Missing files for qemu-system-ppc

[inglorion]

Binary package hint: qemu

Althought the qemu package (version 0.8.0-3ubuntu1_powerpc) includes the qemu-system-ppc command for emulating PowerPC machines, it doesn't work because of a few missing files.

First of all, it's missing a ROM image. The file /usr/share/qemu/ppc_rom.bin is a symlink to ../openhackware/ppc_rom.bin, but this file does not exist. It can be gotten from the openhackware package from Debian, but this package does not seem to be in Ubuntu, nor is it a dependency of the qemu package.

Secondly, when the ROM image is installed, qemu-system-ppc complains about a missing VGA BIOS, which it looks for in /usr/share/qemu/video.x. However, that file does not exist. On other distros, it's apparently part of the qemu package.

[Reinhard Tartler (siretart)]

>> qemu-system-ppc -cdrom ubuntu-6.10-beta-desktop-powerpc.iso -hda hda -m 512 -boot d
qemu: could not load PowerPC bios '/usr/share/qemu/ppc_rom.bin'
zsh: exit 1 qemu-system-ppc -cdrom ubuntu-6.10-beta-desktop-powerpc.iso -hda hda -m 512

[mirak (mirak-mirak)]

I tried video.x from a qemu cvs but I only get a blackscreen with g3bw machine, and prep prints something on screen.

[ScottMiller (stmiller)]

Bug still exists in Feisty qemu version 0.8.2+dfsg-0ubuntu1_powerpc. It is missing the openhackware/ppc_rom.bin image file.

[Marco Costantini (costanti)]

The lack of openhackware package is specific to Ubuntu, because this package is in Debian.

After installing openhackware from Debian, I downloaded the video.x with
wget http://public.planetmirror.com/pub/knoppix/qemu-0.8.1/video.x
sudo mv video.x /usr/share/qemu/video.x
and qemu-system-ppc starts.

However, I tried to boot the CD image "Mac (PowerPC) and IBM-PPC (POWER5) desktop CD" downloaded from http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/kubuntu/ports/releases/7.10/release/ and the appears the qemu windows saying (among other messages) "Boot from CD-Rom failed".

[Marco Costantini (costanti)]

see also Bug #64501 in openhackware (Ubuntu)

[mirak (mirak-mirak)]

that's a one year old bug, I wonder if it's really usefull to report bugs, it's still present in gutsy ...

[Timo Jyrinki (timo-jyrinki)]

qemu is a community-maintained package, so perhaps someone should push a MOTU or two about this issue, or actually more precisely the other issue, to get openhackware in Ubuntu. I've personally just installed Debian's openhackware package on Ubuntu.

video.x thing is non-free, so it cannot be fixed unless someone actually conjures a free alternative for it. So it has to be obtained manually anyway, but a note should be added to qemu's README like Debian did.

[Dustin Kirkland  (kirkland)]

Fix released in Karmic's qemu-kvm.

:-Dustin

[racecar56 (racecar56)]

For me, I get this:

racecar56@racecar56-msi:~$ qemu-system-ppc
qemu: hardware error: qemu: could not load PowerPC bios 'openbios-ppc'

CPU £0:
NIP fffffffc LR 00000000 CTR 00000000 XER 00000000
MSR 00000040 HID0 00000000 HF 00000000 idx 1
TB 00000000 00000000 DECR fffffffe
GPR00 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000
GPR04 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000
GPR08 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000
GPR12 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000
GPR16 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000
GPR20 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000
GPR24 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000
GPR28 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000
CR 00000000 [ - - - - - - - - ] RES ffffffff
FPR00 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000
FPR04 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000
FPR08 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000
FPR12 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000
FPR16 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000
FPR20 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000
FPR24 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000
FPR28 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000
FPSCR 00000000
SRR0 00000000 SRR1 00000000 SDR1 00000000
Aborted
racecar56@racecar56-msi:~$

[Ricardo Lameiro (rlameiro)]

running this command

$qemu-system-ppc -hda xubuntu -cdrom ppc.iso -boot d -m 512

I get this:
qemu: hardware error: qemu: could not load PowerPC bios 'openbios-ppc'

CPU #0:
NIP fffffffc LR 00000000 CTR 00000000 XER 00000000
MSR 00000040 HID0 00000000 HF 00000000 idx 1
TB 00000000 00000000 DECR fffffffe
GPR00 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000
GPR04 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000
GPR08 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000
GPR12 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000
GPR16 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000
GPR20 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000
GPR24 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000
GPR28 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000
CR 00000000 [ - - - - - - - - ] RES ffffffff
FPR00 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000
FPR04 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000
FPR08 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000
FPR12 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000
FPR16 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000
FPR20 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000
FPR24 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000
FPR28 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000
FPSCR 00000000
SRR0 00000000 SRR1 00000000 SDR1 00000000
Abortado

[Dustin Kirkland  (kirkland)]

Thanks for the report. I'll get a fix for this next week.

[Dustin Kirkland  (kirkland)]

Looks like these two files need to be installed by qemu-kvm-extras:

./qemu-kvm-0.12.3/pc-bios/openbios-ppc
./qemu-kvm-0.12.3/pc-bios/ppc_rom.bin

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package qemu-kvm - 0.12.3-0ubuntu12

---------------
qemu-kvm (0.12.3-0ubuntu12) lucid; urgency=low

  * debian/install: install the two necessary ppc bios files, LP: #60478;
    note that these should eventually move to a qemu-common package
 -- Dustin Kirkland <email address hidden> Mon, 08 Mar 2010 15:08:17 -0600

[Dustin Kirkland  (kirkland)]

Reopening this bug, as I have to revert the change that fixed this, because the qemu-kvm source tarball does not include the source to the openbios binary blobs. Thus, we can't distribute them without source.

[Dustin Kirkland  (kirkland)]

And ultimately, this is a dupe of Bug #183495. We should be depending on the openbios-sparc package, which should build these roms from source.

Marking this bug a duplicate.

[Paul Belanger (pabelanger)]

I can also confirm this bug. keeping my fingers cross it will get fixed.

[Loïc Minier (lool)]

I think this bug is a dup of bug #64501 and not of bug #183495, but it's about the same kind of problem.

[Skaperen (skaperen)]

The mentioned file remains missing in 10.10. Bug #183495 could be a related cause, but does not seem to be a duplicate, or else this is a regression at 10.10.