Hi, El 02/08/2010, a las 08:48, DG UX escribió:
> Thanks Natalia, > > I'll start by answering the insultive part of your answer, as my ego > will not let me go on if I don't: > > I am not "begging on all the internet", I am simply seeking solutions, > help and advice, and making sure to update whoever is interested in > the progress I am doing. > Also, I wish to thank you for your insight and well detailed answer. > Finally I got an explanation as to _why_ solution A will not be as > good as solution B. That is what I call a winning argument, and I > thank you for that. That's why I sent you the message not because egos > I already have people searching for Adaptec docs and programmers for > the creation of the driver, err, emulated device. Great, I wish you my best and offer my repository of operating systems to test the emulated device on as much systems as possible when it is mature enough. > Take care, > Adam Natalia Portillo Claunia.com > On Mon, Aug 2, 2010 at 9:11 AM, Natalia Portillo <clau...@claunia.com> wrote: >> Hi, >> >> I've read all your posts in the QEMU mailing list and the TUHS one and I'm >> answering to both lists in a hope my mail enlights you and any other curious. >> >> First of all, old UNIX systems (and I put my hand on the fire for DG/UX >> also), use a monolithic linked at setup/later time kernel. >> That is, even if you get a driver (IDE, virtio, whatsoever), the >> configuration files, the kernel, the ramdisk, everything that lets your >> system boot, MUST HAVE BEEN BOOT from the AIC controller, the driver is >> hardcoded, no way to change it. >> >> If you have extensive knowledge of what files a driver setup modifies on >> DG/UX specifically (knowledge from other UNIX, forget it, they are as >> different as Porsche and Ferrari motors), you can always get a new kernel >> with the drivers you need to make it boot and manually put them in your >> image. >> >> In the case, you meet this requirements, and, you do it, you can then >> achieve to other problems. The DG/UX workstations are x86 machines, but >> nothing swears they are PC compatible machines, and they can have a >> different memory map for some critical device, or include critical devices >> never found in a PC (like an Intel Macintosh does for example). Just booting >> from a BIOS doesn't make the machines be the same (PowerPC Macintosh, IBM >> POWER workstations, Genesi Pegasos, are machines that boot OpenFirmware with >> heavily different configurations, devices and memory maps). >> >> Also, you are assuming IDE is available in DG/UX just because the controller >> is present in the hardware. That hardware was also used for Windows NT. IDE >> support can be JUST FOR Windows, and the DG/UX manufacturer just decided to >> not include an IDE driver in the kernel (happened in AIX for PCs until last >> version of all, only SCSI was supported, being a hugely strange controller >> in PC worlds). >> >> In the case you opt for making a driver (adding IDE, virtio, or other SCSI >> support) for the DG/UX need to say you need, low level knowledge of the >> hardware, low level knowledge of the operating system, a working machine >> (for sure, with the hardware available), a debug machine (almost sure also), >> C and maybe assembler knowledge. In a scale of 10, this puts the difficulty >> in 8 for most of programmers, and surely if you were one you stacked with >> the first option everyone gave you (see next sentence). >> >> The easiest way, and the one that people answered you already in QEMU's >> mailing list (in a scale of 10 the difficulty is 6 or even 5), is creating >> an emulated device (that's the correct term, not "driver") for an emulator, >> like QEMU, Bochs, VirtualBox (forget this option for VMWare, VirtualPC or >> Parallels) that adds the AIC SCSI controller you exactly need. >> >> Why is this easiest? You don't need any DG/UX working system, you don't need >> to know how DG/UX works, you don't need to compile a kernel, copy it to your >> image. >> >> You just take the Adaptec's documentation, and start coding, making a SCSI >> emulated controller, and testing it with systems you can always reinstall, >> debug, and check, until they fully work (Windows, Linux, BSD, take your >> choice). >> >> And then, you just polish it until your DG/UX boots, or finds the memory map >> as a mess it doesnt like. >> >> Finally, please stop begging on all the internet, spend that time coding the >> driver or getting the money to pay a programmer that will do. >> >> Sincerely yours, >> Natalia Portillo >> Claunia.com CEO >> QEMU's Official OS Support List maintainer