Hey all,
We have an old Data General Unix system (DG/UX) on an old AViiON machine.
That DG system is Intel-based (PentiumPro) and we are trying to virtualize / emulate it.
DG was a clever system, as it cannot be installed on a 'regular' x86 machine, only on an AViiON box. I think I figured out why, and that is why I need your help.
This is my progress so far (after a lot of reading, searching and understanding who is who and what does it all mean) :
- I've DD'ed an exact copy of the raw system disk as an image on my Linux box.
- Loaded it up with most virtualization products out there - VMware, VirtualBox, Xen/KVM/Qemu, Bochs and such.
They all work, ie, bootloader works and getting a DG/UX menu to choose my proper kernel/system disk. - This is where they fail, as they cannot find the system's original
Adaptec PCI SCSI Controller (which is an AIC-7880 chip).
Most VM products only support LSI/BusLogic SCSI, and IDE of course.
As I see it, there are a few solutions for it to work: - write an Adaptec driver for a VM product.
- write an LSI/BusLogic driver for DG/UX or implement virtio drivers into it.
- get IDE support working.
1st 2 options, as I understand from software eng' and other professionals, are very difficult to implement.
The 3rd option is interesting :
On one hand, I have an config file with all of DG/UX's supported hardware, IDE is simply not there (would love for someone else to have a look if possible. Just say so and I'll send you the file).
_and_ docs say "Data General has not tested or qualified the use of IDE devices in AViiON AV 2100 systems".
_BUT_, on the other hand, BIOS seems to have plenty of IDE config options and also docs say:
"IDE Interface - Disabled/Auto" , "OnBoard IDE Controller - enabled".
" The AV 2100 board set consists of a system board with six PCI expansion slots, three ISA expansion slots, and several embedded controller devices (PCI video, SCSI, Network, and IDE).
and "..A SCSI-III AIC-7880 controller for connecting up to seven 8-bit narrow SCSI devices. You can also connect a mixture of fifteen 8-bit narrow and 16-bit wide SCSI devices to the controller-maximum of seven 8-bit narrow SCSI devices. PCI-enhanced Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE) hard disk interface that supports two hard disk drives"
Also " Since the lower bay contains a SCSI CD-ROM drive, only one other SCSI device can be installed. You can install an IDE device in the remaining bay. "
And much more.
The question is, if I have an exact image of the primary disk and I did try to load it via an IDE drive (in Qemu/VirtualBox etc), didn't work out. Like last time, bootloader booted up and then hang after trying to load the kernel.
Is there something I can try and do as a different config in my image file?
Anything else you can think of?
Please let me know if you need any file sent over.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
D.