I wanted, but
>>> I believe it may be possible to pass some NVRAM contents (but I don't
>>> recall if I read that at a forgotten link or if it was just wishful
>>> thinking on my part).
>>>
>>> I never had any success with Sun Intel based boxes - the QEMU hardware
>>> emulation layout is all IDE based and my physical boxes were all SCSI,
>>> so the emulation crashed and burned on boot.
>>>
>>> SPARC emulation is good for some configs and a total failure for
>>> others.  I spend weeks trying to work round the failure cases with no
>>> success.  There seem to be just too few people using it, for there to be
>>> significant progress.
>>>
>>> Jim
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On 07/09/2015 22:28, Maximilian Heise wrote:
>>>> Hello Everybody,
>>>>
>>>> my name is Max, I have been using qemu for Intel processors before, but
>>>> not for old SUN Sparc machines before.
>>>>
>>>> One of my SS20s, which are running a old but perfectly working custom
>>>> CAD/CAM/CIM solution recently had a harddrive failure. I have backups
>>>> and installation media, so no big deal. However that hard drive failure
>>>> prompted me to google if there was a way to run Solaris with version
>>>> 2.7
>>>> or 1.1.2 inside an emulator.
>>>>
>>>> To my great surprise I found an explanation on howto install SunOS
>>>> 4.1.4
>>>> and it worked after I compiled a new qemu version myself. Some further
>>>> googling showed me how to load the original cg3 firmware and now I even
>>>> have X11 up and running in 1152x900.
>>>> http://imagebin.ca/v/2Ert5b6VRnPl <= Screenshot of the openwin/X11
>>>> desktop in qemu
>>>>
>>>> My shell script currently contains this:
>>>>
>>>> #!/bin/bash
>>>> QEMU_SYSTEM_SPARC=/home/user/programs/qemu/qemu-2.4.0/sparc-softmmu/qemu-system-sparc
>>>>
>>>> OBP_ROM=/home/user/data/qemu-sparc/sun_sparc_rom_obp/ss5.bin
>>>> SYSTEM_DISK_IMAGE=/home/user/data/qemu-sparc/sunos414.img
>>>> ${QEMU_SYSTEM_SPARC}    -monitor tcp::4444,server,nowait \
>>>>             -L "$PWD" \
>>>>             -name vm-idefix \
>>>>             -k de \
>>>>             -M SS-5 \
>>>>             -bios "$OBP_ROM" \
>>>>             -m 128 \
>>>>             -vga cg3 \
>>>>             -g 1152x900 \
>>>>             -net nic \
>>>>                          -drive
>>>> file="$SYSTEM_DISK_IMAGE",media=disk,if=scsi,bus=0,unit=3
>>>>
>>>> What I noticed while doing this 4.1.4 install on
>>>> qemu-system-sparc+questions:
>>>>
>>>> 1. There is a cdrom device appearing in qemu out of nowhere, where does
>>>> it come from and how do I disable it ? It is on scsi id 2, which is
>>>> wrong for SunOS 4.1.4 and I did not enable it myself.
>>>> http://imagebin.ca/v/2ErsOVlZjbK6 <- Screenshot of probe-scsi in OBP.
>>>>
>>>> 2. The installation as described here:
>>>> https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/QEMU/SunOS_4.1.4 works, but is a bit
>>>> painful because qemu's cdrom driver probably has the wrong blocksize of
>>>> 512 and not 2048 bytes, line SunOS 4 required it to be and because the
>>>> wrong scsi ids are used.
>>>> So is there a way to configure the blocksize of a device somewhere ?
>>>> How
>>>> is this done for 512 and 4k discs for example ?
>>>> Because if I start the installation with these lines:
>>>> -drive file="$SYSTEM_DISK_IMAGE",media=disk,if=scsi,bus=0,unit=3 \
>>>> -drive file="$INSTALL_MEDIA_IMAGE",media=cdrom,if=scsi,bus=0,unit=6
>>>> Then the scsi ids are right for installing SunOS 4.1.4. Because of this
>>>> blocksize problem however one has to use the cdrom as a disk at the
>>>> moment or it will not work.
>>>>
>>>> 3. How do I set the bloody keymap ?
>>>> -k de
>>>> does not work for me. I have a German keyboard on my laptop and
>>>> desktop,
>>>> but qemu still gives me an English layout no matter if I use "-k de"
>>>> or not.
>>>>
>>>> 4. The SS5 was suggested in the installation guide, could anybody
>>>> comment on how well the SS20 works for example with qemu-system-sparc ?
>>>>
>>>> 5. How can I save nvram content in qemu-system-sparc between
>>>> power-cycles ? Is there a way ?
>>>>
>>>> BR
>>>> Max.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
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> 
> 
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> All e-mail and telephone communications are subject to Suresafe Terms
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> purposes contained therein and adherence to regulatory and legal
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> Your further communication or reply to this e-mail indicates your
> acceptance of this.
> 
> Any views or opinions expressed are the responsibility of the author
> and may not reflect those of Suresafe Protection Limited.
> 
> Suresafe Protection Limited is registered in Scotland, number SC132827
> The registered office is at 8 Kelvin Road, Cumbernauld, G67 2BA.
> Telephone: 01236 727792    Fax: 01236 723301   VAT Number: 556 6950 02
>