Interactive Unix’s CD-ROM support does work under VirtualBox if you use the BusLogic SCSI controller for the CD-ROM drive but the media must be High-Sierra with DOS 8.3 filenames :-

# uname -X
System = iunixs
Node = iunixs
Release = 4.1
KernelID = <5/04/14 19:32:26
Machine = i80486
BusType = ISA
Serial =
Users = unlim
OEM# = 0
Origin# = 1
NumCPU = 1

# cat /etc/default/cdrom
CDROM0DEV=/dev/dsk/cd0t5

# cdrom
mounted /dev/dsk/cd0t5 on /cdrom

# df -v /cdrom
Mount Dir Filesystem blocks used free %used
/cdrom /dev/dsk/cd0t5 672272 672272 0 100%

# ls -l /cdrom
total 80262
-r–r–r– 1 root root 14121 Jul 1 1994 _mssetup.exe
-r–r–r– 1 root root 251904 Jul 1 1994 acmsetup.exe
-r–r–r– 1 root root 19066 Jul 1 1994 acmsetup.hlp
-r–r–r– 1 root root 84909 Jul 1 1994 acreadme.hlp
-r–r–r– 1 root root 79720 Jul 1 1994 acsetup.ttf
dr-xr-xr-x 1 root root 2048 Aug 14 1996 bonus
dr-xr-xr-x 1 root root 2048 Aug 14 1996 bs94
dr-xr-xr-x 1 root root 6144 Aug 14 1996 clipart

. . .

Unfortunately, I/O with the /dev/[r]dsk/cd0t5 devices doesn’t work (so much for “everything is a file”)

# dd if=/dev/rdsk/cd0t5 of=/dev/null
dd: read error: No such device or address
0+0 records in
0+0 records out

I have only success changing bios and using the -hda option, I can reach without problems the “mkfs” page, but the process crash when make the fs 😐
The bios used is the jetway_awd_600pgn_i815.BIN the line used is a simple
qemu-system-i386 -cpu 486 -bios jetway_awd_600pgn_i815.BIN -M pc -fda boot_install.img

https://images2.imgbox.com/ba/9e/AbsfBTnv_o.jpg

I’d probably try adding geometry to the hard disk.

Sadly new qemu doesn’t mean it’ll run anything. Compatibility was never their goal, like when they broke netware, they didn’t care.

I had installed Interactive Unix in a raw image using 86box
running qemu with this cli

#!/bin/bash
FLOPPY=boot_install.img
DISCO=disk.img
BOOT=c
RAM=16

qemu-system-i386 -boot $BOOT -m 16 -no-fd-bootchk –enable-kvm -device i8042 -device isa-vga -device ne2k_isa,netdev=network0 -netdev tap,id=network0,ifname=tap1,script=no,downscript=no -device isa-ide,id=isa0,bus=isa.0 -drive file=$DISCO,format=raw,if=none,id=disk -device ide-hd,bus=isa0.0,drive=disk -machine isapc

result

https://i.imgur.com/rEKqBFT.jpeg

As you can see, the disk is recognized but the boot
stuck-freeze, using scsi or ide-pci configuration lead to a
crash, as you can see

https://i.imgur.com/DRW92tV.jpeg

VirtualBox: only one problem, I cannot connect it via virsh, if you try to compile gcc the system give a lot of errores and became really unstable, for the other is perfect, to install it use BusLogic

Vmware esxi 6: this hypervisor is one of the few with old buslogic controller simulated, so the system can work..only one problem, don’t recognize the floppy change, so is impossible to install it, I have also tried this trick: install on 86box and then import the image on esxi, but fail.

86Box: perfect emulation, but too slow

Qemu: a lot of problem even with the latest 8.1 version

configuration 1: ide controller = disk is not recognized
configuration 2: am53c974 controller = disk is recognized, fdisk return error about disk geometry
configuration 3: isa-ide controller = disk is recognized, after two seconds system hang
configuration 4: isa-pc controller = same thing as isa-ide
configuration 5: real pci ide controller passed trough pass trough = disk not recognized using old 1995 ide controller pci
configuration 6: real scsi buslogic controller pass trough = system hang during driver loading

I have also tried with coreboot bios (both i440 and q35) and I get same errors
I have also tried to using a disk image working with 86box (scsi controller enabled on kernel, ide support enable) but crash when try to mount root.

Actually (imho) qemu is (for Linux) the fastest “hypervisor”, better than VirtualBox (there is a new project with combine Virtualbox+kvm, if virsh can control vbox (officially is yes, but I try and I never get success) we can finally have this OS working, another solution would be buslogic support on qemu.
Thats’ all.

you cant ping a URL…

At least with InstallDisk22_X11_v202_2of3.img I get errors on several operating systems (UnixWare 1.0PE, Slackware 14). Only me?

PMI-files are included (4400c.pmi, ati.pmi, xga.pmi) but no dedicated file for MWIN1280 (matrox.pmi) with X11 Server Xgp