Re: [Qemu-devel] Booting Solaris 9 install CD under qemu-system-sparc

[Paul Sheer]

> Booting Solaris_sparc inside qemu??
> --->>  Unfortunately not (speaking of SunOS4.x/Solaris1.x and Solaris2.x 32 
> bit
> kernel): Good news is, that it successfully starts booting (a physical
> CD, a CD.iso or physical hdd) now.
> That is, it can read the vtoc now and starts executing bootblk.
> This quantum leap improvement is due to the fact, that qemu-system-sparc
> has moved to using openbios last summer.
> 
> Bad news: openbios is a pretty good and standards conform implementation
> of ieee1275-94 OpenFirmware.
> But unfortunately is SUNW's proprietary OBP implementation not so
> standards conform, but instead implements certain behaviour differently
> (through explicit ifdefs in its sources).
> So openbios sets up the qemu-system-sparc machine in a state that is not
> expected by the Solaris_32bit guest. And it then dies before any output
> would have been sent to the console (i.e. SunOS 5.8 32 bit ...).
> Though it actually is quite a lot what it already does do now.
> Blue Swirl is working on that front.
> 
> There is an opensource version of SUNW's OBP of implementation available
> for download on opensparc.org for 3 months now. Licensed under either
> BSD or GPL.
> It is a version optimized for use with sun4v (not sun4u).
> Maybe this can accellerate things.
> You should ask Blue Swirl for everything that has to do with
> sparc-emulation, please. My field is the HOST sparc support.
> 
> If you need it cheap and slow, just get a U5/U10 starting at $10 (final 
> auction price) from ebay.
> Or a Blade 100 - sometimes someone offers many at once in a multi_auction.
> Chances are then, you snipe one for below $30,-
> 

actually there is a company ccny.com that builds these
things to spec - they quoted me US$175 for a Sun 5

shipping to cape town, south africa is gonna be pricy - probably
double that!!

but money's not the issue - i don't want to have to deal
with the thing when it breaks :-)

qemu can already boot all the x86 unix platforms imaginable

        win98/nt/xp,linux-x86,XXXbsd,solaris-x86

plus all the linux platforms:

        linux-*

right?

if it can boot solaris-sparc, i am well on my way to
building for every unix out there! - without having to
get any hardware!!

at the moment i have hp-ux machines available to me. so outstanding
is:

        1. solaris-sparc
        2. AIX-RS6000

should i offer a reward to get these working? :-)

what is Blue Swirl's email?

Thanks very much for all the info btw

-paul