Starter Kit for OPENSTEP 4.2 on VirtualBox

[Rhetorica]

VBoxOS42.iso.zip

Isn't it a shame how there are no Guest Additions CDs for NEXTSTEP VMs? It's almost like those eggheads at VMware and VirtualBox don't know how pioneering NeXT was in the home computer virtualization market! _{(also, RIP VMware)}

Well, last Spring I set out to put together precisely such a thing—every sanity-check and creature comfort that was essential to getting a new OS4.2 VM set up. The project went on the back burner for a while and I ended up quietly putting it on the INDeX CD-ROM archive in July, but certain events interrupted formally announcing it. (Really, a good thing—writing up that thread in full detail would have been a lot of wasted keystrokes.)

Attached below is the tutorial, and linked above is the actual CD image. It's in Rock Ridge format, built with a NeXT version of mkisofs, and hence has all the niceties that you wouldn't expect from a modern ISO, like a directory icon. The tutorial is written to be accessible for NeXT newbies but contains useful information that even veterans will appreciate, and may be of some use when setting up any NeXT machine, even real hardware, as it includes steps like updating the timezone info and configuring networking.

Also available are the BIOS images, which the tutorial mentions. Now your white-hardware guest doesn't have to puke that hideous red Oracle logo at you during boot-up. It's a miracle!

For a non-forum-bound permanent link to these files, see http://index.nextcommunity.net/cdrom/OS/4.2/vbox/

Tutorial Updated 2026-06-11: Clarifications about disk controller drivers, improved network setup tips
Disc Updated 2026-06-11: Fixed version of Opener on disc (was m68k, should be intel)

[jeffburg]

@Rhetorica thanks for posting this. I will cross-post my 1 year old post from the forum that shall not be mentioned

Hey, for anyone using VirtualBox to run their OpenStep/NextStep/Rhapsody VM, I updated the VBoxVideo driver to support widescreen resolutions. So if you are running it a modern monitor or laptop, these new resolutions should make it a closer fit for the screen.

I tested all the resolutions in the list (bold are widescreen):
"Height:1080 Width:1920 Refresh: 60Hz ColorSpace: RGB:888/32";
"Height:1050 Width:1680 Refresh: 60Hz ColorSpace: RGB:888/32";
"Height: 900 Width:1440 Refresh: 60Hz ColorSpace: RGB:888/32";
"Height: 800 Width:1280 Refresh: 60Hz ColorSpace: RGB:888/32";
"Height: 768 Width:1366 Refresh: 60Hz ColorSpace: RGB:888/32";
"Height:1200 Width:1600 Refresh: 60Hz ColorSpace: RGB:888/32";
"Height:1024 Width:1280 Refresh: 60Hz ColorSpace: RGB:888/32";
"Height: 864 Width:1152 Refresh: 60Hz ColorSpace: RGB:888/32";
"Height: 768 Width:1024 Refresh: 60Hz ColorSpace: RGB:888/32";
"Height: 600 Width: 800 Refresh: 60Hz ColorSpace: RGB:888/32";
"Height: 480 Width: 640 Refresh: 60Hz ColorSpace: RGB:888/32";
"Height: 768 Width:1024 Refresh: 60Hz ColorSpace: RGB:555/16";
"Height: 600 Width: 800 Refresh: 60Hz ColorSpace: RGB:555/16";
"Height: 480 Width: 640 Refresh: 60Hz ColorSpace: RGB:555/16";

I tried to make it run at 1920x1200 but it booted a blue screen. Same with 2560x1440. So I think 1920x1080 is the highest we will get out of the VirtualBox VGA emulation. If you want to try it yourself (and let me know if something goes terribly wrong ) then you can find the compiled version here: https://github.com/jeffreybergier/VBoxVideo/blob/mac-resolutions/build/VBoxVideo-1.1.config.tar

I am not sure if the owner of this repo is open to pull requests or even still around for these things, but if they are, I created a PR at this URL: https://github.com/vcarosadev/VBoxVideo/pull/1

-Jeff,

Also, Happy New Year!

[ptek]

Attached below is the tutorial, and linked above is the actual CD image. It's in Rock Ridge format, built with a NeXT version of mkisofs, and hence has all the niceties that you wouldn't expect from a modern ISO, like a directory icon. The tutorial is written to be accessible for NeXT newbies but contains useful information that even veterans will appreciate, and may be of some use when setting up any NeXT machine, even real hardware, as it includes steps like updating the timezone info and configuring networking.

Rhetorica, Did you compile your version of mkisofs on NS or OS?

[Rhetorica]

Rhetorica, Did you compile your version of mkisofs on NS or OS?

I just used existing binaries; there are copies here: http://index.nextcommunity.net/archive/peak/apps/utils/cdrom/

They are NS3.3 friendly. (Still working on unbreaking my OS4.2 dev setup after the "Let's install WebObjects 3.5!" debacle...)

[Rhetorica]

Following some problems with my main OS4.2 VM, I decided to build a new machine and dogfood the guide. There were a few hiccups in it (mostly around networking) which I've corrected. I also realized that the disc contained the m68k version of Opener instead of the i386 version, which is obviously not very helpful.

Anyway, the practical upshot of all this is that I was able to make a machine using it:

I have uploaded a 'clean' virtualbox image of OS4.2 with dev tools, patches, drivers, OmniWeb, GKMouseScaler, and Opener.

97.5 MB: http://archive.nextcommunity.net/VMs/OS42_i386_Dev_Betelgeuse.vbox.7z
Readme is here: http://archive.nextcommunity.net/VMs/OS42_i386_Dev_Betelgeuse.vbox.7z.txt

The password for the me account is... password

This should be everything needed to get into OPENSTEP development.

There are some slight oddities around networking (it takes an unnecessarily long time to boot up, possibly due to searching for a NetInfo server that I told it not to go looking for) but aside from that, it should be a good starting point for anyone looking to spin up an x86 VM. (Remember, you can FTP into the NeXT machine to transfer files!)

[jeffburg]

I am going to write this here as a reminder for myself to add a guide to this post. But I also configured my VirtualBox install of OpenStep 4.2 to have 2 NIC's, one for connecting to the internet and one for connecting to the host machine. Why did I do this? Normally, if your host computer is at home on your home network, its not needed because you can just set the NIC to use "Shared" (I think that's what its called) and it joins your home network as its own computer and has full access to the internet and any computer on your network.

BUT if you have VirtualBox on your laptop... and you are jumping between networks, this won't work because OpenStep doesn't do DHCP... even if you install the DHCP add on software, it requires a reboot to DHCP. So in this scenario you want the NAT option so OpenStep connects to a NAT created by VirtualBox. This means the network settings from OpenStep's perspective are always the same. But this has the side effect of not allowing OpenStep to connect to any other computers or the host.

So you need to add a second NIC with "host-only adapter" and then jump through some hoops in both VirtualBox and OpenStep... but then you have the benefit that OpenStep can reach the internet no matter what network your host machine is connected to AND can connect to the host to do file sharing through NFS or whatever.

Its a really neat setup.