Re: [Qemu-ppc] Adding canyonlands/460EX support to QEMU in qemu-system-ppc

[Alexander Graf]

Hi Allen,

On 20.02.2013, at 06:10, Allen Kneser wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> I downloaded and compiled the QEMU 1.4.0 sources, wanting to emulate an AMCC 
> canyonlands PowerPC board 
> (http://www.apm.com/products/embedded/singlecore460/ppc460ex). I am running 
> my own Linux distro on this board with a custom-built kernel and ramdisk. I 
> am in need of a "virtual testbed" that resembles this board, so I can install 
> the same kernel and ramdisk that are on the board on the virtual testbed.
> 
> While running 'qemu-system-ppc -M ?', I noticed that canyonlands is not one 
> of the options there and, also 460EX is not among the supported CPUs in 
> 'qemu-system-ppc -cpu ?'. I have tried booting my kernel and ramdisk with the 
> other -M options but had no luck.
> 
> I am relatively new to QEMU, so I might be on the wrong track here, but I am 
> wondering if, in order to create a QEMU VM that resembles the canyonlands 
> board, there are certain qemu-system-ppc arguments/parameters that escape me 
> right now, or if I need to modify QEMU and add support for canyonlands, just 
> like there is support for, say AMCC taihu, in qemu/hw/ppc405_boards.c

Well, the closest board to the canyonlands is hw/ppc440_bamboo.c. But yes, you 
would need to create a board file similar to that for the canyonlands and also 
add a CPU definition for the 460EX core.

> If I need to modify QEMU, I would appreciate any advice on whether adding 
> canyonlands support is possible given the QEMU architecture and perhaps a few 
> tips on what would need to be done.

It is certainly possible and shouldn't be very hard to do so. The canyonland is 
very close to bamboo. Just copy the bamboo board, change the device locations 
to what your canyonland board has, use the canyonland device tree and check 
where it breaks :). For starters, I'd probably start booting with -cpu 440EP or 
-cpu 440GP (depending on whether you have floating point) to not get into the 
core emulation trouble.

Also, did you know that there is kvm available for your board? I am very close 
to ripping it out of the kernel because there are no users, but if I hear about 
any, I wouldn't object to keeping it in.


Alex