[Qemu-devel] Rockbox Emulation

[Qemu-devel] Rockbox Emulation

[Taylor Killian]

As part of Google Summer of Code (http://code.google.com/soc/) I have
been chosen (by rockbox [http://www.rockbox.org]) to improve ARM
virtualization. I believe that QEMU has come the farthest in this
field (correct me if I'm wrong). Basically I intend to add more
hardware support for things like the LCD, ATA Controller, and other
things that could be found on an mp3 player. My goal is to be able to
run rockbox through QEMU as if it were running on the mp3 player
itself, and also to be able to run the proprietary OS on it also.

I have tried to run rockbox on QEMU just to see how far it would get.
So far all it does is show a blank screen (I have confirmed that the
arm-test works correctly). So I am wondering if the kernel is actually
running or not. Is it possible that it is running, but not displaying
anything because it is not emulating the correct LCD?

Anyways, thanks for reading. Please let me know if you have any advice
for me. I'll be happy to keep you informed on my progress,

Taylor Killian

Re: [Qemu-devel] Rockbox Emulation

[Salil Bijur]

On Fri, May 23, 2008 at 10:08 AM, Taylor Killian
<taylor.killian@gmail.com> wrote:
> As part of Google Summer of Code (http://code.google.com/soc/) I have
> been chosen (by rockbox [http://www.rockbox.org]) to improve ARM
> virtualization. I believe that QEMU has come the farthest in this
> field (correct me if I'm wrong). Basically I intend to add more
> hardware support for things like the LCD, ATA Controller, and other
> things that could be found on an mp3 player. My goal is to be able to
> run rockbox through QEMU as if it were running on the mp3 player
> itself, and also to be able to run the proprietary OS on it also.
>
> I have tried to run rockbox on QEMU just to see how far it would get.
> So far all it does is show a blank screen (I have confirmed that the
> arm-test works correctly). So I am wondering if the kernel is actually
> running or not. Is it possible that it is running, but not displaying
> anything because it is not emulating the correct LCD?
>
> Anyways, thanks for reading. Please let me know if you have any advice
> for me. I'll be happy to keep you informed on my progress,
>
> Taylor Killian
>
>

Hi,
Firstly I think what you need here is full system emulation using
qemu-system-arm. You will need to select an ARM machine (versatile,
integrator, realview, etc.) and decide which OS to run.

The kernel wont run if you aren't running qemu-system-arm with the
-kernel option.

Salil

Re: [Qemu-devel] Rockbox Emulation

[Paul Brook]

> I have tried to run rockbox on QEMU just to see how far it would get.
> So far all it does is show a blank screen (I have confirmed that the
> arm-test works correctly). So I am wondering if the kernel is actually
> running or not. Is it possible that it is running, but not displaying
> anything because it is not emulating the correct LCD?

Your kernel must match the machine it is running on. So you need to either 
rebuild you kernel for one of the machines that qemu emulates, or teach qemu 
how to emulate whatever board you kernel is configured for.

Unlike PCs, There's no such thing as a "standard" arm machine. They're all 
different.

Paul