Spot the difference….

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Picture A

Picture B

I know, it’s hard they both look identical.  Well they kind of are, Picture A is the installed OS/2 2.0 image that I’ve been playing around with.  It’s a 500MB IDE disk formatted with the HPFS filesystem.  For the heck of it, I used the qemu-img tool to convert it from a qcow2 into a vhd (qemu-img convert 500M.disk -O vpc 500M.vhd) and then tried to boot it up on Virtual PC.  I know in the past it’d fail with some weird error as something on HPFS wouldn’t transfer and it’d be the end.

But it worked!

This is really a great victory for Qemu!

Qemu starts to add more Dec Alpha support.

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From the mailing list:

Since virtio devices intentionally access memory directly, we
are not actually dependant on the iommu patches in order to 
make progress.  Merely fixing the PCI interrupt setup was 
enough to get the virtio-pci interface working.

We now make it quite a long way into the Debian Lenny install.

At some random point during the install, it hangs.  I assume
we're somehow losing an interrupt or something, but it's very
hard to tell.  The cpu is still running, servicing timer
interrupts, but the userland process is stuck.

I hope to get the vga console working next.  That should allow
me multiple vt's, which should allow me to poke at the install
process from within the VM.

And..

$ ./alpha-softmmu/qemu-system-alpha -nographic -kernel 
../../linux/linux-git/vmlinux -append 'console=ttyS0 rdinit=/bin/sh' -initrd 
../alpha-test/initrd.gz
[    0.000000] Initializing cgroup subsys cpuset
[    0.000000] Initializing cgroup subsys cpu
[    0.000000] Linux version 2.6.39-rc4+ (address@hidden) (gcc version 4.7.0 
20110408 (experimental) (GCC) ) #18 SMP Thu Apr 28 10:11:46 PDT 2011
[    0.000000] Booting GENERIC on Tsunami variation Clipper using machine 
vector Clipper from MILO
[    0.000000] Major Options: SMP MAGIC_SYSRQ 
[    0.000000] Command line: console=ttyS0 rdinit=/bin/sh
[    0.000000] memcluster 0, usage 1, start        0, end        8
[    0.000000] memcluster 1, usage 0, start        8, end    16384
[    0.000000] freeing pages 8:2048
[    0.000000] freeing pages 3813:16384
[    0.000000] reserving pages 3813:3814
[    0.000000] Initial ramdisk at: 0xfffffc0007b26000 (5079886 bytes)
[    0.000000] SMP: 1 CPUs probed -- cpu_present_map = 1
[    0.000000] PERCPU: Embedded 6 pages/cpu @fffffc0000126000 s12608 r8192 
d28352 u49152
[    0.000000] Built 1 zonelists in Zone order, mobility grouping on.  Total 
pages: 16272
[    0.000000] Kernel command line: console=ttyS0 rdinit=/bin/sh
[    0.000000] PID hash table entries: 512 (order: -1, 4096 bytes)
[    0.000000] Dentry cache hash table entries: 16384 (order: 4, 131072 bytes)
[    0.000000] Inode-cache hash table entries: 8192 (order: 3, 65536 bytes)
[    0.000000] allocated 524288 bytes of page_cgroup
[    0.000000] please try 'cgroup_disable=memory' option if you don't want 
memory cgroups
[    0.000000] Memory: 110088k/131072k available (3489k kernel code, 20920k 
reserved, 8487k data, 384k init)
[    0.000000] SLUB: Genslabs=16, HWalign=64, Order=0-3, MinObjects=0, CPUs=1, 
Nodes=1
[    0.000000] Hierarchical RCU implementation.
[    0.000000]  RCU-based detection of stalled CPUs is disabled.
[    0.000000] NR_IRQS:32784
[    0.000000] Console: colour dummy device 80x25
[    0.000000] console [ttyS0] enabled
[    0.000000] Calibrating delay loop... 10138.40 BogoMIPS (lpj=158408704)
[    1.343750] pid_max: default: 32768 minimum: 301
[    1.343750] Mount-cache hash table entries: 512
[    1.343750] Initializing cgroup subsys ns
[    1.343750] ns_cgroup deprecated: consider using the 'clone_children' flag 
without the ns_cgroup.
[    1.343750] Initializing cgroup subsys cpuacct
[    1.343750] Initializing cgroup subsys memory
[    1.343750] Initializing cgroup subsys devices
[    1.343750] Initializing cgroup subsys freezer
[    1.343750] Initializing cgroup subsys blkio
[    1.343750] SMP mode deactivated.
[    1.343750] Performance events: Supported CPU type!
[    1.343750] Brought up 1 CPUs
[    1.343750] SMP: Total of 1 processors activated (10138.56 BogoMIPS).
[    1.343750] devtmpfs: initialized
[    1.343750] atomic64 test passed
[    1.343750] NET: Registered protocol family 16
[    1.375000] EISA bus registered
[    1.375000] bio: create slab <bio-0> at 0
[    1.375000] vgaarb: loaded
[    1.375000] Switching to clocksource qemu
[    1.375000] NET: Registered protocol family 2
[    1.375000] IP route cache hash table entries: 1024 (order: 0, 8192 bytes)
[    1.375000] IPv4 FIB: Using LC-trie version 0.409
[    1.375000] TCP established hash table entries: 4096 (order: 3, 65536 bytes)
[    1.375000] TCP bind hash table entries: 4096 (order: 3, 65536 bytes)
[    1.375000] TCP: Hash tables configured (established 4096 bind 4096)
[    1.375000] TCP reno registered
[    1.375000] UDP hash table entries: 256 (order: 0, 8192 bytes)
[    1.375000] UDP-Lite hash table entries: 256 (order: 0, 8192 bytes)
[    1.375000] NET: Registered protocol family 1
[    1.375000] Trying to unpack rootfs image as initramfs...
[    1.406250] Switched to NOHz mode on CPU #0
[    1.625000] Freeing initrd memory: 4960k freed
[    1.656250] srm_env_init: This Alpha system doesn't know about SRM (or 
you've booted SRM->MILO->Linux, which gets misdetected)...
[    1.687500] VFS: Disk quotas dquot_6.5.2
[    1.687500] Dquot-cache hash table entries: 1024 (order 0, 8192 bytes)
[    1.687500] ROMFS MTD (C) 2007 Red Hat, Inc.
[    1.687500] msgmni has been set to 224
[    1.687500] Block layer SCSI generic (bsg) driver version 0.4 loaded (major 
253)
[    1.687500] io scheduler noop registered
[    1.687500] io scheduler deadline registered
[    1.687500] io scheduler cfq registered (default)
[    1.687500] Serial: 8250/16550 driver, 4 ports, IRQ sharing disabled
[    2.093750] serial8250: ttyS0 at I/O 0x3f8 (irq = 4) is a 16550A
[    2.125000] brd: module loaded
[    2.125000] mousedev: PS/2 mouse device common for all mice
[    2.125000] TCP cubic registered
[    2.125000] NET: Registered protocol family 17
[    2.156250] drivers/rtc/hctosys.c: unable to open rtc device (rtc0)
[    2.156250] Freeing unused kernel memory: 384k freed

BusyBox v1.10.2 (Debian 1:1.10.2-2) built-in shell (ash)
Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands.

/bin/sh: can't access tty; job control turned off
~ # mount -t proc none /proc
~ # cat /proc/cpuinfo
cpu                     : Alpha
cpu model               : EV67
cpu variation           : 0
cpu revision            : 0
cpu serial number       : 
system type             : Tsunami
system variation        : Clipper
system revision         : 0
system serial number    : MILO QEMU
cycle frequency [Hz]    : 250000000 
timer frequency [Hz]    : 1024.00
page size [bytes]       : 8192
phys. address bits      : 40
max. addr. space #      : 255
BogoMIPS                : 10138.40
kernel unaligned acc    : 0 (pc=0,va=0)
user unaligned acc      : 0 (pc=0,va=0)
platform string         : N/A
cpus detected           : 0
cpus active             : 1
cpu active mask         : 0000000000000001
L1 Icache               : 64K, 2-way, 64b line
L1 Dcache               : 64K, 2-way, 64b line
L2 cache                : n/a
L3 cache                : n/a
~ # QEMU: Terminated

It’s incredible isn’t it?  I know the VMS crowd will be thrilled, even the legacy Digital UNIX folk.. Heck maybe one day it’ll even run Windows NT!

OS/2 and virtual COM ports.

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With TCP/IP working under OS/2 I went looking for the next thing that I’ve always wanted, and that is a good modem emulator.  Funny enough SIO the COM driver replacement for OS/2 actually includes this functionality.

And has for years… I just never knew it.

I know in the NT centric would we live in today, it’s all moot, but I thought it was really interesting for those of us that still hinge on modems… And freaky hardware, since OS/2 can let some things talk directly to the hardware without OS/2 drivers (IOPL=YES).

So for the sake of it, I downloaded version 1.60 of SIO, went through the install, then added a virtual modem as described to my config.sys .. And I placed a test ‘call’ with OS/2’s terminal program, and I was talking to my MUD!

So I thought I’d try something crazier, like load up a BBS, then configure it for four modems!

 

And it worked!

Sure there are some slightly easier to configure ways to achieve this (DOSBox includes modem support), and I suppose the better thing to do would be to give virtual modems to Qemu.  Then OS’s with no TCP/IP can benefit from this.

Qemu OS/2 TCP/IP networking

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Well this should have been ‘easy’ but let me assure you it was not.  However this may save someone LOTS of effort if they ever want to get TCP/IP running in a fossil like OS/2 2.0.

First of all OS/2 2.0 will not install in new versions of Qemu.  I had to go all the way back to Qemu 0.9.0!  Although there is a tonne of floppy images to shuffle, OS/2 2.0 will install somewhat straightforwardly.  Once OS/2 is installed, You will almost surely want the xr06100 service pack.  I found I was unable to run MS-DOS or WinOS/2 sessions at all without either crashing the system, or trapping the entire OS.  But after loading the service pack it works as expected.

Now Qemu supports all kinds of network cards, from the NE2000 ISA, a PCI version of the NE2000, the rtl8139, an AMD PcNET adapter, and a bunch of Intel adapters.  And the annoying thing is that the OS/2 driver I have for the AMD PcNET adapter does not work at all.  It can’t find the card no matter how much I tried.  Which is funny when Netware 3.12 of all things can see it…

I tried all kinds of NE2000 drivers set for 0x300 irq 3 or irq 9 (I changed hw/pc.c to reflect what it was set to) to either not loading, or it’d load and transmit packets, but NEVER receive any packets.

The rtl8039 (ne2k_pci) and rtl8139 would also either not find the card, crash on binding, or send packets and again receive nothing.  To say it was very annoying was an understatement.

So I almost gave up, I found some update for the TCP/IP, u64092 went through the needed fun with loaddskf, and finally got working diskettes, and … It still didn’t work.

So in a fit of rage, I removed the 0x300/9 ne2000 in the config, so the next one, the 0x320, IRQ 10 one is in order, and….. It worked!  It even works with the Microsoft NE2000 driver!

So I go ahead and modify Qemu 0.14.1 to force the ne2000 to 0x320/IRQ 10, and it works great on the latest version!  It’s a shame it doesn’t install… But hopefully you only need to do that once!

So there we go, saved by the NE2000 again.

For anyone crazy enough to reproduce this, here is my config.sys & protocol.ini … I’ve also installed EMX, but I don’t think that really matters…

 

Looks like more outages ahead..

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“We’re moving most of our servers from SVTIX[1] to Market Post Tower[2] this
weekend. we’ve got layer 2 between the two locations already, so we’ll
be bringing down servers in batches of five and moving them five at a shot.
each user should experience something like two hours of downtime, if all
goes well.”

Well at least luke is transparent on the whole thing so it looks like there will be more bumps ahead. But I do have a full backup so worst case I can bring this online elsewhere if this goes down.

If anything the blogger outage made me finally break down and get that squared away.

Qemu 0.14.1 released!

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I just found out that a new version of Qemu has hit the street!  From the changelog:

  • Version 0.14.1 (commit)
  • virtio-blk: fail unaligned requests (commit)
  • qed: Fix consistency check on 32-bit hosts (commit)
  • exit if -drive specified is invalid instead of ignoring the “wrong” -drive (commit)
  • vhost: fix dirty page handling (commit)
  • Do not delete BlockDriverState when deleting the drive (commit)
  • vnc: tight: Fix crash after 2GB of output (commit)
  • lan9118: Ignore write to MAC_VLAN1 register (commit)
  • Don’t allow multiwrites against a block device without underlying medium (commit)
  • lsi53c895a: add support for ABORT messages (commit)
  • virtio-pci: fix bus master work around on load (commit)
  • fix applesmc REV key (commit)
  • rbd: don’t link with -lcrypto (commit)
  • net: Add the missing option declaration of “vhostforce” (commit)
  • lsi53c895a: Update dnad when skipping MSGOUT bytes (commit)
  • Revert “prep: Disable second IDE channel, as long as ISA IDE emulation doesn’t support same irq for both channels” (commit)
  • isa-bus: Remove bogus IRQ sharing check (commit)
  • virtio-net: Fix lduw_p() pointer argument of wrong size (commit)
  • hw/sd.c: Add missing state change for SD_STATUS, SEND_NUM_WR_BLOCKS (commit)
  • vnc: Fix fatal crash with vnc reverse mode (commit)
  • qemu-char: Check for missing backend name (commit)

I’ve also included my patches to enable ctrl+alt+d for a quick control alt delete, ctrl+alt+r for reset, and the ISA Cirrus adapter.

As always, I’ll have win32 builds up in the usual spot.  i386/x86_64 and everything else.  I’ve tested these on Windows 7 x86_64, and they should work on XP & Vista i386 as well.

Also I’ve switched this to 7zip to save space.

 

So this VM walks into a bar…

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He looks at the selection, and is impressed, they have virtually everything he could ever imagine.

OK, I saw this shamelessly come through on google…
And I must admit, I really don’t have one.  But I did find a funny picture in an ancient OS/2 SDK, from Microsoft…

recursion

From the OS/2 1.1 SDK

Heh.  Then again zippy the pinhead was quite popular in the 80s.
Yow!  Did something bad happen or am I in a drive-in movie??

Which sure does remind me of stuff like this…

Whole lot of virtualization going on!

Emulators in emulators, in emulators in emulators… (XP in Virtual PC, Windows 95 in Qemu, MacOS in Mini vMac, MS-DOS in SoftPC)..  It reminds me of  Inception…

Arduino: Core memory for your pc

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A picture of Arduino core memory

Arduino Core memory shield

While the site, corememoryshield.com is more so geared to making your own, they do provide the information needed to build your own core memory…

One has to wonder if in the future, some kids will struggle to get a hard disk working, or perhaps attach DRAM to a pc…

Then again I am pretty sure that SIMH, emulates machines that most certainly used core & drum memory…

retromud creeks on.

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and on.

retromud web page

retromud web page

I’ve gotten it listed, and gussied up a web page!

But to be honest it seems that version 2 is pretty scarce.. I’ll have to see about what it takes to add more stuff, or maybe an upgrade… I just hope it doesn’t entail replacing the whole OS!

Then again NetBSD 1.2 is possibly old enough….