Semi-Recent QEMU and 86Box OpenStep/NextStep Bugs to Track

[jeffburg]

Hey everyone,

As we move on from the Intel world dominated by VMWare and VirtualBox, we are moving into ARM world where our favorite legacy OS's no longer run. We will always have Previous which is a godsend. But I I thought I would also share some bugs I found from last year where people are complaining that OpenStep and NextStep will not install in QEMU or 86Box. Follow these and help / donate if possible.

I admit I do not have the skills to help fix these kinds of issues, but perhaps since there are some people looking, it will happen!

QEMU Bug #2620
QEMU Bug #2666
86Box Bug #4956

Edit: Perhaps the 86Box one is fixed? Has anyone tried to install in 86Box?

[jeffburg]

I found install instructions for 86Box although I have not tried it yet:
https://www.reddit.com/r/86box/comments/1fui4wg/install_nextstep_33_and_openstep_42_on_86box

[jeffburg]

Also, I love how this guy totally non-ironically posts a screenshot of NextStep booting in QEMU on his android phone 🤣

https://gitlab.com/qemu-project/qemu/-/issues/2620#note_2202440525

[wmlive]

[...] But I I thought I would also share some bugs I found from last year where people are complaining that OpenStep and NextStep will not install in QEMU or 86Box. [...]


QEMU Bug #2620
QEMU Bug #2666
86Box Bug #4956

Edit: Perhaps the 86Box one is fixed? Has anyone tried to install in 86Box?

According to https://github.com/86Box/86Box/issues/4956#issuecomment-3124569968 the particular issue you cited is supposedly fixed. The version contained in wmlive-trixie most probably has this fix applied.

When i tried out various versions of NeXTSTEP or OPENSTEP, I never stumbled over any unsurmountable problems trying to install them in the 86Box version contained in wmlive-bookworm. But then again, i didn't insist on using dc390/amd 53c974, but rather used whatever worked first, either by Adaptec or EIDE only. Don't remember the details anymore, though.

Regarding qemu, i already gave up hope that any of our favorite OS's will ever (properly) run.
But this shouldn't surprise anyone because, unlike 86Box, the commercially sponsored (by Red Hat) qemu development is not interested in maintaining compatibility with legacy hardware and operating systems.
They simply don't care for the needs of retro enthusiasts and hobbyists.
They rather try very hard to become a viable replacement for VMWare and similar commercial virtualization solutions, and that clearly defines the primary development focus.

[jeffburg]

Yeah, I think I will try 86Box on my Apple Silicon machine and see how it performs.

[jeffburg]

And I totally believe you about QEMU. Because we actually do use it at work... and there is definitely no interest in automating sparqstations 🤣

[Protocol 7]

I've been using 86Box a bit lately and have NS3.3, OS40PR1 and Rhapsody DR1+2 machines set up and running in it. The choice of emulated hardware is huge so sometimes you just have to swap out a particular component if the one you picked isn't playing ball.