VM Manager PPC architecture

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wove
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VM Manager PPC architecture

Post by wove »

A little off base here, but I was trying to create a classic mac VM. QEMU supports PPC and 680x0 architecture, but when I go to create a new VM I do not see any options to specify the system architecture. I know that qemu supports ARM and SPARQ and MIPS, but I do not see anyway in the Virtual Machine Manager to change architecture. Anyone have any experience with setting available architectures in QEMU?
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tlmiller
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Re: VM Manager PPC architecture

Post by tlmiller »

TO MY KNOWLEDGE, if you're using virt-manager as the gui, there is no way to create a foreign architecture VM. You can create it via the command line (virt-install --arch=ppc<whichever it is> <rest of options>) and then start it and manage it via virt-manager, but I'm not aware of a way to actually CREATE them in virt-manager.
wove
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Re: VM Manager PPC architecture

Post by wove »

Thanks for the info. I was leaning in that direction. I am hitting the limits of my Silverblue install and without exploring containers, podman or some such I can not easily make changes to the base qemu that is installed. Emulation is my recreation, like gaming for others, it is interesting challenging fun and well probably totally pointless (at least in my case). I will explore what configurations options are available on qemu in an immutable OS and if need be maybe look at an OS that is mutable, Debian/Endeavour come to mind.
wove
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Re: VM Manager PPC architecture

Post by wove »

I found out that you can add extra architectures to the Virtual Manager. For ppc architecture you need to install "qemu-system-ppc". After that is installed an "Architecture Options" drop down appears in the create new VM dialog displaying the architectures installed and allowing you to select the architecture you wish to use. That is as far as I have gotten. I found an pre-built image for a PPC Mac running OS9, but as of yet I have not been able to get it running.
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tlmiller
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Re: VM Manager PPC architecture

Post by tlmiller »

Oh, I assumed you knew about the qemu-system-ppc since it's also required for the virt-install creation as well. I haven't seen the architectures drop down on new VM creation screen ever, maybe just missed that (I do have foreign architecture VM's occasionally, generally ARMv9 although the very poor performance makes it not worth it most of the time). Maybe I'll have to look again on one of my machines I've actually installed foreign architectures on.
wove
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Re: VM Manager PPC architecture

Post by wove »

I started my exploration with Gnome Boxes, which makes it very easy to create a VM. The limitation being it does not teach you much of anything about whole qemu system works. I guess I have finally arrived at the point where I am reading qemu documentation and maybe learning something in the process.

The number or cores you choose to use, relates to the number of cores the emulator is using and not the number of cores the alternative architecture uses, which is generally always limited to a single core. That is why qemu running on X86 hardware is very slow emulating an ARM machine. It is emulating a single core ARM processor. That is not true across the board qemu running on ARM and RISCV can emulate multiple x86 cores. Which is why qemu running a new fast phone can run Windows at respectable speed, while qemu running on a new Windows laptop is piss poor at emulating an android phone.
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