[OpenBIOS] Starting QEMU with OpenBIOS for Sparc32

[Stefan Reinauer]

* Blue Swirl <blueswir1 at hotmail.com> [060606 17:04]:
> >Can someone just give me a quick overview of the "right way" to start up
> >QEMU so that it will load the OpenBIOS firmware instead of PROLL, and how 
> >to
> >point QEMU to my Solaris installation CD image file.
> 
> Just rename openbios-builtin.elf.nostrip to proll.elf. I don't know if 
> OpenBIOS can be compiled in Solaris, please report if you try.

It needs at least a GNU linker due to the ld scripts. And maybe GCC for
ELF support (at least on x86 this was an issue some time ago)

> >Do I need any hacks / patches to QEMU to use OpenBIOS instead of PROLL ?
> 
> The attached patch to CVS version of Qemu fixes several critical problems 
> in Sparc emulation.

cool!

> >What debugging switches should I enable with QEMU to help me figure out why
> >things aren't working when trying to boot the SunOS 4.1.4 (Solaris 1.1.2)
> >installation CD ?
> >
> >Is there a "best way" to build OpenBIOS to ensure maximum useful debugging
> >information is produced ?
> 
> I don't think Qemu debugging switches are that helpful, but enabling 
> CONFIG_DEBUG_OBP in OpenBIOS shows the OBP calls.
 
definitely, when you are trying to get OS<->Firmware communication up
and running.

Also, for compiling OpenBIOS/sparc32 on an x86 or amd64 machine I can
recomment Dan Kegel's crosstool which provides an easy method of
building cross compilers for about any platform:
http://www.kegel.com/crosstool/

> >If I'm repeating a whole lot of old questions, is there a FAQ for the QEMU 
> >+
> >OpenBIOS (Sparc32) combination that someone can point me to ?
> 
> Well, the combination didn't even exist a couple of months ago...

Almost weeks even. This is pretty new ground and things are going to
improve over time..


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