Re: [Qemu-devel] [PATCH 0/3] Attempting to run Microport UNIX (ca 1987)

[Markus Armbruster <armbru@redhat.com>]

Matthew Ogilvie <mmogilvi_qemu@miniinfo.net> writes:

> I've recently been trying to get an ancient version of UNIX
> I used to use working in qemu:
>
>     Micoport UNIX System V/386, v 2.1 (ca 1987).
>
> I used this from about 1987 until about 1996, when I first
> got Linux.
[...]
> I've also noticed some other problems that I have not yet
> tracked down:
>
> -------
> Hard Drive Issues:
> -------
>
> I also encounter a couple of hard drive issues, which I haven't
> investigated as carefully, nor attempted to work around:
>
>   1. It doesn't seem to recognize the hard drive geometry, even
>      if I use "-hdachs" and keep it carefully inside ancient
>      limitations.  Note that at the time, hard drives did not support
>      self-identification commands for the geometry; you had to
>      configure it in BIOS.   I also have some old notes from when my
>      dad was asking Microport about compatibility; apparently
>      they wanted to know the specific BIOS version in order to
>      decide about compatibility.  Maybe UNIX is bypassing later
>      standards for looking up geometry, and trying to get it in
>      some non-standard way (straight from CMOS or something?)

Please run QEMU with -trace events=trace-events, where trace-events is a
file containing the line "hd_geometry_*".  Post results, along with your
full command line.

[...]