Re: [Qemu-discuss] How to detect old arch?

[Dale R. Worley]

Peter Maydell <address@hidden> writes:
>> I have an ISO fromat via dd from an old scsi unix:
>> //////////////////////////
>> dd if=/dev/hdc of=./all_files.iso
>> I think it's sysv unix. How can I detedct its' arch via qemu?
>
> I would start off by running strings on the iso image, to see if
> there's any helpful human-readable text in it that would more
> usefully narrow down:
>  * what the disk actually has on it
>  * what OS it is
>  * what CPU architecture it's for
>
> Then you can probably make an educated guess at the image
> format.

What you have is an ISO file system.  That is, it contains a bunch of
files.  You can mount it on your system and read the files.

Of course, the important question is "What are the files for?"  Probably
there is an operating system on it, but is there a reason for you to
care?  The data files are the important part, and you can already read
them.  Determining the arch of the system on which the binaries
originally ran is interesting only if you want to run those particular
binaries again.  But it's more effective if you rebuild the binaries on
your current system from the sources that should be in the ISO image.

Dale