SunOS 4.1.4 was the last version of the BSD based SunOS for the SPARC platform. Â I had received an email earlier asking if Qemu could run SunOS. Â Earlier it was ‘capable’ however there were issues with the serial ports. Â And the framebuffer stuff that the SUN Proms recognized was never mainlined (please tell me I’m wrong?).
But then with a quick google search I came across this wikibook page with detailed instructions on how to install SunOS 4.1.4.
SunOS on Qemu 1.7.0rc2
So I quickly built a sparc version of Qemu 1.7.0rc2, and followed the instructions. Â I was amazed that now we are able to boot off the CD (still attached as a HD though) but label the main hard disk, and install SunOS. Â I have to say it is very impressive.
Another hint I came across is the more correct way to boot the Sparc Station 20’s
-bios /usr/local/share/qemu/ss20_v2.25_rom -M SS-20 -smp 2,cores=4 -cpu “TI SuperSparc 60”
Sadly there is no graphical output, but the PROM won’t crash. Â I think you can have 512MB of ram on the SS-20.