Linux Kernel Preparing Support For A More Practical Virtual M68k Machine

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Linux Kernel Preparing Support For A More Practical Virtual M68k Machine

When it comes to the Motorola 68000 "m68k" virtual machine targets, the most powerful option under Linux right now is the Quadra 800. That though for virtualization purposes isn't too useful by today's standards with being limited to 1GB of RAM and limited interface support. But a new Virtual M68k Machine aims to provide a more useful target and support has already landed in QEMU while the Linux kernel support is pending...

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Linux-Better-M68k-Virtual

[Chewi]

I've been using this for some time to get Gentoo's m68k support back into shape. It's been great, although I did report a couple of issues to Laurent, and I'm not aware that he's fixed them yet. One is that the RTC simply doesn't work.

The kernel aside, glibc 2.34 seems to have broken m68k somehow, but I haven't figured that one out yet.

[stormcrow]

Is the 1GB of RAM a QEMU/Linux limitation or is this in the original Quadra 800? I'm unfamiliar with most of the Mac lineup, but I do know the M68k from *20, save for the economy chips with 24 bit address buses, had a 32 bit bus able to address 4 GB of RAM.

[mangeek]

If you can imagine an X86_64 PC running QEMU emulating new m68k Linux instance that has Basilisk II running on it in pass-thru mode so I can play SimCity 2000 at HD resolutions... those are my holiday plans.

[vladimir86]

This is quite cool! anyone tried Qemu recently to emulate classic macs? I remember trying earlier this year, but there was no sound, so not all that useful for me.

[gbudny]

Well, it could be nice if people could run Apple Unix (A/UX) on Qemu.