How To : Emulate NeXTStep in Previous or Other Emulator

edited July 2014 in Software
Hello! I am want to emulate NeXTStep in Previous. If any one know how to emulate NeXTStep in Previous or other emulator please help me and I have also downloaded NeXTStep 0.9 from winworld.The downloaded file is in dump format.Please also help me how to change the format that supports Previous.Very sorry for my bad English. :oops:

Comments

  • What type of image does Previous expect?
  • Sorry,I don't know.I am searching internet but could not find it about previous. If I find I will be post the information.Please help me. I need help.
  • The last time I checked, the Previous emulator was still highly incomplete and will not actually boot an OS.

    Has someone claimed they got it to do something?

    It certainly will be awesome if/when it is completed. Not everyone can have a real NeXT cube.
  • stitch wrote:
    What type of image does Previous expect?
    May be img file. Give a solution how to convert to img and to iso Please!
    SomeGuy wrote:
    The last time I checked, the Previous emulator was still highly incomplete and will not actually boot an OS.

    Has someone claimed they got it to do something?

    It certainly will be awesome if/when it is completed. Not everyone can have a real NeXT cube.
    yes you are right :( it is still incomplete.I want to emulate NeXTStep or OpenStep in previous(if you know another emulator please let me know.)
    can you all you teach me how to emulate NeXTStep and OpenStep in VirtualBox or in Previous? Please help me! I need Help!
  • Previous is barely booting into firmware last I checked - they're not emulating SCSI yet, which means no CDs... or disks.

    tl;dr: not yet
  • Good News!
    Previous can boot NeXTStep 0.x to 4.0 beta and OpenStep 4.1 to 4.2 For Mach.
    So we have a NeXT Emulator! :D

    Thanks
    Mominul
  • Apparently they have indeed made quite a bit of progress on Previous. They just released 0.4, and reportedly it can boot many versions of NeXTStep to the desktop.

    None of this at all appears on their web site yet, but googling around, the 0.4 release announcement is on a thread in the nextcomputers forums, where all the real activity seems to be: http://www.nextcomputers.org/forums/vie ... &start=495
    That same thread has many screen shots as well.

    A direct link to the 0.4 binary: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/447 ... us_0.4.zip
    But it is currently only for Intel MacOS. (guess I will still have to wait for a Win32 version. I wonder if this would compile for PPC MacOS?)

    They indicate it will run NeXTSTEP version 0.8 to OpenStep 4.2, but I don't know where they get all their images from.
  • Mominul wrote:
    stitch wrote:
    What type of image does Previous expect?
    May be img file. Give a solution how to convert to img and to iso Please!


    MagicISO and PowerISO can convert images. I think you can even use DD (DiskDump) to convert it.
  • @SomeGuy here is the latest SVN build win32 https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/ueltnxtp20ebic7/Previous%200.5.zip .
    @TCPMeta thanks for your suggestion! But I am a Windows user.
  • There is a dd port for Windows.
  • Mominul wrote:

    Nice! Did you build this EXE yourself? I still don't see any new releases on the official web site. When I try this against the NextStep 0.8 hard drive image (found in the main thread on the Nextcomputers forum), Nextstep crashes at the desktop - this appears to be a bug that was just recently reported and fixed, something about missing DMA registers (discussions also in that thread). That is the version I would really like to get running.

    Hopefully someone will eventually compile and host a complete archive of NetxtStep versions and applications.

    I'm still not sure about the disk formats. The early NextStep versions don't use CDs, they use Magnetic Optical disks. I have ".dump" files of 0.9 and 2.0, and I am guessing these were made with the NextStep DD utility from the MO disks. Trying to mount and boot those results only in an error about a missing volume label.

    The hard disk images are thankfully just raw SCSI block hard drive dumps (not partition dumps that you can also make with DD).
  • I managed to install NeXTStep 2.2 from a CD ISO (from the FTP listed here: http://www.max1zzz.co.uk/servers.html ) and got it to boot from the desktop.

    After a bit of futzing, here are some notes about that:
    First create a blank hard disk image with your favorite image utility.

    The 2.88mb floppy disk boot image is found inside the NS 2.2 CD ISO, extract the file with an ISO utility.

    Set the following drives in previous:
    hard drive as scsi device "0"
    floppy boot disk as scsi device "1"
    cd-rom (check CD box) as SCSI device "2"

    use machine type "NextCube" (Not the default Next Computer)
    and boot using the rom monitor

    at boot prompt type:
    bsd(1,0,0)fdmach rootdev=sd1a

    You must specify the rootdev parameter because the floppy expects to be booted from the floppy device (not implemented), and will try and make the non-existent hard drive file system "root" instead of the floppy.

    Follow the menu instruction to init the drive, restore the system, and then reboot.

    Do not arbitrarily close the emulator, or use the emulator's reboot function. You must shut down NextStep properly or it will damage the file system. If you must shut down prior to completion, press F10 and Previous will initiate a proper shut down, or exit to shell and type "halt"
  • After a little more research, it turns out these ".dump" files are actually backup archives created with the NeXTStep dump and restore commands, not raw disk images. The upshot is that the .dump files can be restored to any size volume as needed. The downside is that you already have to have NeXTStep running to DO that. :P In other words, .dump files are not very useful with Previous.

    To make things more complicated, a magnetic optical disk has data on it that is not accessible from within NeXTStep (even with dd). Mostly it is the bad/spare sector table - which should not be archived - but apparently also a section for boot code. Without that a MO disk will not boot.
  • SomeGuy wrote:
    Mominul wrote:

    Nice! Did you build this EXE yourself? I still don't see any new releases on the official web site. ...
    Yes, I build that. The official website is outdated. The zip file of my is also getting out dated ... If you need a build or instruction just ask (only windows!). I use cygwin. For using mo disk see forum - http://www.nextcomputers.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2642&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=315 our user protocol7's postings. For using Previous you can ask me questions. I and our forum member eagle are writing the Previous Manual see here - http://www.nextcomputers.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3427 . And also our forum member mikeboss collected many of NeXTStep and Openstep releases - http://www.nextcomputers.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3406 . Do you see my screenshots :P ?
    Thanks
    Mominul
  • I assume the EXE you posted was of trunk? Could you compile and post the latest branch_mmu revision?

    Tried to compile it myself, but no luck getting the environment set up. :P

    BTW, the Previous version number should be ~0.4, but yours has 0.5.
  • SomeGuy wrote:
    I assume the EXE you posted was of trunk? Could you compile and post the latest branch_mmu revision?
    The EXE of my was the latest branch_mmu revision. But this is outdated here is the new with the latest branch_mmu revision - https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/l2wcianp13eufqn/Previous%200.5.7z
    Tried to compile it myself, but no luck getting the environment set up. :P
    Why? Do you installing Cygwin? basic inform can found on - http://previous.alternative-system.com/index.php/build.
    BTW, the Previous version number should be ~0.4, but yours has 0.5.
    My EXE is the latest branch_mmu revision. So........................... :)
    And also I have released ver 0.1a of the manual - https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/7xggx7tk4qbvhus/PreviousUsersManual_2.pdf
  • Well, that is weird because your builds are exhibiting bugs that were fixed in the branch_mmu (specifically NextStep 0.8 crashes at the desktop). Perhaps you need to refresh your files.

    I thought I it would be "easier" to cross compile the Win32 version under Linux. But as far as I can tell there is no proper way to get the MinGW versions of the zlib and SDL development files under Linux.

    I did manage to compile the Linux native version, and that works except the NextStep mouse movement is all wonky.
  • Managed to compile my own Win32 version, but it exhibits the same bugs. I wonder what Mingw32 is doing different?
  • Hello SomeGuy can you help me please about compiling Previous on mingw?
  • Sorry, I had to blow away the Mingw environment and move on to to other things already.
  • Can you tell me what mingw environment you used? Official Mingw or Mingw w64?
  • SomeGuy wrote:
    Set the following drives in previous:
    hard drive as scsi device "0"
    floppy boot disk as scsi device "1"
    cd-rom (check CD box) as SCSI device "2"

    use machine type "NextCube" (Not the default Next Computer)
    and boot using the rom monitor

    at boot prompt type:
    bsd(1,0,0)fdmach rootdev=sd1a

    Thank you so much. I have been looking for a guide on how to actually install NeXTStep on Previous for quite some time. This also seems to work for NeXTSTEP 3.3. I will try to complete the install process soon.
  • You can also find further information on Previous Manual that I released.
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