Developer Forum

A while back I remember hearing about a project to run OSK in an
emulator on Linux, but don't remember the name of the project.

Did anything ever come of this?

Maybe it was os9exec

Yes, it is alive and kicking. Try one of:
http://www.yqcomputer.com/
http://www.yqcomputer.com/

BTW: I have been working on an M68k simulator for a while myself. On my
1.1GHz Thinkpad T23 the M68000 is running at 80 to 150 (virtual) MHz. It
fully supports my old OS-9/68k V2.3, can even read and write 10/16 sect
floppies. Would anybody be interested in having that released under GPL?
I would have to check with Radisys what I am allowed to publish, though.

Kind regards
Volker Wiegand

On Wed, 18 Feb 2004 00:13:40 +0100, Volker Wiegand



That sounds like it, though it looks fairly inactive right now. Does
anybody know:

1) what version of OS-9 it emulates
2) how you make virtual RBF disks for it (Is it simply a matter of
running "copy /d0@ disk0" and kermitting the result to Linux?)

That's more what I had in mind, except I'd want to run v2.4.

Background: I currently run a Peripheral Technologies CS68x20 system
(25 MHz 68020) which has seen daily service since 1994. These days its
mainly used to run Sculptor 4GL systems. PT are no longer in the OS-9
business, so I need to start thinking about replacement hardware. The
obvious step is to move the Sculptor stuff to Linux (all the relevant
C source has already migrated) until you see the cost and restrictions
on a Sculptor Linux license. So, it occurred to me that a good
approach would be to move everything to an emulator on a Linux box. As
such I don't much mind whether the emulator operates at the kernel
call level or runs OS-9 itself. The former has advantages if it
supports an emulated ISP stack. Similarly, I don't much care whether
the emulator supports virtual RBF disks, or uses the native Linux
filing system: in many ways the latter is best for moving files
between systems.

How does your emulator handle real or virtual hard disks and serial
device access? How close is it to doing what I need?

As far as Radisys is concerned: why should they care? from the sound
of things you're running their code in an emulator rather than
re-implementing their APIS. On the face of it they would be more
concerned about the os9exec project than yours.

Volker Wiegand schrieb:

Hi Volker

I would be very interested in having my old 68040 based OS68k system
(ELTEC Eurocom 7) replaced by an emulator running on linux.
The only need is running the Omegasoft Pascal Compiler/Assembler/Linker
for maintaining old Software projects.
Some day probably my OS68k system will break!

--
Juergen Pfeiffer
SesKion Softwareentwicklung und System Konzeption GmbH Tel: +49-711-99058-14
Karlsruher Str. 11/1 Fax: +49-711-99058-27
D-70771 Leinfelden Echterdingen http://www.yqcomputer.com/

It *is* active, judging from the CVS logs :-)
http://www.yqcomputer.com/

Sorry, don't know. Perhaps you ask the authors?
Beat Forster < XXXX@XXXXX.COM >
Lukas Zeller < XXXX@XXXXX.COM >
and also Wolfgang Ocker < XXXX@XXXXX.COM >

That should not make any difference for my design

>
You are not the only one :-)

I am running the CPU as one (fast) process. There are child processes
emulating 6850, 6840, 6821, 1797 and SCSI devices so that the original
Microware drivers (I used to have a residential Port Pak) believe they
are running natively. Communication is via shared memory. So far I am
running only a 68000, though.

The question is about disclosing proprietary and confidential material I
received from them under license. I just have to make sure I don't
breach contract. But there is so much information in the wild (CDi) that
I guess it's no big deal. I'll start uploading to source forge this or
the next weekend.

Volker

OS9exec is alive, and will be supported and improved, correct :-)
And OS9exec is ALREADY released under the GPL.
(This is because it contains the UAE (68k emulator) which is running
under GPL as well).

OS9exec supports not a specific OS-9 version, but should be compatible
to V2.3, V2.4 and V3.0. E.g. the Internet Support Package (ISP) runs with
ftp, telnet, ... The MGR windows manager is fully supported as well.

Yes, it is as simple as that.

It supports RBF images (1:1 binaries) as well as the host's file system
for MacOS9, MaxOSX, Windows NT/2000 and XP as well as for Linux.
The RBF is fully rewritten in the emulator, it supports different sector
and cluster sizes. For the Windows and Mac version, OS-9 formatted SCSI
hard drives can be directly accessed also.

The Omegasoft Pascal Compiler is fully running; I'm working with it
for several projects on the Emulator.

Regards
Beat

On 19 Feb 2004 03:09:08 -0800, XXXX@XXXXX.COM (Beat Forster)




Thanks for the update. I'll take a closer look at that. It sounds to
be exactly what I want.

Does it multi-task? That's not strictly necessary to me but would be a
nice-to-have.

On Thu, 19 Feb 2004 07:11:50 +0100, Volker Wiegand




Thanks for the explanation.

It does occur to me that my copy of OSK may not run in your emulator:
it normally uses a directly attached PC keyboard and an ISA SVGA
graphics card as /term, though it is also happy to use /t1 as an
alternative console. Experimentation is needed I think!

> Thanks for the update. I'll take a closer look at that. It sounds to
Dear Martin,

yes, it is multitasking.
A cooperative multitasking to be precisely. That means, task switching
only occurs during the emulated system calls, not during the user
programs. And of course, OS9exec is anyway not a realtime system.
But for most applications, this is not a serious restriction, especially
when using OS9exec for cross development.

Regards
Beat

On 20 Feb 2004 11:58:42 -0800, XXXX@XXXXX.COM (Beat Forster)


Thanks for the information. That would suit perfectly, as the only
multi-tasking I need to do is to run background Sculptor processes.

Martin

PS: Sorry bout the late response - my news feed has been down.