AIX 5.1 boots under QEMU

Yoo-Hoo! I did it again. Now it’s the second achievement in the emulation of the proprietary (aka real) UNIX systems.  The Solaris/SPARC run first in December 2009, and now 8 years later, AIX 5.1 boots under QEMU. And even the S3-Trio framebuffer works, thanks to Hervé.  Looks pretty cool. Once I have the X-Window running I’ll make a screencast. For now, just a teaser:

AIX5.1 under qemu-system-ppc -M 40p

QEMU PReP, Serial #0, 128 MiB memory installed
Open Firmware , Built  December 01, 2017 16:41:00
Copyright (c) 1995-2000, FirmWorks.
Copyright (c) 2014,2017, Artyom Tarasenko.

Rebooting with command: boot /pci/scsi@1/disk@0,0
Boot device: /pci/scsi@1/disk@0,0  Arguments: 

Saving Base Customize Data to boot disk
Starting the sync daemon
Starting the error daemon
System initialization completed.
Starting Multi-user Initialization
 Performing auto-varyon of Volume Groups 
 Activating all paging spaces 
0517-075 swapon: Paging device /dev/hd6 is already active.
/dev/rhd1 (/home): ** Unmounted cleanly - Check suppressed
/dev/rhd10opt (/opt): ** Unmounted cleanly - Check suppressed
 Performing all automatic mounts 
Multi-user initialization completed
Checking for srcmstr active...complete
Starting tcpip daemons:
0513-059 The syslogd Subsystem has been started. Subsystem PID is 4408.
0513-059 The sendmail Subsystem has been started. Subsystem PID is 3402.
0513-059 The portmap Subsystem has been started. Subsystem PID is 4646.
0513-059 The inetd Subsystem has been started. Subsystem PID is 5160.
0513-059 The snmpd Subsystem has been started. Subsystem PID is 4904.
0513-059 The hostmibd Subsystem has been started. Subsystem PID is 5936.
Finished starting tcpip daemons.
Starting NFS services:
0513-059 The biod Subsystem has been started. Subsystem PID is 8000.
0513-059 The rpc.lockd Subsystem has been started. Subsystem PID is 7494.
Completed NFS services.
...
AIX Version 5
(C) Copyrights by IBM and by others 1982, 2000.
Console login: root
*******************************************************************************
*                                                                             *
*                                                                             *
*  Welcome to AIX Version 5.1!                                                *
*                                                                             *
*                                                                             *
*  Please see the README file in /usr/lpp/bos for information pertinent to    *
*  this release of the AIX Operating System.                                  *
*                                                                             *
*                                                                             *
*******************************************************************************
Last login: Wed Dec 31 18:45:33 CST 1969 on /dev/tty0

#  who -r
   .        run-level 2 Dec 31 18:05       2    0    S                  
# uname -a
AIX localhost 1 5 000000004C00
#

sun4v emulation is in qemu master

sun4v emulation patches were merged into QEMU master on January, the 19th. Directly from my git tree. So now I'm a real co-maintaier. ;-)

Hello, Solaris 10 under QEMU/sun4v!

SunOS Release 5.10 Version Generic_118822-23 64-bit
Copyright 1983-2005 Sun Microsystems, Inc.  All rights reserved.
Use is subject to license terms.
Ethernet address = 0:80:3:de:ad:3
mem = 1048576K (0x40000000)
avail mem = 1027579904
root nexus = Sun Fire T2000
pseudo0 at root
pseudo0 is /pseudo
scsi_vhci0 at root
scsi_vhci0 is /scsi_vhci
virtual-device: hsimd0
hsimd0 is /virtual-devices@100/disk@0
root on /virtual-devices@100/disk@0:a fstype ufs
pseudo-device: dld0
dld0 is /pseudo/dld@0
cpu0: UltraSPARC-T1 (cpuid 0 clock 5 MHz)
iscsi0 at root
iscsi0 is /iscsi

INIT: Executing svc.startd
svc.startd: Unknown SMF option "=debug".
Booting to milestone "milestone/single-user:default".
Hostname: unknown
Requesting System Maintenance Mode
SINGLE USER MODE

Root password for system maintenance (control-d to bypass):
single-user privilege assigned to /dev/console.
Entering System Maintenance Mode

Mar  1 14:09:35 su: 'su root' succeeded for root on /dev/console
Sun Microsystems Inc.   SunOS 5.10      Generic January 2005
#

Well actually the local time is 23:09:35, but I'm cool with it.

Using QEMU to navigate a 3000 tons ship

Some time ago I was approached by a passionate engineer Jean Michel Schramm, who asked whether QEMU would help saving public finances and a navigation system of a 3000 tons ship.

The project looked interesting, so we gave it a try and succeeded!

More details for those who plan to use QEMU for replacement of
hardware becoming extinct.

Debian/sparc64 Wheezy under QEMU How-To

The steps to install Debian Wheezy RC1 / SPARC64 under QEMU.

Since the installation process is not obvious for the current QEMU and Debian versions, I gathered this How-To. Feel free to send any feedback.

Networking in Linux/sparc64 under qemu...

... is also possible. The bulit-in ne2k-pci network card doesn't work, but hey there is an even faster virtio-net alternative. At the OpenBIOS "ok" prompt, before the "boot" command in the previous post, type

cd /pci@1fe,0/pci1af4,1000
0 encode-int " interrupts" property
device-end

Will send this patch upstream as soon as we clarify whether "0" is allowed for the "interrupts" property.

Booting Linux/sparc64 on todays OpenBIOS

Historical day for everyone interested in the vanilla qemu-system-sparc64 emulator. For the first time it can boot Linux!

Although the patches I sent upstream are  fixing CPU and IOMMU, there is still one missing piece: cmd646 IDE. Luckily it's not a showstopper at all: qemu-sparc64 is a PCI machine, which means one could use the fast virtio instead! Now, this is the command line:

$  sparc64-softmmu/qemu-system-sparc64 -m 256 -nographic -prom-env 'auto-boot?=false' -kernel /path/to/kernel/image -drive file=/path/to/debian-disk,if=virtio,index=0 -append 'root=/dev/vda1 init=/bin/sh'

Some time ago, I used Forth to workaround missing qemu features  to get OBP working.
Now it's pretty similar: OpenBIOS doesn't have all the properties necessary for Linux to get the interrupt mapping.

So at the ok command prompt where you'd get after the command above, type:
 
cd /
1 encode-int " #interrupt-cells" property
cd /pci@1fe,0/ebus
000001fe encode-int 020003f8 encode-int encode+ 1 encode-int encode+
ffe29140 encode-int encode+ 2b encode-int encode+ " interrupt-map" property
000001ff encode-int ffffffff encode-int encode+ 00000003 encode-int encode+
" interrupt-map-mask" property

cd /pci@1fe,0/ebus@3/su
1 encode-int " interrupts" property
cd /pci@1fe,0/pci-ata@5
0 encode-int " interrupts" property

cd /pci@1fe,0/pci1af4,1001
0 encode-int " interrupts" property
device-end
boot


The only magical constant above is actually "ffe29140" - the address of the root pci node in the OpenBIOS device hierarchy. Although it the same in all the recent builds, in theory it could be moved somewhere else one day. But I guess till that day OpenBIOS will have the missing properties... ;-)

Update:

Oh, and a few words to /path/to/kernel/image and /path/to/debian-disk:

I found no Linux/sparc64 distribution which has a built in virtio driver. This makes installing from a  CD/DVD image not possible. The solution is build your own kernel with the virtio driver compiled in and put it at /path/to/kernel/image.

As for the disk, the user space utilities from the sparc32 world can be used in the sparc64 world as is. So, you can install Debian (or your favorite sparc32 distribution) in the /path/to/debian-disk, using qemu-system-sparc (no 64 at the end), and then use it with qemu-system-sparc64 as described above.

If you know a Linux/sparc64 distribution with the virtio support, please let me know.

/Happy hacking

Qemu is going to boot Linux/sparc64

After considering it a bit, I thought, it's a good marketing strategy: the free QEMU version shall run the free OS - Linux. And if anyone is interested in running something else, feel free to ask me for a [paid] support. :-)

So, Linux is going to be the second OS which vanilla qemu-system-sparc64 would boot - HelenOS was the first one. But, unlike HelenOS, Linux will be fully functional, having not just a stdout, but a stdin as well. And a serial port support!

At the moment OpenBIOS has some missing features - it doesn't describe the interrupt mappings - and a regression - currently it can't even boot HelenOS from a command line. But both are not show-stoppers.

Once my patches are accepted I'll publish the OpenBIOS command to boot Linux (not because it's top secret, but due to the dependency to a certain version).

Of Course, It Runs NetBSD!™

NetBSD boot was almost a piece of cake. It tries to detect more things than Solaris and Linux, so I had to implement a couple of device registers more. At the first glance using more registers contradicts with the declared portability. On another hand, it would work on some modified/weird chipsets having non-standard interrupt controllers. Don't know if such chipsets were ever produced though.

NetBSD 4.0.1 (INSTALL) #0: Wed Oct  8 01:13:04 PDT 2008

builds@wb32:/home/builds/ab/netbsd-4-0-1-RELEASE/sparc64/200810080053Z-obj/home/builds/ab/netbsd-4-0-1-RELEASE/src/sys/arch/sparc64/compile/INSTALL

total memory = 256 MB

avail memory = 234 MB

timecounter: Timecounters tick every 10.000 msec

mainbus0 (root): QEMU,Ultra-3/2: hostid 80000000

cpu0 at mainbus0: SUNW,UltraSPARC @ 100.681 MHz, UPA id 0

cpu0: 32K instruction (32 b/l), 16K data (32 b/l), 512K external (64 b/l)

...

# ping 10.0.2.2

PING 10.0.2.2 (10.0.2.2): 56 data bytes

64 bytes from 10.0.2.2: icmp_seq=0 ttl=255 time=1.575 ms

64 bytes from 10.0.2.2: icmp_seq=1 ttl=255 time=1.150 ms

^C

----10.0.2.2 PING Statistics----

2 packets transmitted, 2 packets received, 0.0% packet loss

round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 1.150/1.363/1.575/0.301 ms

#

Haven't found any CPU bugs so far, only interrupt processing in the serial port (not relevant to [Open]Solaris). Surprisingly sparc32 and sparc64 serial drivers diverge quite a lot.

Next stop - FreeBSD/sparc64.

OpenBIOS strikes back

Mark did it! OpenBIOS svn.r1035 with two patches (escc and lance) can boot a sun4m Solaris. As soon as the patches are reviewed and committed I'll have to update the how-to. Booting Solaris is going to be much simpler. Congratulations the OpenBIOS Team!

Round and round she goes, and where she stops nobody knows

After a while I got back to qemu. This time to the sparc64 port. It's interesting to see how the highlights of the sun4m story are repeating. With the difference that this time the way goes faster. The highlights of the last weekends:

• What? Not even a greeting message? I should give it up. hack, hack, hack
• Oh, wow, it gives a message "Button Power ON"! Too bad it hangs afterwards. hack, hack, hack
• Ha! got it up to the Forth bootstrapping, too bad I have no prompt. hack, hack, hack
• Yes! The Forth is with me, there finally is the "ok " prompt. Too bad it sees no devices. hack, hack, hack
• Woo-hoo, OBP sees a disk controller! Why doesn't it see the disks? hack, hack, hack
• Aha, there are my disks. Can I boot Solaris, please? Hrm, no. Can I boot anything? No?!? hack, hack
• Ok, now it's properly initialized. Well, properly enough to boot SILO, and yes, it's stuck at ufsboot just like the sparc32 version did.
• Ta-da! Finally I see something new:

SunOS Release 5.11 Version Natamar_0.4__b96 64-bit
Copyright 1983-2008 Sun Microsystems, Inc.  All rights reserved.
Use is subject to license terms.

• But wait, didn't I see it with OpenBIOS?!? Yes, I did. In fact all the 64 bit SPARC operating systems I tried so far go a little further with OpenBIOS.
• So, can OBP on qemu-system-sparc64 do anything the OpenBIOS can't?!? No?!? (because badly documented missing devices, probably necessary just for OBP, are badly hacked by me). I should give it up. :-)

And this is the progress so far. Hats off to the HelenOS team who managed to get their OS running under qemu. No other OS can work under qemu-system-sparc64 yet.

Does anyone have a Martux 0.2 image? It used to be available on the authors site, but seems to be gone, leaving just the check sum files. The file I'm looking for is

CD_sun4u_sparcv9__marTux_0.2__small_naked_demo_cd_bs2048b.iso.bz2 .

Fixed the "Solaris Y2K10" bug

Got back to Solaris/qemu Y2K10 bug. The name turned out to be misleading because a) it's not a Solaris bug and b) it's not a Y2K10 bug.

The reason for the bug was someone mixing hexadecimal and decimal values. Gonna check if there are more such places and send the trivial fix later.

Solaris 2.2 / sparc

Still in 1993. Moved from November to May: Using the cg14 implementation from Bob I was able to boot Solaris 2.2 on emulated SPARCstation-20. It was not possible before cause Solaris 2.2 is not compatible with SS-5. I wonder what are the oldest Solaris/SunOS versions which can be booted on SS-20? Solaris 2.0 is not: it supported only sun4c. SunOS 4.1.2 can not boot either: according to the Wikipedia it supports sun4m, but none of the SPARCstations.

So the versions left untested are Solaris 2.1 and SunOS 4.1.{0-1}. Have no idea about SunOS 4.0.

Will post some screenshots later.

The World's fastest broken SS-5

Fixed a bug in the IRQ routing and now I have a machine gun, ho-ho-ho the World's fastest [broken] SparcStation-5! According to the Solaris 2.6 and Solaris7 output, it's faster than 1 GHz:

cpu0: FMI,MB86907 (mid 0 impl 0x0 ver 0x4 clock 1083 MHz)


Remember, last week I told that after fixing the performance problems I'm going to get back in the XXI century? Well, I lied. I did another quick stop in the past:

WARNING: clock gained 3987 days -- CHECK AND RESET THE DATE!

Guess, which OS is it?

Another week - another Solaris version (tm)

I'm still in the 20th century, but making progress.

SunOS Release 5.7 Version Generic_106541-08 [UNIX(R) System V Release 4.0]
Copyright (c) 1983-1999, Sun Microsystems, Inc.

# uname -a
SunOS 5.7 Generic_106541-08 sun4m sparc SUNW,SPARCstation-5
# ls -l /
total 122
drwxr-xr-x 2 root sys 512 Oct 15 1999 a

The next stop is going to be 21 century. But going to look at the performance problems first. Waiting 6 hours for the '#' is a bit boring (and the problem is definitely not the CPU speed).

Thanks to Sergey Dionidis (a.k.a sdio @ LOR) for helping to test it.

Another week - another Solaris version

After re-fixing the bug I fixed before, and fixing the third one in the Sparc CPU emulation, I got Solaris 2.6 going. This version doesn't say how much did the clock gain since the release, so I can not estimate, how good am I doing in comparison to the reference 4900 days. Probably it was released in year 1997 on July the 18th.

SunOS Release 5.6 Version Generic [UNIX(R) System V Release 4.0]
Copyright (c) 1983-1997, Sun Microsystems, Inc.

NOTICE: SBus clock frequency out of range.
# ls -ld /a
drwxr-xr-x 2 root sys 512 Jul 18 1997 a

It also complains that

NOTICE: hsfs_putpage: dirty HSFS page

this may mean the current qemu workaround for non-emulating CPU cache is not good for Solaris. On the other side, who needs the hsfs module :).

Again, thanks Carey for the Solaris 2.6 disk!

Greetings, Professor Falken

Success! I've managed to boot Solaris 2.5.1/sparc under qemu! It takes long. I started it on my machine ([email protected]) yesterday at 18:31, and today at 03:24, I finally got the "#":

WARNING: clock gained 4900 days -- CHECK AND RESET THE DATE!
# ls
a devices kernel opt root.proto var
bin etc kvm platform sbin
cdrom export lib proc tmp
dev home mnt reconfigure usr
# uname -a
SunOS 5.5.1 Generic sun4m sparc SUNW,SPARCstation-20

Woo-hoo! Currently I can boot it in a single user mode only, as in normal mode it fails on non-existing SX framebuffer.

Does anyone know how to change module "exclude" list from the adb session?

P.S. 4900 days - didn't notice first, that the date was so special. Hope to boot Solaris 9 earlier than 4900 days after its release date. :)