Re: Minix 1.1 with QEMU

[Will Senn <will.senn@gmail.com>]

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On 9/23/20 11:53 AM, Philippe Mathieu-Daudé wrote:
> Hi Will,
>
> On 9/23/20 6:45 PM, Will Senn wrote:
>> Long time user, first time poster :)
>>
>> So, I'd like to be able to run Minix 1.1 on my Macbook Pro mid-2012
>> w/16gb RAM (MacOS 10.14.6 Mojave). Qemu will run pretty ancient OS'es
>> such as DOS 2.0, which I use all of the time. However, I'm having some
>> difficulty getting Minix to run. I am able to boot the first floppy, but
>> when I change to the second floppy, the system freezes and I can't tell
>> what is going on. Here's what I did to get this far:
>>
>> brew install qemu
>>
>> qemu-system-i386 --version
>> QEMU emulator version 5.1.0
>>
>> mkdir ~/workspaces/retro-workspace/minix-1.1
>> cd ~/workspaces/retro-workspace/minix-1.1
>> aria2c
>> http://download.minix3.org/previous-versions/bzipped/Intel-1.1.tar.bz2
>> tar xvjf Intel-1.1.tar.bz2
>> cp Intel-1.1/floppy_disk1 ./Disk01.img
>> cp Intel-1.1/floppy_disk2 ./Disk02.img
>> cp Intel-1.1/floppy_disk3 ./Disk03.img
>> cp Intel-1.1/floppy_disk4 ./Disk04.img
>>
>>
>> qemu-system-i386 -drive
>> file=Disk01.img,format=raw,if=floppy,media=disk,readonly=off,index=0,snapshot=on
>> \
>>    -boot a \
>>    -no-fd-bootchk \
>>    -monitor telnet::2222,server,nowait -serial mon:stdio
>>
>> Qemu boots to the Minix 1.1 Boot screen and says to swap to floppy 2, so
>> in the monitor:
>> change floppy0 Disk02.img raw
>>
>> I press l (el) and it scans the disk, lists the files on the disk and
>> reports no errors, but when I press =, it does a carriage return and
>> just sits there. I'm pretty sure this is the Minix going bye bye and not
>> necessarily QEMU, but I'm wondering if there is a way to see what QEMU
>> thinks it is doing or if it is what's hung? Usually, at this point,
>> Minix reads the disk contents into a Ramdisk and boots Minix.
>>
>> Food for thought... Minix expects to run on an IBM PC (5150), IBM PC XT
>> (5160), or compatible, and therefore the I/O is written for whatever
>> floppy controller was extant at that time (I'm guessing here), so if
>> that's different than modern day floppies, I suppose this could cause
>> the problem I'm experiencing here. Is there a way to see the floppy
>> controller activity in QEMU? Similarly, I gather it expects a CGA
>> compatible monitor (EGA/VGA, etc should be fine).
> Can you try adding '-machine isapc', which is closer to the 5150?
>
>> I appreciate your help on this.
>>
>> Minix 1.1 works 'ok' in 86Box and other IBM PC emulations, so I know the
>> floppies are fine.
>>
>> Thanks!
>>
>> Will
>>
>>
>>
>> -- 
>> GPG Fingerprint: 68F4 B3BD 1730 555A 4462  7D45 3EAA 5B6D A982 BAAF
>>
Phillipe,

My new incantation is:

qemu-system-i386 -machine isapc -drive 
file=Disk01.img,format=raw,if=floppy,media=disk,readonly=off,index=0,snapshot=on 
-boot a   -no-fd-bootchk   -monitor telnet::2222,server,nowait -serial 
mon:stdio

with the same outcome :(. Thanks for the suggestion, I'll keep it in 
mind for other projects.

Will

-- 
GPG Fingerprint: 68F4 B3BD 1730 555A 4462  7D45 3EAA 5B6D A982 BAAF


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