Revision as of 15:46, 4 November 2016

PowerPC Macintosh Emulator

QEMU Installation Directions for Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux

Guest Compatibility

Note: this spreadsheet might have more update to date information.

Operating System	Status
Mac OS 8.0 to 8.6	Prints error stating /rtas node is missing from OpenBIOS
Mac OS 9.0	9.0.4 boots and installs. Other versions may have issues.
Mac OS 9.1	Boots and installs
Mac OS 9.2	Boots and installs
Mac OS 10.0	Boots and installs
Mac OS 10.1	Boots and installs
Mac OS 10.2	Boots and installs
Mac OS 10.3	Boots and installs
Mac OS 10.4	Boots and installs
Mac OS 10.5	Boots to installer, can install on USB disk, but disk doesn't boot. Mouse/keyboard only working with -device ich9-usb-uhci1,id=newusb -device usb-mouse,bus=newusb.0
Debian Linux 5	Boots and installs
Ubuntu Linux 5	Severe video corruption prevents using it
Lubuntu 12.04	Boots live CD and installs, but installation does not boot

Guest Installation

Mac OS 9.x
This is the suggested command-line options to install Mac OS 9:

 ./qemu-system-ppc -hda <hd image file> -M mac99 -m 256 -cdrom <iso file of installation media> -boot d

Mac OS 10.2
Booting from the installation media does work. The beigeg3 target works very well with this operating system.
It is suggested that your initial hard drive image file be at least 5GB in size.

This is the suggested command-line options to install Mac OS 10.2:

 ./qemu-system-ppc -hda <hd image file> -m 400 -prom-env boot-args=-v -cdrom <iso file of installation media> -boot d

Mac OS 10.4
This is the suggested command-line options to install Mac OS 10.4:

 ./qemu-system-ppc -hda <hd image file> -M mac99 -m 512 -prom-env boot-args=-v -boot d -cdrom <iso file of installation media>

If you wish to access the internet thru the Mac OS 10.4 guest, you can by adding this to your QEMU command-line options:

 -netdev user,id=mynet0 -device usb-net,netdev=mynet0

 or

 -netdev user,id=mynet0 -device rtl8139,netdev=mynet0

Note:Mac OS 10.4 installation CD does not support the beigeg3 target. It will boot up, but a error dialog will say this machine isnt supported.

Mac OS 9
As of December 2015, Mac OS 9.2.1 cannot boot successfully into QEMU. Part of the reason is due to issues with OpenBIOS. The other reasons may be related to PowerPC emulation issues. There are ready-made image files and other helpful hints here.
Mac OS 9 is able to boot to the desktop if these extensions are removed:

Apple Audio Extension
Apple Enet
Multiprocessing folder
Open Transport aslm modules
Text Encoding Converter

A custom version of OpenBIOS is need to boot Mac OS 9. Use it like this:-bios <path>/openbios-ppc
Turn off networking because it causes Mac OS 9 to crash: -net none

This is the suggested options to use to run Mac OS 9:

 ./ppc-softmmu/qemu-system-ppc -bios <path>openbios-ppc -boot d -cdrom <path>os92_test.iso -M mac99 -m 512 -cpu G3 -net none

Debugging tips
Macsbug can be used to tell you what exactly stopped booting. The link for it is below.
Mac OS 9.2 comes with a built-in debugger. To use it, set the OpenBIOS variable APPL,debug:

Via QEMU's command-line options:

 -prom-env aapl,debug=2000000

In OpenBIOS type:
dev /
2000000 encode-int *Note: the number can be replaced with the many options available
 AAPL,debug property
then to boot from a cd type:
boot cd:,\\:tbxi

To boot from a hard drive image:
boot hd:,\\:tbxi

Useful Links

Google Summer of Code Discussion for Mac OS 9
Macsbug 6.6.3 - debugger for Mac OS 9
Darwin OS installation iso file
JQEMU - graphical manager for QEMU (requires Java)

Pictures

Doom running in Mac OS 9.2

How do I help

QEMU has many systems that can always be improved. Here is a brief list of possible areas you may want to work on:

Documentation
Testing
Fixing operating system compatibility issues
PowerPC emulation
User interface
OpenBIOS (firmware)
Implement a sound card that is compatible with Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X. The usb-audio device is the closest to working on the Mac OS.
Implement a 3D video card
Improve various hardware (via-cuda, ata controller, etc..)

Knowledge in these areas could help:

PowerPC Assembly
68K Assembly
Embedded Programming

Contact

If there are any issues with this page, please contact me

Last Updated: February 26, 2015

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