Down a rabbit-hole

Not really related to Unix, but emulation. The 86Box emulator (plus roms) contains a good ps/2 and ps/1 emulator and I've been doing some reading on what different specs were etc.

I wanted to put some links here for future refernce:

Chart of PS/1 specs from https://www.old-computers.com/museum/doc.asp?c=1274

______

There were later many different PS/1 Models released.
Here is a quite complete list of them with main technical differences:

Model	RAM (max.)	Hard-disk	CPU	Video
2011 n01	512 Ko (1MB)	none	286 at 10MHz	VGA
2011 n34	1MB	30MB	286 at 10MHz	VGA
2011 n41	1MB	40MB	286 at 10MHz	VGA
2011 n42	2MB (6MB)	40MB	386sx at 16MHz	VGA
2121 282	2MB (6MB)	80MB	386sx at 16MHz	VGA
2121 642	2MB (6MB)	40MB	386sx at 20MHz	VGA
2121 682	2MB (6MB)	80MB	386sx at 20MHz	VGA
2123 E41 Pro	2MB (15MB)	40MB	386sx at 20MHz	VGA
2123 E81 Pro	2MB (15MB)	80MB	386sx at 20MHz	VGA
2123 E31 Pro	2MB (15MB)	130MB	386sx at 20MHz	VGA
2133 111	2MB (15MB)	85MB	386sx at 25MHz	VGA
2133 711	2MB (15MB)	85MB	386sx at 25MHz	VGA
2133 811	4MB (15MB)	85MB	386sx at 25MHz	VGA
2133 911	2MB (15MB)	85MB	386sx at 25MHz	VGA
2133 114	4MB (15MB)	170MB	386sx at 25MHz	sVGA
2133 144	4MB (32MB)	170MB	486sx at 20MHz	sVGA
2133 151	4MB (32MB)	85MB	486sx at 25MHz	sVGA
2133 154	4MB (32MB)	170MB	486sx at 25MHz	sVGA
2133 174	4MB (32MB)	170MB	486sx at 33MHz	sVGA
2133 451	2MB (32MB)	85MB	486sx at 25MHz	sVGA
2133 461	4MB (32MB)	85MB	486sx at 33MHz	sVGA
2133 551	4MB (32MB)	130MB	486sx at 25MHz	sVGA
2133 571	4MB (64MB)	130MB	486dx at 33MHz	sVGA
2155 471	4MB (64MB)	85MB	486dx at 33MHz	sVGA
2155 474	4MB (64MB)	130MB	486dx at 33MHz	sVGA
2155 483	4MB (64MB)	130MB	486dx2 at 50MHz	sVGA
2155 582	4MB (64MB)	170MB	486dx2 at 50MHz	sVGA
2155 593	4MB (64MB)	253MB	486dx2 at 66MHz	sVGA
2168 452	2MB (32MB)	85MB	486sx at 25MH	sVGA
2168 463	4MB (64MB)	130	486sx at 33MHz	sVGA
2168 473	4MB (64MB)	130	486dx at 33MHz	sVGA
2168 493	4MB (64MB)	130	486dx2 at 66MHz	sVGA
2168 584	4MB (64MB)	253	486dx2 at 50MHz	sVGA
2168 594	4MB (64MB)	253	486dx2 at 66MHz	sVGA

Source : Silicium.org

https://stason.org/TULARC/pc/motherboards/I/IBM-CORPORATION-486-PS-1-TYPE-2133-2155-2168-TYPE.html

https://github.com/86Box/86Box/issues/886

PS/1 Models Spreadsheet on google docs: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1gzi99Hd35Doq-tKUGpZZoOIzkGtt43o8dLqlaX-8sYw/edit#gid=969214990

http://www.ibm-pc.org/diagnostic/ibm/ps2/ps2files/index.htm

Openindiana Static IP

Thanks to a post on the OI mailing list, I finally figured out how to set a static IP.

Actually, setting the static IP hasn't been the problem; that's easy enough to do using network manager. The tricky part has been dns.

The mailing list referred to this guide on the openindiana website. Using those instructions -modified for virtualbox (substituting bge0 with e1000g0), I was able to set my IP to 192.168.1.15 and my router to 192.168.1.1

ifconfig showed the correct information, and my route seemed to be set; but I couldn't ping anything.

I went back to re-read and found this gem:

IF you cannot ping an external IP (e.g. google.com) run this command and try again.

# cp /etc/nsswitch.dns /etc/nsswitch.conf

After that, the net worked just like it was supposed to. In fact, I half suspect I could have skipped all the dinking around and simply set /etc/resolv.conf and nsswitch.conf. I'll have to try that another day!

Other, unrelated notes:
I tried setting up sunstudio 12.3, but it didn't like my installed java version; so it won't run.

I temporarily borked my mate by adding the following to .profile:
$PATH:/opt/solarisstudio12.3/bin
which should have been:
export PATH=$PATH:/opt/solarisstudio12.3/bin

The result being that lightdm would get confused and send me back to the login prompt after successfully logging in.

Debian Testing in a VB VM (2019/2020 edition)

To install guest additions, first:

sudo apt update -y && apt upgrade
sudo apt install dkms linux-headers-$(uname -r) build-essential

Then:

cd /media/cdrom0/; /bin/sh VBo*run

To set up ISO files as a local repository: 

1)Download the files somewhere. I use /.iso:

random@flustered:~$ ls -l /.iso
total 12833380
dr-xr-xr-x 1 root   root         4096 Oct  6 20:57 1
dr-xr-xr-x 1 root   root         2048 Oct  6 21:13 2
dr-xr-xr-x 1 root   root         2048 Oct  6 21:15 3
-rwxr-xr-x 1 random random 3838230528 Oct  7 09:23 debian-testing-amd64-DVD-1.iso
-rwxr-xr-x 1 random random 4619786240 Oct  7 09:25 debian-testing-amd64-DVD-2.iso
-rwxr-xr-x 1 random random 4683341824 Oct  7 09:27 debian-testing-amd64-DVD-3.iso
random@flustered:~$
 

2) create mountpoints (mkdir /.iso{1,2,3}). 

3) add the mountpoints to /etc/fstab:

random@flustered:~$ cat /etc/fstab
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid' to print the universally unique identifier for a
# device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices
# that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
#                
# / was on /dev/sda1 during installation
UUID=4c /               ext4    errors=remount-ro 0       1
# swap was on /dev/sda5 during installation
UUID=28 none            swap    sw              0       0
/dev/sr0        /media/cdrom0   udf,iso9660 user,noauto     0       0
/.iso/debian-testing-amd64-DVD-1.iso /.iso/1 iso9660     ro,loop,auto    0       0
/.iso/debian-testing-amd64-DVD-2.iso /.iso/2 iso9660     ro,loop,auto    0       0
/.iso/debian-testing-amd64-DVD-3.iso /.iso/3 iso9660     ro,loop,auto    0       0
random@flustered:~$
 

4) make the proper changes to /etc/apt/sources.list:

deb [trusted=yes] file:/.iso/1 bullseye contrib main

deb [trusted=yes] file:/.iso/2 bullseye contrib main
deb [trusted=yes] file:/.iso/3 bullseye contrib main

...it's important to put "[trusted=yes]", or apt won't process them.

5)apt update to use the new sources

...and you're good to go.

timing

Two days after I decided to test the -currents:

--- iso_image ---
mkdir -p -m 0755 /usr/src/obj/releasedir/images
/usr/src/obj/tooldir.NetBSD-8.99.51-amd64/bin/x86_64--netbsd-install -r -p -c -m 444 NetBSD-9.0_BETA-amd64.iso /usr/src/obj/releasedir/images
iso-image ===> etc
make iso-image-source started at:  Wed Jul 31 06:18:35 AKDT 2019
make iso-image-source finished at: Wed Jul 31 06:20:21 AKDT 2019
===> Successful make iso-image-source
===> build.sh ended:      Wed Jul 31 06:20:21 AKDT 2019
===> Summary of results:
         build.sh command:    ./build.sh -j 4 -u -U -x -X /usr/xsrc release sets sourcesets iso-image-source
         build.sh started:    Wed Jul 31 03:06:36 AKDT 2019
         NetBSD version:      9.0_BETA
         MACHINE:             amd64
         MACHINE_ARCH:        x86_64
         Build platform:      NetBSD 8.99.51 amd64
         HOST_SH:             /bin/sh
         No $TOOLDIR/bin/nbmake, needs building.
         Bootstrapping nbmake
         MAKECONF file:       /etc/mk.conf
         TOOLDIR path:        /usr/src/obj/tooldir.NetBSD-8.99.51-amd64
         DESTDIR path:        /usr/src/obj/destdir.amd64
         RELEASEDIR path:     /usr/src/obj/releasedir
         Created /usr/src/obj/tooldir.NetBSD-8.99.51-amd64/bin/nbmake
         Updated makewrapper: /usr/src/obj/tooldir.NetBSD-8.99.51-amd64/bin/nbmake-amd64
         Successful make release
         Building sets from pre-populated /usr/src/obj/destdir.amd64
         Built sets to /usr/src/obj/releasedir/amd64/binary/sets
         Successful make sourcesets
         Successful make iso-image-source
         build.sh ended:      Wed Jul 31 06:20:21 AKDT 2019
===> .

...I have to build everything all over again. Somehow I don't mind.

-currently in NetBSD 8.99...

===> Summary of results:
         build.sh command:    ./build.sh -j 4 -u -x -X /usr/xsrc release sets sourcesets iso-image-source
         build.sh started:    Sun Jul 28 10:03:40 UTC 2019
         NetBSD version:      8.99.51
         MACHINE:             amd64
         MACHINE_ARCH:        x86_64
         Build platform:      NetBSD 8.99.51 amd64
         HOST_SH:             /bin/sh
         MAKECONF file:       /etc/mk.conf
         TOOLDIR path:        /usr/src/obj/tooldir.NetBSD-8.99.51-amd64
         DESTDIR path:        /usr/src/obj/destdir.amd64
         RELEASEDIR path:     /usr/src/obj/releasedir
         Updated makewrapper: /usr/src/obj/tooldir.NetBSD-8.99.51-amd64/bin/nbmake-amd64
         Successful make release
         Building sets from pre-populated /usr/src/obj/destdir.amd64
         Built sets to /usr/src/obj/releasedir/amd64/binary/sets
         Successful make sourcesets
         Successful make iso-image-source
         build.sh ended:      Sun Jul 28 13:39:36 UTC 2019
===> .

...time's wonky because I didn't set the timezone properly; but it took 3.5 hours to (re)build NetBSD-current from NetBSD current in VirtualBox 6.

Setting up FreeBSD 12 in Virtualbox 6, 2019

VirtualBox has come a long way since I started using it 11 years ago!

In that time, FreeBSD has put in a lot of spit and elbow grease and make the process of using it as a guest operating system pretty smooth for a BSD.

FreeBSD has also switched package systems in that time too -going from the aging pkg_* tools to using the newly written pkgng system.

I don't write often because I have settled into a pretty dull routine; WSL, or Mint, and the occasional NetBSD vm, with some retrocomputing mixed in from time to time. Nothing worth writing about, honestly.

Frustrated with trying to compile an update for NetBSD, I decided to take FreeBSD out for a spin. While I do play with FreeBSD from time to time (not as much as Net) I hadn't really taken a very close look at how well it works with VMs these days.

For the most part I've worked with connecting to my VMs with ssh, and hacking together decent resolutions either with Mate's tools or custom xorg.confs. Not wanting to take excessive amounts of time waiting for compiles and being curious, I just dove right in to pkgng, Virtualbox, and Mate.

I created a FreeBSD 12/amd64 virtual machine and ran through the installation from iso -nothing major there.

After that was set up, I got pkgng to work. That simply meant running pkg and then "pkg update"

From there I installed the xorg, virtualbox-ose-additions, mate and slim packages. Later I found I needed to add fuse, though I'm not sure what for at this point -mounting, maybe?

So ...pretty simple so far; after that some configuration needs to take place.

For slim, you need something in ~/.xinitrc. Since I'm running Mate I only have one line in mine:
exec mate-session

For virtualbox I've added the following to /boot/loader.conf:

fuse_load="YES"

And I made the following changes to /etc/rc.conf to get everything working:

dbus_enable="YES"
hald_enable="YES"
slim_enable="YES"
vboxguest_enable="YES"
vboxservice_enable="YES"

I've also set up codeblocks, firefox and vlc as well.

I used Mate's hardware tool (graphics) to set up a decent resolution and saved it as a local user. I wasn't able to save it globbally, which is annoying but I can cope with. I don't have sound working, but I'm confident I'll get it if I ever need it.

My middle mouse button works, though -so FreeBSD already has one over on Mint.

I wasn't able to get shared folders to mount, but I found a nice post on the FreeBSD forums that gave me the following line:

sudo mount -t vboxvfs -o rw,gid=1001,uid=1001 vmshare $HOME/windowsDir

Change the share ("vmshare") name and the destination and it works just fine, albeit a little "ghetto" for 2019.

I had a NetBSD VM set up for my retrocomputing (simh) environment -still have it, actually -but I think I'll set this up too, and maybe even try recompiling a system from scratch sometime in the future.

One thing I'll make a note of -I tried the same set-up with vmware player but couldn't set the resolution above 1280. Installed their tools, did some things I found on the google -none of it worked so I went back to my VB VM ...which did.

The missing bits

Way way
Back back in the day, BSD was poised to take over the world.

But unexpectedly they smacked the bear on the nose and wound up in a year's long lawsuit which put the future of BSD in peril. 

In the end, everything was resolved with USL asking the CSRG (those responsible for BSD) to create a redacted release. This release was missing a few files and could not be compiled into a working release.

The open source projects (NetBSD, FreeBSD) scrambled to replace the missing parts and eventually released legally clean and unencumbered versions of their BSD-based operating systems.

Several years later, "historic unix" was released openly by Caldera (before they became the SCO group?), which put the formerly contested files out into the open.

A couple of years later, in 2004, a list of the contested files was released by Groklaw.

Here is the list, as far as I'm able to piece together:

Six Missing Header Files:

sys/sys/buf.h

sys/sys/proc.h

sys/sys/shm.h

sys/sys/tt y.h

sys/ufs/dinode.h

sys/ufs/inode.h

“Restricted Files” (26 files):

sys/kern/init_main.c

sys/kern/kern_clock.c

sys/kern/kern_exec.c

sys/kern/kern_exit.c

sys/kern/kern_physio.c

sys/kern/kern_sig.c

sys/kern/kern_synch.c

sys/kern/subr_rmap.c

sys/kern/sys_generic.c

sys/kern/sys_process.c

sys/kern/sysv_shm.c

sys/kern/tty.c

sys/kern/tty_subr.c

sys/kern/vfs_bio.c

sys/kern/vfs_syscalls.c

sys/sys/buf.h

sys/sys/proc.h

sys/sys/shm.h

sys/sys/tty.h

sys/ufs/dinode.h

sys/ufs/inode.h

sys/ufs/ufs_bmap.c

sys/ufs/ufs_disksubr.c

sys/ufs/ufs_inode.c

sys/ufs/ufs_vnops.c

usr.bin/cpio/cpio.c