ppc: 0.910
graphic: 0.841
semantic: 0.821
architecture: 0.816
kernel: 0.809
performance: 0.785
user-level: 0.778
virtual: 0.768
peripherals: 0.763
register: 0.744
device: 0.740
hypervisor: 0.692
PID: 0.680
files: 0.667
boot: 0.659
permissions: 0.629
socket: 0.624
x86: 0.621
network: 0.609
mistranslation: 0.578
debug: 0.578
VMM: 0.567
vnc: 0.553
arm: 0.542
i386: 0.533
KVM: 0.512
TCG: 0.491
risc-v: 0.472
assembly: 0.450
--------------------
virtual: 0.982
ppc: 0.974
user-level: 0.879
debug: 0.111
boot: 0.095
network: 0.057
files: 0.047
kernel: 0.027
hypervisor: 0.023
socket: 0.015
register: 0.012
PID: 0.010
performance: 0.006
device: 0.005
semantic: 0.004
vnc: 0.004
graphic: 0.003
peripherals: 0.003
VMM: 0.003
architecture: 0.003
TCG: 0.002
assembly: 0.001
permissions: 0.001
risc-v: 0.001
x86: 0.001
KVM: 0.001
mistranslation: 0.000
arm: 0.000
i386: 0.000

Qemu ppc does not boot Debian 3.1r8

I tried booting the official image debian-31r8-powerpc-binary-1.iso with the following commandline:
qemu-system-ppc -boot d -cdrom ../debian-31r8-powerpc-binary-1.iso -hda hd.img. The booting process stops with CPU at 100%. I can choose to boot "install-2.4" or "install" which both hangs with the last output being "Loading ramdisk". I have also tried using the git-tree which crashes qemu with the message "qemu/memory.c:1183: memory_region_add_subregion_common: Assertion `!subregion->parent' failed." before even showing anything.

Additionally, qemu 0.14.1 shows the same behaviour but qemu 0.13 and 0.12.5 can boot beyond the "Loading ramdisk" message but stops immediatly afterwards with a messed up console window (letters are pushed into another, which makes them barely readable) when using "install". Also "install-2.4" boots with 0.13 and 0.12.5 beyond the "Loading ramdisk" message but stops with the last message being now "returning 0x01400000 from prom_init".

Hi,

this might be related to this upstream bug report: http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/qemu-devel/2011-10/msg02929.html.

Since it seems to be an issue with the mapping of the video memory, I have tried changing the graphics adapter. After changing it from "vga" to "cirrus", the virtual machine in my case would boot again.

Adrian

I just accidentially came across this bug report ... I did not find debian-31r8-powerpc-binary-1.iso anymore in the internet, but debian-31r8-powerpc-netinst.iso is still available, so I gave it a try: There is no output of grub in the VGA window with this ISO, but if I simply press return when the screen turns black, the kernel seems to boot and work fine with the latest version of QEMU (2.6.0). So I think this problem has likely been fixed and we can close this bug now.

Just to add here: from my local tests with other older images, the text is there on the black screen but just extremely faint. My guess is that it's an endian-related bug in OpenBIOS programming the VGA registers but haven't had much time to dig into it.


FWIW the text becomes visible again if you switch QEMU to 8-bit mode rather than 32-bit mode, e.g. adding -g 800x600x8 to the command line.