/[gxemul]/trunk/doc/misc.html
This is repository of my old source code which isn't updated any more. Go to git.rot13.org for current projects!
ViewVC logotype

Annotation of /trunk/doc/misc.html

Parent Directory Parent Directory | Revision Log Revision Log


Revision 38 - (hide annotations)
Mon Oct 8 16:21:53 2007 UTC (16 years, 6 months ago) by dpavlin
File MIME type: text/html
File size: 23448 byte(s)
++ trunk/HISTORY	(local)
$Id: HISTORY,v 1.1515 2007/04/14 05:39:46 debug Exp $
20070324	Adding a "--debug" option to the configure script, to disable
		optimizations in unstable development builds.
		Moving out SCSI-specific stuff from diskimage.c into a new
		diskimage_scsicmd.c.
		Applying Hĺvard Eidnes' patch for SCSICDROM_READ_DISKINFO and
		SCSICDROM_READ_TRACKINFO. (Not really tested yet.)
		Implementing disk image "overlays" (to allow simple roll-back
		to previous disk state). Adding a 'V' disk flag for this, and
		updating the man page and misc.html.
20070325	Stability fix to cpu_dyntrans.c, when multiple physical pages
		share the same initial table entry. (The ppp == NULL check
		should be physpage_ofs == 0.) Bug found by analysing GXemul
		against a version patched for Godson.
		Fixing a second occurance of the same problem (also in
		cpu_dyntrans.c).
		Fixing a MAJOR physical page leak in cpu_dyntrans.c; pages
		weren't _added_ to the set of translated pages, they _replaced_
		all previous pages. It's amazing that this bug has been able
		to live for this long. (Triggered when emulating >128MB RAM.)
20070326	Removing the GDB debugging stub support; it was too hackish
		and ugly.
20070328	Moving around some native code generation skeleton code.
20070329	The -lm check in the configure script now also checks for sin()
		in addition to sqrt(). (Thanks to Nigel Horne for noticing that
		sqrt was not enough on Fedora Core 6.) (Not verified yet.)
20070330	Fixing an indexing bug in dev_sh4.c, found by using gcc version
		4.3.0 20070323.
20070331	Some more experimentation with native code generation.
20070404	Attempting to fix some more SH4 SCIF interrupt bugs; rewriting
		the SH interrupt assertion/deassertion code somewhat.
20070410	Splitting src/file.c into separate files in src/file/.
		Cleanup: Removing the dummy TS7200, Walnut, PB1000, and
		Meshcube emulation modes, and dev_epcom and dev_au1x00.
		Removing the experimental CHIP8/RCA180x code; it wasn't really
		working much lately, anyway. It was fun while it lasted.
		Also removing the experimental Transputer CPU support.
20070412	Moving the section about how the dynamic translation system
		works from intro.html to a separate translation.html file.
		Minor SH fixes; attempting to get OpenBSD/landisk to run
		without randomly bugging out, but no success yet.
20070413	SH SCI (serial bit interface) should now work together with a
		(new) RS5C313 clock device (for Landisk emulation).
20070414	Moving Redhat/MIPS down from supported to experimental, in
		guestoses.html.
		Preparing for a new release; doing some regression testing etc.

==============  RELEASE 0.4.5  ==============


1 dpavlin 12 <html><head><title>Gavare's eXperimental Emulator:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Miscellaneous</title>
2 dpavlin 8 <meta name="robots" content="noarchive,nofollow,noindex"></head>
3 dpavlin 4 <body bgcolor="#f8f8f8" text="#000000" link="#4040f0" vlink="#404040" alink="#ff0000">
4     <table border=0 width=100% bgcolor="#d0d0d0"><tr>
5     <td width=100% align=center valign=center><table border=0 width=100%><tr>
6     <td align="left" valign=center bgcolor="#d0efff"><font color="#6060e0" size="6">
7 dpavlin 22 <b>Gavare's eXperimental Emulator:</b></font><br>
8 dpavlin 12 <font color="#000000" size="6"><b>Miscellaneous</b>
9 dpavlin 4 </font></td></tr></table></td></tr></table><p>
10 dpavlin 2
11     <!--
12    
13 dpavlin 38 $Id: misc.html,v 1.67 2007/03/24 06:39:29 debug Exp $
14 dpavlin 2
15 dpavlin 34 Copyright (C) 2003-2007 Anders Gavare. All rights reserved.
16 dpavlin 2
17     Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
18     modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:
19    
20     1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
21     notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
22     2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
23     notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
24     documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
25     3. The name of the author may not be used to endorse or promote products
26     derived from this software without specific prior written permission.
27    
28     THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
29     ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
30     IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
31     ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
32     FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
33     DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
34     OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
35     HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
36     LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
37     OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
38     SUCH DAMAGE.
39    
40     -->
41    
42 dpavlin 12
43 dpavlin 2 <a href="./">Back to the index</a>
44    
45     <p><br>
46 dpavlin 12 <h2>Miscellaneous</h2>
47 dpavlin 2
48     <p>
49     <ul>
50 dpavlin 12 <li><a href="#devel">Writing operating system code, or
51     developing firmware, using GXemul</a>
52 dpavlin 2 <li><a href="#compilercontruct">Using GXemul in compiler contruction courses</a>
53     <li><a href="#disk">How to start the emulator with a disk image</a>
54 dpavlin 38 <li><a href="#tape_images">How to start the emulator with tape images</a>
55     <li><a href="#disk_overlays">How to use disk image overlays</a>
56 dpavlin 20 <li><a href="#filexfer">Transfering files to/from the guest OS</a>
57 dpavlin 2 <li><a href="#largeimages">How to extract large gzipped disk images</a>
58     <li><a href="#userland">Running userland binaries</a>
59     <li><a href="#promdump">Using a PROM dump from a real machine</a>
60     </ul>
61    
62    
63    
64    
65    
66    
67    
68    
69    
70     <p><br>
71 dpavlin 12 <a name="devel"></a>
72     <h3>Writing operating system code, or developing firmware, using GXemul:</h3>
73 dpavlin 2
74 dpavlin 12 Is this a good idea? The answer is yes and no, depending on the level of
75     detail you need in your simulations. If you are developing an operating
76 dpavlin 20 system or operating system kernel of your own, then the emulator can be a
77     complement to testing on real hardware.
78 dpavlin 2
79 dpavlin 20 <p>Important things to keep in mind:
80 dpavlin 2
81 dpavlin 12 <ul>
82     <li>Porting code to a specific machine mode, e.g. a Silicon Graphics
83 dpavlin 20 machine, using GXemul, will not "magically" cause the code to
84 dpavlin 12 work on a real machine. Sometimes code works in GXemul which doesn't
85     work on real hardware, sometimes it's the other way around.
86 dpavlin 2
87 dpavlin 12 <p>
88     <li>GXemul contains bugs, and many things are not yet implemented.
89 dpavlin 2
90 dpavlin 12 <p>
91 dpavlin 20 <li><b>Very important!</b> I have only implemented devices in GXemul
92     to the degree that NetBSD, OpenBSD, Linux, etc don't complain too much.
93 dpavlin 12 <p>
94 dpavlin 20 If you are developing a driver for a device which is emulated by
95     GXemul, and your driver does not seem to be working, then the
96     probability of a bug in GXemul's implementation of the device is
97     very much higher than that of a bug in your driver.
98     <p>
99     The device implementations in GXemul are based on the assumption
100     that the emulated OS is already developed and bug-free. They are
101     not primarily intended to be used for development of new device
102     driver code in operating systems, so if you do that, then be
103     prepared for bugs and inconsitencies.
104     <p>
105 dpavlin 12 <li>CPU details in GXemul are usually wrong. If your code depends
106     on, say, R10000 or MIPS64 specifics, chances are that GXemul will
107 dpavlin 20 not be sufficient. One example is different revisions of ISAs;
108 dpavlin 32 some instructions which should trigger an exception on a
109     real MIPS processor usually execute anyway in GXemul. Another
110 dpavlin 20 example is if userland code tries to access kernel memory; in some
111     cases there is protection against this, but not in all cases (to get
112     higher performance).
113 dpavlin 12 <p>
114     <li>Caches. There is no cache emulation in GXemul right now. Caches
115     for R2000/R3000 are faked well enough to run NetBSD, Ultrix, etc
116     in the DECstation emulation mode, but other than that, cache
117     operations are treated as nops.
118     </ul>
119 dpavlin 2
120 dpavlin 12 <p>The bottom line is that GXemul can be useful as yet another way to test
121     your code during development, but it should not be fully relied on.
122 dpavlin 2
123    
124 dpavlin 12
125    
126    
127    
128 dpavlin 2 <p><br>
129     <a name="compilercontruct"></a>
130     <h3>Using GXemul in compiler contruction courses:</h3>
131    
132     If you are learning how to write a compiler, and wish to target a
133 dpavlin 20 realistic target platform, then MIPS or ARM (as emulated by GXemul)
134     might be suitable choices.
135 dpavlin 2
136     <ul>
137     <li><b>(+)</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;Your compiler needs to output real assembly
138 dpavlin 24 language code, which the assembler (e.g. gas, the GNU assembler) can
139 dpavlin 2 then compile into object format, and then you need to link this
140     into an executable image. This is much closer to how things work
141     in real life than running assembly language listings in a simulator
142 dpavlin 24 (e.g. SPIM).
143 dpavlin 2 <p>
144     <li><b>(-)</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;GXemul does not simulate out-of-order
145     execution, penalties related to instruction scheduling, or
146     load-delays, so it cannot be used to create optimizing compilers
147     that take advantage of such processor features. GXemul keeps
148     track of the number of instructions executed, but that's it.
149     </ul>
150    
151    
152    
153    
154    
155    
156     <p><br>
157     <a name="disk"></a>
158     <h3>How to start the emulator with a disk image:</h3>
159    
160     Add <i>-d [prefixes:]diskimagefilename</i> to the command line, where prefixes
161     are one or more single-character options. Run <b>gxemul -h</b>
162     to get a list of possible options.
163    
164     <p>
165     Here are some examples. If you want to run a NetBSD/pmax kernel on an
166     emulated DECstation machine, you would use a command line such as this:
167     <pre>
168 dpavlin 12 $ <b>gxemul -e 3max -d pmax_diskimage.fs netbsd-pmax-INSTALL</b>
169 dpavlin 2 </pre>
170 dpavlin 20
171     <p>NOTE: For some emulation modes, such as the DECstation mode, you do
172     <i>not</i> actually have to specify the name of the kernel, if the disk
173     image is bootable!
174    
175     <p>It is possible to have more than one disk. For each -d argument, a disk
176 dpavlin 2 image is added; the first will be SCSI target 0, the second will be target 1, and so on,
177     unless you specify explicitly which ID number the devices should have.
178     <pre>
179 dpavlin 12 $ <b>gxemul -e 3max -d disk0.raw -d disk1.raw -d 5:disk2.raw netbsd-pmax-INSTALL</b>
180 dpavlin 2 </pre>
181     Note: In the example above, disk2.raw will get scsi id 5.
182 dpavlin 20
183     <p>If a filename has a 'c' prefix, or ends with ".iso", then it is assumed to be
184 dpavlin 2 a CDROM device (this can be overridden with a 'd' prefix, to force a read/write disk).
185     For example, the following command would start the emulator with two
186     CDROM images, and one harddisk image:
187     <pre>
188 dpavlin 12 $ <b>gxemul -e 3max -d image.iso -d disk0.img -d c:second_cdrom.img netbsd-pmax-INSTALL</b>
189 dpavlin 2 </pre>
190     Usually, the device with the lowest id becomes the boot device. To override
191     this, add a 'b' prefix to one of the devices:
192     <pre>
193 dpavlin 12 $ <b>gxemul -e 3max -d rootdisk.img -d bc:install-cd.iso name_of_kernel</b>
194 dpavlin 2 </pre>
195     If you have a physical CD-ROM drive on the host machine, say /dev/cd0c, you can
196     use it as a CD-ROM directly accessible from within the emulator:
197     <pre>
198 dpavlin 12 $ <b>gxemul -e 3max -d rootdisk.img -d bc:/dev/cd0c name_of_kernel</b>
199 dpavlin 2 </pre>
200     It is probably possible to use harddisks as well this way, but I would not
201     recommend it.
202 dpavlin 38
203    
204    
205    
206    
207    
208     <p><br>
209     <a name="tape_images"></a>
210     <h3>How to start the emulator with tape images:</h3>
211    
212 dpavlin 2 Using emulated tape drives is a bit more complicated than disks, because a
213     tape can be made up of several "files" with space in between. The solution
214     I have choosen is to have one file in the host's file system space for each
215     tape file. The prefix for using tapes is 't', and the filename given is
216     for the <i>first</i> file on that tape (number zero, implicitly). For
217     files following file nr 0, a dot and the filenumber is appended to the
218     filename.
219     <p>
220     As an example, starting the emulator with
221     <pre>
222     <b>-d t4:mytape.img</b>
223     </pre>
224     will cause SCSI id 4 to be a tape device, using the following file number
225     to name translation scheme:
226     <p>
227     <center>
228     <table border="0">
229     <tr>
230     <td><b>File number:</b></td>
231     <td><b>File name in the host's filesystem:</b></td>
232     </tr>
233     <tr>
234     <td align="center">0</td>
235     <td align="left">mytape.img</td>
236     </tr>
237     <tr>
238     <td align="center">1</td>
239     <td align="left">mytape.img.1</td>
240     </tr>
241     <tr>
242     <td align="center">2</td>
243     <td align="left">mytape.img.2</td>
244     </tr>
245     <tr>
246     <td align="center">..</td>
247     <td align="left">..</td>
248     </tr>
249     </table>
250     </center>
251     <p>
252     If you already have a number of tape files, which should be placed on the
253     same emulated tape, then you might not want to rename all those files.
254     Use symbolic links instead (ln -s).
255     <p>
256     There is another advantage to using symbolic links for tape filenames:
257     every time a tape is rewound, it is reopened using the filename given
258     on the command line. By changing what the symbolic name points to,
259     you can "switch tapes" without quiting and restarting the emulator.
260    
261 dpavlin 38 <p>
262     <font color="#ff0000">Note: Tape support is most likely very buggy,
263     because it has not been tested much, and has probably also suffered
264     from bit-rot by now.</font>
265 dpavlin 2
266    
267 dpavlin 20
268    
269    
270 dpavlin 38
271 dpavlin 2 <p><br>
272 dpavlin 38 <a name="disk_overlays"></a>
273     <h3>How to use disk image overlays:</h3>
274    
275     This is most likely best understood by an example:
276    
277     <p><ul>
278     <li>Install e.g. <a href="guestoses.html#netbsdcatsinstall">NetBSD/cats</a>.
279     You will end up with a disk image called
280     <tt>nbsd_cats.img</tt>.
281     <p>
282     <li>Running the following command will boot straight from the disk
283     image, with no overlay images:<pre>
284     <b>gxemul -XEcats -d nbsd_cats.img netbsd.aout-GENERIC.gz</b>
285    
286     </pre>
287     <li>You may now create an overlay file, a corresponding map file,
288     and start the emulator with the overlay image connected to
289     the same (explicit) ID as the base disk image:<pre>
290     <b>touch overlay.img overlay.img.map
291     gxemul -XEcats -d 0:nbsd_cats.img -d V0:overlay.img netbsd.aout-GENERIC.gz</b>
292    
293     </pre>
294     <li>Any changes to the filesystem you perform when using the overlay
295     will only be written to that overlay. For example, to perform
296     a "roll back", you can do the following:<pre>
297     <b>rm -f overlay.img overlay.img.map
298     touch overlay.img overlay.img.map</b>
299    
300     </pre>
301     and then simply start the emulator again, with the newly created
302     overlay image.
303     </ul>
304    
305     <p>It is also possible to add multiple overlays. In that case, writes
306     always go the the <i>last</i> added overlay.
307    
308     <p>GXemul uses Unix' way of supporting files with "holes",
309     so even if <tt>ls -l overlay.img</tt> says that the overlay is several
310     gigabytes large, <tt>du overlay.img</tt> should reveal that only the
311     blocks that have actually been written to have been stored in the
312     overlay, e.g.:<pre>
313     <b>$ ls -l
314     ..
315     -rw-r--r-- 1 debug wheel 3072319488 Mar 24 11:59 nbsd_cats.img
316     -rw-r--r-- 1 debug wheel 2465354 Mar 24 11:44 netbsd.aout-GENERIC.gz
317     -rw-r--r-- 1 debug wheel 2930841600 Mar 24 14:02 overlay.img
318     -rw-r--r-- 1 debug wheel 715538 Mar 24 14:02 overlay.img.map
319     $ du overlay.img
320     864 overlay.img
321     </b>
322     </pre>
323    
324     <p>The .map file is simply a raw bitmap telling which blocks of the
325     overlay file that are in use.
326    
327    
328    
329    
330    
331     <p><br>
332 dpavlin 20 <a name="filexfer"></a>
333     <h3>Transfering files to/from the guest OS:</h3>
334    
335 dpavlin 32 If the emulated machine supports networking (see <a
336     href="networking.html#intro">this section</a> for more info), then
337     transfering files via FTP is probably easiest.
338 dpavlin 20
339     <p>There is another way of transfering files which works for any kind of
340     emulated machine which supports disks (either SCSI or IDE). Any file can
341     be supplied as a disk image. For example, consider the following:<pre>
342     $ <b>gxemul -XEcats -d nbsd_cats.img -d archive.tar.gz netbsd-GENERIC</b>
343     </pre>
344     This will start NetBSD/cats with <tt>nbsd_cats.img</tt> as IDE master on
345     controller 0 (wd0), and <tt>archive.tar.gz</tt> as IDE slave on controller
346     0 (wd1). From inside NetBSD, it is now possible to extract the files using
347     the following command:<pre>
348     (inside emulated NetBSD/cats)
349     # <b>tar zxvf /dev/wd1c</b>
350     </pre>
351     Don't worry if NetBSD complains about lack of disklabel; it doesn't
352     matter. On some machines, NetBSD uses <tt>wd1d</tt> instead of
353     <tt>wd1c</tt> for the entire disk.
354     There is also a minor problem: reading the end of the disk image. If you
355     experience problems untaring archives like this, then pad out the archive
356     first with some zeroes.
357    
358     <p>Transfering files <i>out</i> from the emulated operating system to the
359     host can be done the same way. First, prepare an empty archive file:<pre>
360     $ <b>dd if=/dev/zero of=newarchive.tar bs=1024 count=1 seek=10000</b>
361     </pre>This example created a 10 MB empty file. Then, start the emulator
362     like this:<pre>
363     $ <b>gxemul -XEcats -d nbsd_cats.img -d archive.tar netbsd-GENERIC</b>
364     </pre>
365     and transfer files by creating an archive directly onto the disk image:<pre>
366     (inside emulated NetBSD/cats)
367     # <b>tar cvf /dev/wd1c filenames</b>
368     </pre>
369     where filenames are the files or directories to transfer.
370    
371    
372    
373    
374    
375     <p><br>
376 dpavlin 2 <a name="largeimages"></a>
377     <h3>How to extract large gzipped disk images:</h3>
378    
379     Unix filesystems usually support large files with "holes". Holes are
380     zero-filled blocks that don't actually exist on disk. This is very
381     practical for emulated disk images, as it is possible to create a very
382     large disk image without using up much space at all.
383    
384     <p>
385     Using gzip and gunzip on disk images can be <i>very</i> slow, as these
386     files can be multiple gigabytes large, but this is usually necessary for
387     transfering disk images over the internet. If you receive a gzipped disk
388     image, say disk.img.gz, and run a naive
389     <p>
390     <pre>
391     $ <b>gunzip disk.img.gz</b>
392     </pre>
393     <p>
394     on it, you will not end up with an optimized file unless
395     gunzip supports that. (In my experiments, it doesn't.) In plain English,
396     if you type <b>ls -l</b> and the filesize is 9 GB, it will actually occupy
397     9 GB of disk space! This is often unacceptable.
398     <p>
399     Using a simple tool which only writes blocks that are non-zero, a lot of
400     space can be saved. Compile the program cp_removeblocks in the
401     experiments/ directory, and type:
402     <p>
403     <pre>
404     $ <b>gunzip -c disk.img.gz | cp_removeblocks /dev/stdin disk.img</b>
405     </pre>
406    
407     <p>
408     This will give you a disk.img which looks like it is 9 GB, and works like
409     the real file, but the holes are not written out to the disk. (You can see
410     this by running for example <b>du disk.img</b> to see the physical block
411     count.)
412    
413    
414    
415     <p><br>
416     <a name="userland"></a>
417     <h3>Running userland binaries:</h3>
418    
419 dpavlin 24 <font color="#ff0000">Note: This feature does not really work yet.
420     It is currently disabled in stable release builds of the emulator.</font>
421 dpavlin 2
422 dpavlin 12 <p>There is some skeleton code for running userland programs as well. This
423     will not emulate any particular machine, but instead try to translate
424     syscalls from e.g. NetBSD/pmax into the host's OS' syscalls. Right now,
425     this is just a proof-of-concept, to show that it could work; there's lots
426     of work left to do to make it actually run useful programs.
427    
428 dpavlin 2 <p>
429    
430     <ul>
431     <li><b>NetBSD/pmax:</b>
432     <br>
433     Running /bin/hostname or /bin/date and similarly trivial
434     programs from the NetBSD/pmax distribution works:<pre>
435     $ <b>gxemul -q -u netbsd/pmax pmax_bin_hostname</b>
436     tab.csbnet.se
437     $ <b>gxemul -q -u netbsd/pmax pmax_bin_date</b>
438     Sun Jan 25 02:26:14 GMT 2004
439     $ <b>gxemul -q -u netbsd/pmax pmax_bin_sleep</b>
440     usage: pmax_bin_sleep seconds
441     $ <b>gxemul -q -u netbsd/pmax pmax_bin_sleep 5</b>
442     $ <b>gxemul -q -u netbsd/pmax pmax_bin_sync</b>
443     </pre>
444    
445     <p>
446     <li><b>Ultrix:</b>
447     <br>
448     At least /bin/date and /bin/hostname work:<pre>
449     $ <b>gxemul -q -u ultrix ultrix4_bin_date</b>
450     UNIMPLEMENTED ultrix syscall 54
451     UNIMPLEMENTED ultrix syscall 62
452     Mon Feb 9 12:50:59 WET 2004
453     $ <b>gxemul -q -u ultrix ultrix4_bin_hostname</b>
454     tab.csbnet.se
455     </pre>
456    
457 dpavlin 12 <!--
458 dpavlin 2 <p>
459     <li><b>NetBSD/powerpc:</b>
460     <br>
461     /bin/sync from NetBSD/macppc works, but probably not much else.<pre>
462     $ <b>gxemul -v -u netbsd/powerpc netbsd-1.6.2-macppc-bin-sync</b>
463     ...
464     [ sync() ]
465     [ exit(0) ]
466     cpu_run_deinit(): All CPUs halted.
467    
468     </pre>
469    
470     <p>
471     <li><b>Linux/PPC64:</b>
472     <br>
473     The <a href="http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/library/l-ppc/#h13">64-bit Hello World assembly language example</a>
474     on IBM's developerWorks pages runs:<pre>
475     $ <b>ppc64-unknown-linux-as hello-ppc64.s -o hello-ppc64.o</b>
476     $ <b>ppc64-unknown-linux-ld hello-ppc64.o -o hello-ppc64</b>
477     $ <b>gxemul -q -u linux/ppc64 hello-ppc64</b>
478     Hello, world!
479    
480     </pre>
481 dpavlin 12 -->
482 dpavlin 2
483     </ul>
484    
485    
486    
487    
488    
489     <p><br>
490     <a name="promdump"></a>
491     <h3>Using a PROM dump from a real machine:</h3>
492    
493     Raw PROM images from real machines can, in a few cases, be used in
494     the emulator. ROM code is usually much more sensitive to correctness
495     of the emulator than operating system kernels or userland programs
496     are, so don't expect any PROM image to just magically work.
497    
498    
499     <p>
500     <h4>Dumping the PROM on a DECstation 5000/125:</h4>
501     The image first needs to be extracted from the machine. There are
502     several ways to do this.
503     <ul>
504     <li>Use hardware to read the PROM chip(s) directly. Not easy if you
505     don't have such a hardware reader.
506     <li>Copy the PROM memory range into a file, from a running
507     operating system. You need a running OS, and it must
508     have access to the PROM memory range. NetBSD, for example,
509     doesn't allow that from userland.
510     <li>Hook up a serial console and dump using the PROM's own dump
511     command.
512     </ul>
513     <p>
514     The easiest way is to hook up a serial console. The terminal must be
515     able to capture output to a file.
516     <p>
517     These are approximately the commands that I used:
518     <pre>
519     >><b>cnfg</b> <i>Show machine configuration</i>
520    
521     >><b>printenv</b> <i>Show environment variables</i>
522    
523     >><b>setenv more 0</b> <i>This turns off the More messages</i>
524    
525     >><b>e -x 0xbfc00000:0xbfffffff</b> <i>Dump the PROM data</i>
526     </pre>
527     <p>
528     Remember that DECstations are little endian, so if the dump data
529     looks like this:
530     <pre>
531     bfc00000: 0x0bf0007e
532     </pre>
533     then the bytes in memory are actually 0x7e, 0x00, 0xf0, and 0x0b.
534     <p>
535     At 9600 bps, about 10KB can be dumped per minute, so it takes a while.
536     Once enough of the PROM has been dumped, you can press CTRL-C to break out.
537     Then, restore the more environment variable:
538     <pre>
539     >><b>setenv more 24</b>
540     </pre>
541     <p>
542     Now, convert the data you just saved (little-endian words -> bytes),
543     and store in a file. Let's call this file DECstation5000_125_promdump.bin.
544     <pre>
545     $ <b>decprom_dump_txt_to_bin DECstation5000_125_promdump.txt DECstation5000_125_promdump.bin</b>
546     </pre>
547     This binary image can now be used in the emulator:
548     <pre>
549 dpavlin 12 $ <b>gxemul -e 3min -Q -M128 -q 0xbfc00000:DECstation5000_125_promdump.bin</b>
550 dpavlin 2
551     KN02-BA V5.7e
552     ?TFL: 3/scc/access (1:Ln1 reg-12: actual=0x00 xpctd=0x01) [KN02-BA]
553     ?TFL: 3/scc/io (1:Ln0 tx bfr not empty. status=0X 0) [KN02-BA]
554     ...
555     --More--?TFL: 3/scsi/cntl (CUX, cause= 1000002C)
556     >><b>?</b>
557     ? [cmd]
558     boot [[-z #] [-n] #/path [ARG...]]
559     cat SCRPT
560     cnfg [#]
561     d [-bhw] [-S #] RNG VAL
562     e [-bhwcdoux] [-S #] RNG
563     erl [-c]
564     go [ADR]
565     init [#] [-m] [ARG...]
566     ls [#]
567     passwd [-c] [-s]
568     printenv [EVN]
569     restart
570     script SCRPT
571     setenv EVN STR
572     sh [-belvS] [SCRPT] [ARG..]
573     t [-l] #/STR [ARG..]
574     unsetenv EVN
575     >><b>cnfg</b>
576     3: KN02-BA DEC V5.7e TCF0 (128 MB)
577     (enet: 00-00-00-00-00-00)
578     (SCSI = 7)
579     0: PMAG-BA DEC V5.3a TCF0
580     >><b>printenv</b>
581     boot=
582     testaction=q
583     haltaction=h
584     more=24
585     #=3
586     console=*
587     osconsole=3
588     >>
589     </pre>
590 dpavlin 14
591     <p><font color="#ff0000">(Note: at the moment, this doesn't work.
592     I must have broken something when fixing something else, but this
593     is what it looked like at the time.)</font>
594    
595     <p>During bootup, the PROM complains <i>a lot</i> about hardware failures.
596 dpavlin 2 That's because the emulator doesn't emulate the hardware well enough yet.
597 dpavlin 14
598     <p>The command line options used are: <tt>-e 3min</tt> for
599     "DECstation 3min" (5000/1xx), <tt>-Q</tt> to supress the emulator's own PROM
600     call emulation, <tt>-M128</tt> for 128MB RAM (because GXemul doesn't correctly
601 dpavlin 2 emulate memory detection well enough for the PROM to accept, so it will
602 dpavlin 14 always believe there is 128MB ram anyway), and <tt>-q</tt> to supress debug messages.
603     The <tt>0xbfc00000</tt> in front of the filename tells GXemul that it is a raw
604 dpavlin 2 binary file which should be loaded at a specific virtual address.
605    
606    
607     <p><br>
608     <h4>Dumping the PROM on a SGI O2:</h4>
609    
610     The general ideas in this section applies to using ROM images from other
611 dpavlin 14 machines as well. I have also tried this on an SGI IP32 ("O2"), in addition
612     to the DECstation.
613    
614     <p>For the O2, a suitable command to dump the prom memory range is
615 dpavlin 2 <pre>
616     &gt;&gt; <b>dump -b 0xBFC00000:0xBFC80000</b>
617     </pre>
618     Make sure you capture all the output (via serial console) into a file,
619 dpavlin 14 and then run <tt>experiments/sgiprom_to_bin</tt> on the captured file.
620    
621 dpavlin 2 <p>
622 dpavlin 14 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
623     <a href="sgi-o2-real.jpg"><img src="sgi-o2-real_small.jpg"></a>
624     &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
625     <a href="20050817-sgi-o2-success-7.png"><img src="20050817-sgi-o2-success-7_small.png"></a>
626     &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
627     <a href="20050817-sgi-o2-success-8.png"><img src="20050817-sgi-o2-success-8_small.png"></a>
628 dpavlin 2
629 dpavlin 14 <p>The photo on the left is from the real machine. The other two are
630     screenshots of the PROM running experimentally in GXemul, using <tt>-Y2</tt>
631     framebuffer scaledown.
632 dpavlin 2
633 dpavlin 14 <p>Normally during bootup, the IP32 PROM does a Power-On test which makes
634     sure that the caches and other things are working properly. GXemul doesn't
635     emulate all those things well enough for the tests to pass. The
636     experimental screenshots above were taken with cache detection skipped
637     manually.
638 dpavlin 2
639 dpavlin 14 <p><font color="#ff0000">
640     In other words: don't expect this to work out-of-the-box with GXemul right
641     now. It might work once I've added correct cache emulation.</font>
642 dpavlin 2
643 dpavlin 14 <p>The command line used to start the emulator, once correct cache
644     emulation has been implemented, would be something like <tt>gxemul -XQeo2
645     0xbfc00000:prom.bin</tt>.
646 dpavlin 2
647 dpavlin 14 <p>The same caution applies when dealing with SGI PROMs as with
648     DECstation PROMs: GXemul doesn't really emulate the hardware, it only
649     "fakes" devices well enough to fool some things, primarily NetBSD, that
650     it is emulating a real machine. ROM code is usually a <i>lot</i> more
651     picky about the details.
652    
653     <p>The graphics used in the O2 is (as far as I know) undocumented. Combining
654     some traces of info from how Linux/O2 draws to the screen with some
655 dpavlin 18 reverse-engineering of my own, I've implemented enough of the controller to
656 dpavlin 14 let the PROM draw rectangles and bitmaps, but not much more. The SCSI
657     controller is not implemented yet either.
658    
659    
660    
661    
662 dpavlin 2 </p>
663    
664     </body>
665     </html>

  ViewVC Help
Powered by ViewVC 1.1.26