Some rights reserved! Vintage technology preserved.
| Previous | Index | Next |
|---|
A famous operating system, originally developed for IBM PC & compatibles. All early versions supported real mode (and later 80286-specific protected mode) till version 4.x, where pre-386 support had been dropped since then.
In several guest blog posts made by Tenox, there is one with a detailed installation process with several screenshots, like in
- www.os2museum.com/wp/virtualizing-qnx-2/
- virtuallyfun.com/wordpress/2013/03/20/fun-with-virtualizing-qnx-2/
Got some spare time, so I've made some funny experiments. First, tried to install QNX 2 in pce-ibmpc, and performed successfully by following these steps:
-
Images from ???????.org, QNX2 Installation hints at the previous links
-
Do not forget to select all four floppy images when copying files! Their md5 checksums are:
03b6522234007cb7c1c7acae64cf6d80 boot.img
716986870a602a3dd5b01c76720fb37f boot_util.img
638174f05a69f9e7356aecf76d026843 util1.img
7d5356bc0fde61cc89571b903d824c09 util2.img
-
Selected XT hdd controller and real mode kernel obviously
-
To change (virtual) floppy disk during emulation:
- 4.a: change to monitor by pressing [Ctrl]+["backtick"], then
- 4.b: specify floppy image file via entering "m emu.disk.insert 0:util1.img"
- 4.c: then continue interrupted emulation with command "g"
-
Installed in an 5150 type VM, but unfortunately only 5160 can run it after a seamless installation, with a merged 64k sized rom
-
mda and cga video card types caused unwanted 0xB804 segment far jumps, so hgc is used
-
Be patient when partitioning forces a hdd surface test, needs some time!
-
Of course in step 3: BIOS INT13h disk driver should be selected in order to keep resulting disk image portable
path = "rom"
path = "-."
system {
model = "5160"
boot = 128
memtest = 0
floppy_disk_drives = 2
rtc = 0
patch_bios_init = 0
patch_bios_int19 = 0
}
cpu {
model = "8088"
speed = 0
}
ram {
address = 0
size = 640K
default = 0x00
}
rom {
address = 0xf0000
size = 64K
default = 0xff
}
rom {
address = 0xc8000
size = 32K
default = 0xff
}
load {
format = "binary"
address = 0xf0000
file = "ibmxt64k.rom"
}
load {
format = "binary"
address = 0xc8000
file = "ibm-hdc-1985-10-28.rom"
}
terminal {
driver = "x11"
scale = 1
aspect_x = 4
aspect_y = 3
mouse_mul_x = 1
mouse_div_x = 1
mouse_mul_y = 1
mouse_div_y = 1
}
video {
device = "hgc"
color = "amber"
blink = 16
}
speaker {
volume = 500
lowpass = 8000
sample_rate = 44100
driver = "null"
}
hdc {
address = 0x320
irq = 5
drive0 = 0x80
drive1 = 0x81
sectors = 17
switches = 0x00
}
fdc {
address = 0x3f0
irq = 6
drive0 = 0x00
drive0 = 0x01
accurate = 0
ignore_eot = 0
}
disk {
drive = 0
optional = 1
type = "auto"
file = "blanka.qed"
}
disk {
drive = 1
optional = 1
type = "auto"
}
disk {
drive = 128
type = "auto"
file = "10mbqnx2.qed"
readonly = 0
optional = 1
}
disk {
drive = 129
type = "auto"
readonly = 0
optional = 1
}
As it is widely (un)known, 8086tiny was the ultimate winner of the International Obfuscated C Code Competition in 2013, Adrian Cable made a ridiculously small but fairly complete IBM PC emulator. Read more here: http://ioccc.org/2013/cable3/hint.html - it can even run Stunts! :D
I believe that even a bare 1024*16*63 virtual flat harddisk image can be booted with unmodified bios image containing a QNX 2 guest, but only a minor patch enabled the 8086tiny booting vintage harddisk images with small sizes and 4 heads + 17 SPT, respectively. The patch kept the original c source untouched, just the bios assembly source had been altered. Neozeed announced his testdrives here (thanks!): https://virtuallyfun.com/wordpress/2018/12/03/8086tiny-bios-patch-update/
Oh, and the modifications are available on github: https://github.com/retrohun/8086tiny
Successfully incremented the supported guest operating systems in DOSBox, see more at: https://www.dosbox.com/wiki/Software:QNX2
Qemu, Virtualbox, Bochs, VMWare, pcem are not listed here,
| Emulator | Remarks, modifications |
|---|---|
| pce-ibmpc | stock build works fine |
| 8086tiny | for vintage hdimages, my bios patch is necessary |
| DOSBox | stock 0.74 build works with custom cfg |
In the post of Tenox: QNX Windows - First Look
| Previous | Index | Next |
|---|