Emulate a SPARCstation 2 running NetBSD

Introduction

Getting the tme software

Making the machine-specific data

In general, any working directory filename that begins with my- or MY- is a file that is specific to your individual emulated machine. With the exception of the disk image, these are mostly text files, and you are encouraged to edit many of them to suit yourself.

% mkdir /some/where/my-sun4c
% cd /some/where/my-sun4c

Now populate this directory:

1. Copy the SUN4-75 machine description file into the working directory:

   % cp /usr/pkg/share/examples/tme/SUN4-75 ./MY-SUN4C
   

   This file contains tmesh commands that create a SPARCstation 2. If you don't change this file, it creates a SPARCstation 2 with a cgthree framebuffer, type-4 keyboard and mouse, one disk drive, one tape drive, and an unconnected network interface.

   If you can't use the emulated framebuffer (because, for example, you aren't running X or didn't build tme with GTK), you must edit this file to disable the GTK-based display and enable the serial console instead. Comments in the MY-SUN4C file should explain how to do this.

2. Copy the ROM image into the working directory:

   % cp /some/where/sun4-75-rev-2.9.bin .
   

3. Make a Sun 4c NVRAM/IDPROM file in the working directory:

   The Sun 4c NVRAM contents are kept in a file, with the Sun IDPROM information at the end. Creating an initial NVRAM file involves writing a file with a specific number of zeroes, followed by the IDPROM information.

   The tme-sun-idprom Perl script makes the IDPROM information. Before you can run it, you must choose an Ethernet address for your emulator - even if tme won't have access to the network. Ethernet addresses for Sun workstations always begin with 8:0:20, so pick three hexadecimal bytes XX:YY:ZZ such that 8:0:20:XX:YY:ZZ is not taken by any other machine on your LAN.

   % dd if=/dev/zero bs=1 count=2008 of=my-sun4c-nvram.bin
   % tme-sun-idprom SS2 8:0:20:XX:YY:ZZ >> my-sun4c-nvram.bin
   

4. If you do want to use the GTK-based display, copy the Sun keyboards map, and keyboard macros file into the working directory:

   % cp /usr/pkg/share/examples/tme/sun-keyboards.txt .
   % cp /usr/pkg/share/examples/tme/my-sun-macros.txt ./my-sun-macros.txt
   

   You should not edit the sun-keyboards.txt file, however you may want to edit the my-sun-macros.txt file. The two files work together to transform key events on your keyboard into Sun type-4 scan codes.

   The sun-keyboards.txt file lists all of the symbols (in X terminology, all of the "keysyms") on a Sun type-4 keyboard, and gives for each keysym a Sun type-4 scan code and some modifier information. Because Sun type-4 keyboards are never going to change, you shouldn't change this file, even if you think it lists keysyms that your keyboard doesn't have, like L1, R11, etc.

   The my-sun-macros.txt file is meant to adapt your keyboard to the Sun type-4 keyboard. Any keysyms that the Sun type-4 keyboard has, that your keyboard doesn't have, can be generated by macros added to this file. For example, tmesh may complain that:

   [/display0.0]: cannot generate keysym 'R9' directly, or through a macro: No such file or directory
   

   The odds are good that you don't care about generating the R9 key - it's one of the keysyms on the strange, original Sun numeric keypad. But if you absolutely must be able to generate the R9 key, you could add a line similar to the following to your my-sun-macros.txt file:

   Alt_R F9 = R9
   

   Then, you could simulate pressing R9 by pressing the right Alt key and then the F9 key.

   The my-sun-macros.txt that you copied from sun-macros.txt contains a small number of macros for generating the L1, L2, etc., keys. These macros should be sufficient for general use - simply ignore the tmesh warnings about other, obscure keysyms.

   Under X, to learn about the keysyms present on your keyboard, the xmodmap -pk command will print out your current keyboard map. Alternately, the xev command may be a more convenient way to see what key combinations on your keyboard generate which keysyms.

5. Create the empty disk image file. Decide how big you want the emulated disk to be, in bytes, and substitute that number for NNNNNNNN below:

   % dd if=/dev/zero of=my-sun4c-disk.img bs=1 count=1 seek=NNNNNNNN
   

   It's not immediately wasteful to choose a very large disk size - this dd command will create a disk image that initially takes up almost zero real space on your host's disk. Only as the disk is populated will your host's operating system allocate more real space to the image.

Installing NetBSD 3.1

1. Start the emulator. Remember, if you're running a statically-linked, uninstalled emulator, you must have the environment variable LTDL_LIBRARY_PATH set to the top of your build tree:

   % cd /some/where/my-sun4c
   % tmesh ./MY-SUN4C
   ignore any cannot generate keysym warnings
   tmesh>

   The emulator itself is called tmesh. tmesh is a shell for running commands that create and control emulated machines. One day, you will be able to create and manage a whole set of emulated machines running inside the same tmesh process, but for now it's only been tested to handle one machine.

   tmesh takes one argument on its command line: the name of a text file containing initial commands for it to execute. In this case, MY-SUN4C contains commands to assemble a SPARCstation 2.

   A new blank GTK window should appear on your screen. If you see any error messages, hopefully they're descriptive enough to help you figure out what went wrong. Usually, the first error listed is the real problem; when a central element of the emulated SPARCstation 2 can't be created, many subsequent errors will be generated because all of the attachments to that central element also fail.

   If you don't see any error messages, at this tmesh> prompt, give the ls command. This should give the following output:

   tmesh> ls
   board0: tme/machine/sun4 name Calvin
   cpu0 at board0: tme/ic/cy7c601 fpu-type tms390-c602A fpu-compliance partial fpu-incomplete trap
   sbus0 controller at board0 sbus: tme/generic/bus size 4GB slot-addr 0xf8000000 slot-size 32MB slot 0 slot 1 slot 2 slot 3
   sbus0 controller at board0 sbus: tme/generic/bus size 4GB slot-addr 0xf8000000 slot-size 32MB slot 0 slot 1 slot 2 slot 3
   ram0 at sbus0 addr 0x0: tme/host/posix/memory ram 16MB
   rom0 at sbus0 addr 0xf6000000: tme/host/posix/memory rom sun4-75-rev-2.9.bin
   zs0 at sbus0 addr 0xf1000000 ipl 12: tme/machine/sun4/zs
   zs1 at sbus0 addr 0xf0000000 ipl 12: tme/machine/sun4/zs
   nvram0 at sbus0 addr 0xf2000000: tme/host/posix/memory persistent my-sun4c-nvram.bin
   clock0 at sbus0 addr 0xf20007f8: tme/machine/sun4/clock type tme/ic/mk48t02
   fdc0 at sbus0 addr 0xf7200000 ipl 11: tme/machine/sun4/fdc type tme/ic/i82072
   audioamd0 at sbus0 addr 0xf7201000 ipl 13: tme/ic/am7930
   kbd0 at zs1 channel A: tme/serial/keyboard type sun-type-4-us macros my-sun-macros.txt map sun-keyboards.txt rate 20
   ms0 at zs1 channel B: tme/serial/mouse type mousesystems-5
   sink1 at zs0 channel A: tme/serial/sink
   esp0 at sbus0 slot 0 offset 0x800000 ipl 3: tme/ic/lsi64854 revision 1+ channel scsi
   esp0 dma at sbus0 slot 0 offset 0x400000
   ncr0 at esp0 master: tme/ic/ncr53c9x variant esp100
   scsibus0 at ncr0: tme/scsi/bus
   le0 at sbus0 slot 0 offset 0xc00000 ipl 5 dma-offset 0xff000000: tme/ic/am7990
   cgthree0 at sbus0 slot 1 offset 0x0 ipl 7: tme/bus/sbus/cgthree
   cgthreerom0 at sbus0 slot 1 offset 0x0: tme/host/posix/memory rom SUNW,501-1415.bin
   display0 at cgthree0: tme/host/gtk/display
   display0 at kbd0
   display0 at ms0
   sd0 at scsibus0: tme/scsi/disk id 3 type tme-scsi-1
   disk0 at sd0: tme/host/posix/disk file my-sun4c-disk.img
   st0 at scsibus0: tme/scsi/tape id 4 type tme-scsi-1
   tape0 at st0: tme/host/posix/tape
   

   If the output contains all of these entries, your emulated SPARCstation 2 is ready to run.

2. The next step is to load the install CD-ROM image into the CD-ROM drive:

   WARNING: Unfortunately, the current release of tme doesn't have true CD-ROM emulation. Temporarily, the modules that emulate regular disks are being reused to create a minimal CD-ROM emulation.

   What this means is that the CD-ROM emulation isn't very useful except for installation. For this reason, the CD-ROM emulation isn't enabled by default in the configuration file, and you have to give these long commands here to enable it:

   tmesh> cd0 at scsibus0: tme/scsi/cdrom id 6 type tme-scsi-1
   tmesh> cdrom0 at cd0: tme/host/posix/disk file sparccd-3.1.iso read-only
   

3. Now you should be able to power up the emulated SPARCstation 2:

   tmesh> command board0 power up
   

   After a while (the SPARCstation 2 PROM does a good power-on self-test), you should see something like this:

   

   Because you started out with an NVRAM full of zeroes, the PROM has set the diag-switch? parameter to true and assumes that it should test all of its memory.

   Having the PROM test your host machine's memory is slow and not really useful, so it's best to disable the memory test in the NVRAM.

   First, break into the PROM monitor prompt by moving your mouse into the tmesh window and pressing RightControl-F1-A, using the right Control key (assuming you're using the standard tme Sun keyboard macros). This will emulate pressing L1-A, which will break into the PROM's "old command mode":

   Type b (boot), c (continue), or n (new command mode)
   >
   

   You want "new command mode", which is the real OpenBoot PROM:

   > n
   Type  help  for more information
   ok
   

   Now you can turn the diagnostics switch and the memory test off:

   ok setenv diag-switch? false
   diag-switch? =        false
   ok setenv selftest-#megs 0
   selftest-#megs =      0
   ok
   

   Now, tell the PROM to boot the install CD-ROM:

   ok boot cdrom
   

   After a short delay, the PROM should begin booting the install CD-ROM image:

   

   Once the INSTALL kernel has been booted, the installation microroot will display the first installation prompt:

   

   You want to enter 1 to load the installation utilities from CD-ROM. Hit Enter twice to use the default /dev/cd0a device and /cdrom/sparc/installation/bootfs/instfs.tgz.

   After a while (it takes some time to decompress instfs.tgz), you will be prompted for a terminal type (hit Enter), and finally select I to start sysinst.

Running sysinst