From: "Nelson H. F. Beebe" Subject: OpenBSD 8.0 on SPARC64 via QEMU To: tech@openbsd.org Cc: beebe@math.utah.edu Date: Mon, 2 Nov 2026 06:55:54 -0700 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 - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------