Over the weekend, I made installation attempts with *.img and *.iso
files for OpenBSD 8.0 on SPARC64 via various QEMU versions (up to the
newest, 11.1.3).

Installation went smoothly and as expected, using a script with this
command:

        qemu-system-sparc64                                         \
            -nographic                                              \
            -m 1.5G                                                 \
            -machine sun4u                                          \
            -smp 1                                                  \
            -drive file=install80.img,format=raw,index=0,media=disk \
            -drive file=openbsd80-sparc64-v3.qcow2,format=qcow2,index=1,media=disk

The *.qcow2 file size was 80GB and 140GB in my experiments, and I also
tried *.img files (format=raw).

When installation completed normally and successfully, I ran a similar
command to run the new VM:

        qemu-system-sparc64                                         \
            -nographic                                              \
            -m 1.5G                                                 \
            -machine sun4u                                          \
            -smp 1                                                  \
            -drive file=openbsd80-sparc64-v3.qcow2,format=qcow2,index=0,media=disk

The VM started to boot normally, then got an unhandled exception
error.

I added a single line to that command to allow manual control over the
boot

            -prom-env "auto-boot?=false"                            \

and recorded this output:

        OpenBIOS for Sparc64
        Configuration device id QEMU version 1 machine id 0
        kernel cmdline 
        CPUs: 1 x SUNW,UltraSPARC-IIi
        UUID: 00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
        Welcome to OpenBIOS v1.1 built on Jun 29 2026 21:09
          Type 'help' for detailed information

        0 > boot hd:0,ofwboot /bsd	                <== manual type-in
        Not a Linux kernel image		
        Not a bootable ELF image
        Not a bootable a.out image

        Loading FCode image...
        Loaded 6888 bytes
        entry point is 0x4000
        Evaluating FCode...
        OpenBSD IEEE 1275 Bootblock 2.1
        ..>> OpenBSD BOOT 1.30
        Booting /pci@1fe,0/pci@1,1/ide@3/ide@0/disk@0:0,ofwboot/bsd
        10626296@0x1000000+6920@0x1a224f8+148724@0x1c00000+4045580@0x1c244f4 
        symbols @ 0xfedc04c0 504844+214+665016+479475 start=0x1000000
        [ using 1650776 bytes of bsd ELF symbol table ]
        Unimplemented service set-symbol-lookup ([2] -- [0])
        Unhandled Exception 0x0000000000000030
        PC = 0x00000000017f24a0 NPC = 0x00000000017f24a4
        Stopping execution

The behavior is reproducible with multiple QEMU versions, and on two
independent physical machines at home and on campus.

If I change "/bsd" to "/bsd.rd" in the single manual type-in line, the
boot succeeds, but puts me in the installer to recover from a failure.

Have any list members had success in installing OpenBSD on CPUs other
than amd64 in virtual machines, and might offer some insight and
advice?

----------------------------------------

Background: I have hundreds of VMs running under different
virtualization systems, the majority now on QEMU, because in our test
lab, we want to have operating systems running on different CPU
architectures for software testing purposes.

Yesterday, I was able to install, boot, and run a 2004-vintage Solaris
10 under QEMU with "-cpu niagara", so SPARC64 emulation in QEMU
appears to work, although there is still the CPU model difference:
niagara vs sun4u.

I also tried "-cpu sun4v", but that does not lead to a successful boot
of the installer.

While in the past we had scores of SPARC64 systems in my campus
department, all but one has long since been retired, and that provides
a critical service, making it unavailable for OpenBSD 8.0 installation
testing.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Nelson H. F. Beebe                    Tel: +1 801 581 5254                  -
- University of Utah                                                          -
- Department of Mathematics, 110 LCB    Internet e-mail: beebe@math.utah.edu  -
- 155 S 1400 E RM 233                       beebe@acm.org  beebe@computer.org -
- Salt Lake City, UT 84112-0090, USA    URL: https://www.math.utah.edu/~beebe -
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------