From: Ted Bullock <tbullock@comlore.com>
Subject: Re: Booting 8.0 on qemu-system-sparc64 fails Unimplemented service set-symbol-lookup
To: David Stanaway <david@stanaway.net>
Cc: sparc@openbsd.org, tech@openbsd.org
Date: Tue, 03 Nov 2026 23:19:04 -0600

Hi David and tech@

Ok, so the OpenBSD kernel and bootloader have a defect according to the
open firmware specification that stops openbsd from booting with sparc on
qemu with its bundled firmware. We’re requesting zero return values and leaving
no space for the catch result and ending up clobbered with overwritten memory.

The openboot firmware is more graceful for our request than openbios
which is why we don't see this on physical sun machines.

Anyway, this shows up a few times for the call-method firmware operation,
it's supposed to be able to return the extra value and we are getting
hit by that.

The following patch fixes the kernel and the bootloader so they follow
the Open Firmware Client Interface Developer’s Guide.

Page 26 has the rule:
The arguments N_args and N_returns specify the number of calling arguments
and return values; they must agree with the number of arguments and
return values expected by the particular service.

and Page 30 describes "call-method"
OUT: catch-result, stack-result1, ... , stack-resultQ

Pops the result returned by catch into catch-result.

If that result is zero, pops up to N_returns-1 items from the Forth data
stack into the returned values portion of the argument array, with
stack_result1 corresponding to the top of the stack.

Anyway, my Sun Blade boots without this patch. With the patch, QEMU boots
with its shipped BIOS.

--- a/sys/arch/sparc64/sparc64/ofw_machdep.c
+++ b/sys/arch/sparc64/sparc64/ofw_machdep.c
@@ -260,6 +260,7 @@
 		cell_t ihandle;
 		cell_t len;
 		cell_t vaddr;
+		cell_t status;
 	} args;
 
 	if (mmuh == -1 && ((mmuh = get_mmu_handle()) == -1)) {
@@ -268,7 +269,7 @@
 	}
 	args.name = ADR2CELL("call-method");
 	args.nargs = 4;
-	args.nreturns = 0;
+	args.nreturns = 1;
 	args.method = ADR2CELL("release");
 	args.ihandle = HDL2CELL(mmuh);
 	args.vaddr = ADR2CELL(vaddr);
@@ -293,6 +294,7 @@
 		cell_t ihandle;
 		cell_t len;
 		cell_t vaddr;
+		cell_t status;
 	} args;
 
 	if (mmuh == -1 && ((mmuh = get_mmu_handle()) == -1)) {
@@ -301,7 +303,7 @@
 	}
 	args.name = ADR2CELL("call-method");
 	args.nargs = 4;
-	args.nreturns = 0;
+	args.nreturns = 1;
 	args.method = ADR2CELL("unmap");
 	args.ihandle = HDL2CELL(mmuh);
 	args.vaddr = ADR2CELL(vaddr);
@@ -328,6 +330,7 @@
 		cell_t vaddr;
 		cell_t phys_hi;
 		cell_t phys_lo;
+		cell_t status;
 	} args;
 
 	if (mmuh == -1 && ((mmuh = get_mmu_handle()) == -1)) {
@@ -336,7 +339,7 @@
 	}
 	args.name = ADR2CELL("call-method");
 	args.nargs = 7;
-	args.nreturns = 0;
+	args.nreturns = 1;
 	args.method = ADR2CELL("map");
 	args.ihandle = HDL2CELL(mmuh);
 	args.mode = mode;
@@ -443,6 +446,7 @@
 		cell_t len;
 		cell_t phys_hi;
 		cell_t phys_lo;
+		cell_t status;
 	} args;
 
 	if (memh == -1 && ((memh = get_memory_handle()) == -1)) {
@@ -451,7 +455,7 @@
 	}
 	args.name = ADR2CELL("call-method");
 	args.nargs = 5;
-	args.nreturns = 0;
+	args.nreturns = 1;
 	args.method = ADR2CELL("release");
 	args.ihandle = HDL2CELL(memh);
 	args.len = len;

--- a/sys/arch/sparc64/stand/ofwboot/Locore.c
+++ b/sys/arch/sparc64/stand/ofwboot/Locore.c
@@ -420,11 +420,12 @@
 		cell_t ihandle;
 		cell_t len;
 		cell_t vaddr;
+		cell_t status;
 	} args;
 
 	args.name = ADR2CELL("call-method");
 	args.nargs = 4;
-	args.nreturns = 0;
+	args.nreturns = 1;
 	args.method = ADR2CELL("release");
 	args.ihandle = HDL2CELL(mmuh);
 	args.vaddr = ADR2CELL(vaddr);
@@ -452,11 +453,12 @@
 		cell_t vaddr;
 		cell_t paddr_hi;
 		cell_t paddr_lo;
+		cell_t status;
 	} args;
 
 	args.name = ADR2CELL("call-method");
 	args.nargs = 7;
-	args.nreturns = 0;
+	args.nreturns = 1;
 	args.method = ADR2CELL("map");
 	args.ihandle = HDL2CELL(mmuh);
 	args.mode = mode;
@@ -519,11 +521,12 @@
 		cell_t len;
 		cell_t phys_hi;
 		cell_t phys_lo;
+		cell_t status;
 	} args;
 
 	args.name = ADR2CELL("call-method");
 	args.nargs = 5;
-	args.nreturns = 0;
+	args.nreturns = 1;
 	args.method = ADR2CELL("release");
 	args.ihandle = HDL2CELL(memh);
 	args.len = len;