table of contents

• background
• installation
• files
• other unix
• screenshots
• known issues
• project history
• prospective projects
• credits
• links
• contact info

• diff for /sys/dev/pci/if_de.c that fixes ethernet support under Virtual PC 4: 2.8, 2.9, 3.0/3.1, 3.2/3.3
• diff for /sys/dev/isa/fd.c that fixes floppy support: 2.9/3.0, 3.1, 3.2/3.3

• 1152x768 Xserver (2.8 or 2.9/3.0/3.1/3.2/3.3)
• 1024x768 Xserver (2.8 or 2.9/3.0/3.1/3.2/3.3)
• 800x600 Xserver (2.8 or 2.9/3.0/3.1/3.2/3.3)

• 2.8
• 2.9
• 3.0/3.1
• 3.2/3.3

• OpenBSD 2.8 installer image (3.6m .sit, sha1) containing:
  • all of the above source diffs and config files for OpenBSD 2.8
  • a fixed bsd.rd capable of performing network installations
  • a GENERIC kernel compiled with the ethernet and caps lock key fixes
  • a synctime binary (29k, sha1)
• OpenBSD 2.9 installer image (3.5m .sit, sha1) containing:
  • all of the above source diffs and config files for OpenBSD 2.9
  • a fixed bsd.rd capable of performing network installations
  • a GENERIC kernel compiled with the ethernet and floppy fixes
  • a synctime binary (29k, sha1) and a static make binary
• OpenBSD 3.0 installer image (3.5m .sit, sha1) containing:
  • all of the above source diffs and config files for OpenBSD 3.0
  • a fixed bsd.rd capable of performing network installations
  • a GENERIC kernel compiled with the ethernet and floppy fixes
  • a synctime binary (29k, sha1) and a static make binary
• OpenBSD 3.1 installer image (3.6m .sit, sha1) containing:
  • all of the above source diffs and config files for OpenBSD 3.1
  • a fixed bsd.rd capable of performing network installations
  • a GENERIC kernel compiled with the ethernet and floppy fixes
  • a synctime binary (29k, sha1) and a static make binary
• OpenBSD 3.2 installer image (4.3m .sit, sha1) containing:
  • all of the above source diffs and config files for OpenBSD 3.2
  • a fixed bsd.rd capable of performing network installations
  • a GENERIC kernel compiled with the ethernet and floppy fixes
  • a minimal kernel also compiled with the lightweight config file above
  • a synctime binary (32k, sha1) and a static make binary
• OpenBSD 3.3 installer image (4.7m .sit, sha1) containing:
  • all of the above source diffs and config files for OpenBSD 3.3
  • a fixed bsd.rd capable of performing network installations
  • a GENERIC kernel compiled with the ethernet and floppy fixes
  • a minimal kernel also compiled with the lightweight config file above
  • a synctime binary (32k, sha1) and a static make binary
• OpenBSD 3.4 installer image (4.7m .sit, sha1) containing:
  • all of the above source diffs and config files for OpenBSD 3.4
  • a fixed bsd.rd capable of performing network installations
  • a GENERIC kernel compiled with the ethernet and floppy fixes
  • a minimal kernel also compiled with the lightweight config file above
  • a synctime binary (32k, sha1) and a static make binary
• OpenBSD 3.5 installer image (4.7m .sit, sha1) containing:
  • all of the above source diffs and config files for OpenBSD 3.5
  • a fixed bsd.rd capable of performing network installations
  • a GENERIC kernel compiled with the ethernet and floppy fixes
  • a minimal kernel also compiled with the lightweight config file above
  • a synctime binary (32k, sha1) and a static make binary

• ultra-lightweight kernel config file for FreeBSD 4.7
• synctime binary compiled under FreeBSD 4.7, 6k sha1
• /etc/rc.local script to run synctime

• synctime binary, 8k sha1
• /etc/init.d/synctime script to run synctime
• /etc/init.d/sshd script to run sshd
• /etc/openwin/server/etc/OWconfig configuration file for OpenWindows

screenshots

• an old screenshot off my old iBook, busy as usual building a kernel but not missing a beat, 420k
• a newer screenshot off my 2001 iceBook, 684k
• newest screenshot off my new 12" G4, running Solaris and OpenBSD while installing AIX (no, not on VPC), 252k

• Spurious interrupts generated by the emulated NIC cause the virtual machine to hang while ifconfigging under Virtual PC 4. This is fixed by the above if_de.c.diff, and is no longer a problem as of Virtual PC 5. The patched driver runs just fine under Virtual PC 5, so there should be no problems with the installers above.
• OpenBSD assumes the hardware clock uses UTC by default, but the Mac's clock is on local time and is DST-aware if so configured in the Mac OS Date & Time control panel. This can be fixed by tweaking the TIMEZONE and DST kernel options.
• Timekeeping is terrible due to lost interrupts, but this can be fixed with David Hornsby's synctime code. These sources are private for the time being.
• The caps lock key is unpredictable and noisy with dprintf's in conjunction with the pcvt driver on OpenBSD 2.8, but this can be fixed easily by use of either PCVT_NO_LED_UPDATE or wscons under OpenBSD 2.9 or 3.0.
• Two-button mice will not produce button chords that work in conjunction with Emulate3Buttons, but use of a key sequence for the right mouse button is a workaround. Three-button mice work just fine, too.
• Virtual PC's emulated USB hardware is not detected by OpenBSD 2.8, but it is by OpenBSD 2.9 and up.
• The chipset emulated by Virtual PC is not supported by XFree86 4.0 - 4.2, so you have to use the XFree86 3.3.6 support in OpenBSD 2.9 and 3.0. I'm not sure how this has progressed since 3.0.
• The floppy driver is now fixed to support most read/write access, allowing easy transfer of files between the host and the virtual machine when the network isn't an option.
• sshd frequently dumped core on subsequent connections after one inbound connection is already established, however, this appears to no longer be a problem with OpenBSD 3.0 and OpenSSH 3.0.
• The "real" MacOS machine and the OpenBSD virtual machine could not speak with one another, as they share a MAC address under Virtual PC 4. I had hoped to fix this with Fredrik Widlund's sea to use an abritrary MAC address for the OpenBSD virtual machine, then got stumped finding a way of implementing proxy ARP under Mac OS 9 that Virtual PC might be able to grok. Fortunately, Virtual PC 5 issues a unique MAC address to each virtual machine and implements proxy ARP when you use the Virtual Switch setting, but only under OS X. Problem solved.
• Solaris will not install or boot up reliably on Virtual PC because of a CPU recognition issue. Amit Singh has posted a workaround for this issue on his site.

• The Virtual PC video chipset is now supported by XFree86 4.x, but I haven't had the time or the drive to get a completely working config file. Please send me a working XFree86 4.x config file if you've got one.
• The Shared IP/Networking setting in Virtual PC works if the OpenBSD virtual machine uses DHCP, but it doesn't get name server addresses from the Virtual PC DHCP server. Right now, the best workarounds are to either enter them manually or to script them into /etc/resolv.conf.
• Floppy support is broken under both Virtual PC 4 and 5, and is fixed somewhat by the above fd.c patch. However, the floppy driver is still noisy and incapable of performing format operations or making boot floppies.
• Dynamic executables seem to have occasional problems with exec. ld and libc are both suspect, but the use of static shell and make binaries is an effective workaround. A statically-compiled make binary is included with most of the installers above.

• The virtual ethernet card no longer works under Virtual PC 6 with OpenStep and Solaris.
• Virtual PC does not implement the emulated NIC putting the real one in promiscuous mode.
• Virtual PC 4 doesn't appear to like OpenBSD VMs with huge amounts of RAM. Use 128 megabytes or less for the virtual machine's RAM.
• Long latency times accompany the transmission of the first few packets off the emulated NIC. The effects of Virtual PC 5's new network functionality have not been analyzed.

• the OpenBSD project
• Connectix Virtual PC page
• Amit Singh's Many Systems on a PowerBook
• David Hornsby's NetBSD / Virtual PC page
• Paul Hoffman's NetBSD / Virtual PC page