Bochs - The cross platform IA-32 (x86) emulator
Updated: Sun Mar 10 08:00:00 CET 2024
Version: 2.8
WHAT IS BOCHS?
Bochs is a highly portable open source IA-32 (x86) PC emulator
written in C++, that runs on most popular platforms. It includes
emulation of the Intel x86 CPU, common I/O devices, and a custom
BIOS. Bochs can be compiled to emulate many different x86 CPUs,
from early 386 to the most recent (sometimes even pre-market) x86-64
Intel and AMD processors. Bochs is capable of running most Operating
Systems inside the emulation, for example DOS, Linux or Windows. Bochs
was written by Kevin Lawton and is currently maintained by the Bochs
project at "https://bochs.sourceforge.io".
Bochs can be compiled and used in a variety of modes, some which are
still in development. The 'typical' use of bochs is to provide
complete x86 PC emulation, including the x86 processor, hardware
devices, and memory. This allows you to run OS's and software within
the emulator on your workstation, much like you have a machine
inside of a machine. Bochs will allow you to run Windows
applications on a Solaris machine with X11, for example.
Bochs is distributed under the GNU LGPL. See LICENSE and COPYING for details.
GETTING CURRENT SOURCE CODE
Source code for Bochs is available from the Bochs home page at
https://bochs.sourceforge.io. You can download the most recent
release, use GIT on GitHub to get the latest sources, or grab a snapshot
from there. The releases contain the most stable code, but if you want
the very newest features try the GitHub sources instead.
WHERE ARE THE DOCS?
The Bochs documentation is written in Docbook. Docbook is a text
format that can be rendered to many popular browser formats such
as HTML, PDF, and Postscript. Each binary release contains the
HTML rendering of the documentation. Also, you can view the
latest documentation on the web at
https://bochs.sourceforge.io/doc/docbook/index.html
WHERE CAN I GET MORE INFORMATION? HOW DO I REPORT PROBLEMS?
Both the documentation and the Bochs website have instructions on how
to join the bochs-developers mailing list, which is the primary
forum for discussion of Bochs. The main page of the website also
has links to bug reports and feature requests. You can browse and
add to the content in these areas even if you do not have a (free)
SourceForge account. We need your feedback so that we know what
parts of Bochs to improve.
There is a patches section on the web site too, if you have made
some changes to Bochs that you want to share.
HOW CAN I HELP?
If you would like contribute to the Bochs project, a good first step
is to join the bochs-developers mailing list, and read the archive
of recent messages to see what's going on.
If you are a technical person (can follow hardware specs, can write
C/C++) take a look at the list of open bug reports and feature
requests to see if you are interested in working on any of the
problems that are mentioned in them. If you check out the GitHub
sources, make some changes, and create a patch, one of the
developers will be very happy to apply it for you. Developers who
frequently submit patches, or who embark on major changes in the
source can get write access to GitHub. Be sure to communicate with the
bochs-developers list to avoid several people working on the same
thing without realizing it.
If you are a Bochs user, not a hardware/C++ guru, there are still
many ways you could help out. For example:
- write instructions on how to install a particular operating system
- writing/cleaning up documentation
- testing out Bochs on every imaginable operating system and
reporting how it goes.
CHANGES
Brief summary of changes in 2.7:
- Bugfixes for CPU emulation correctness (CPUID/VMX/SVM fixes to support
Windows Hyper-V as guest in Bochs)
- Improvements for the plugin handling to simplify Bochs extensions
- Added "multiple NICs" support to the NE2000 and E1000 devices
- Added experimental FTP service for networking modules 'vnet' and 'socket'
- Fixes and improvements for all supported Voodoo graphics adapters
- Added USB keyboard emulation with most of the keys supported
- GUI "cmdmode": create a headerbar event with key combo starting with F7
- LGPL'd VGABIOS updated to version 0.8a (new VGABIOS for Voodoo Banshee)
See CHANGES file for more information!
