Bochs/bochs/build/win32/DOC-win32.htm
Bryce Denney 9bda2b4491 - just remove the $Id$ tag from the bximage output, because it will always
be changing, unless I figure out how to put -kb on it.
2001-06-04 03:44:45 +00:00

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<TITLE>bochs: The Open Source IA-32 Emulation Project (Windows Documentation)</TITLE>
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<META NAME="description" CONTENT="Bochs IA-32 Emulator provides a virtual PC that can run operating systems such as Windows, Linux, and BSD.">
<META NAME="copyright" CONTENT="Copyright 2001 The Bochs Project.">
<META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="pc emulation, vmware, win4lin, netraverse, trelos, x86 emulation, emulator,insignia, softpc, connectix, virtualpc, fx!32, freemware, dynamic translation,open source, gnu, linux, windows, bsd">
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<font face="arial, helvetica" color="#1e029a" size="5">
<b>The Bochs IA-32 Emulator Project</b> <BR>
<b>Win32 Documentation</b>
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<BR>
<BR>
This file is an introduction to Bochs, written for Windows users. It assumes
that you have just downloaded a Bochs binary distribution, and now you want to
see it work!
<BR><BR>
<font face="arial, helvetica" color="#1e029a" size="4">
<b>Contents</b>
</font>
<BR>
<ul>
<li><a href="#recent">Where is the most recent version?</a>
<li><a href="#files">What files were installed?</a>
<li>Where's the <a href="docs-html/faq.html">FAQ</a>?
<li>Where is the rest of the documentation? (<a href="docs-html/index.html">local copy</a> - <a href="http://bochs.sourceforge.net/docs-html">online</a>)
<li><a href="#quickstart">How can I try out Bochs in 10 minutes or less?</a>
<li><a href="#tools">What tools are included in this package?</a>
<li><a href="#learnmore">How do I learn more?</a>
<li>Do you guys have a website? <a href="http://bochs.sourceforge.net">Take me there!</a>
</ul>
<a name="recent">
<font face="arial, helvetica" color="#1e029a" size="4">
<b>Where is the most recent version?</b>
</font>
<BR>
All versions of Bochs can be downloaded from the Bochs website at
<a href="http://bochs.sourceforge.net"> http://bochs.sourceforge.net </a>.
In the top-left corner of the web page, there is a link to the latest
release. On the web site, in addition to downloading Bochs, you can join
the bochs-developers or bochs-announce mailing lists, submit bug reports,
view the source code, and much more.
<BR>
<a name="files">
<BR>
<font face="arial, helvetica" color="#1e029a" size="4">
<b>What files were installed?</b>
</font>
<BR>
When you install a Bochs binary release for win32, you get the Bochs
executables and tools, ROM image files, documentation, and a sample disk image
that allows Bochs to boot Linux. Once you unzip the Bochs ZIP file, here is a
list of the files that are installed, and a brief description of each one. The
files which can be viewed in text form are shown as links.
<br>
<table align=center border=1>
<th>File name </th> <th> Description </th>
<tr><td><a href="README.txt ">README.txt </a></td> <td> the ReadMe file from the source distribution. </td> </tr>
<tr><td><a href="COPYING.txt ">COPYING.txt </a></td> <td> copy of the LGPL license </td> </tr>
<tr><td><a href="DOC-win32.htm ">DOC-win32.htm </a></td> <td> this file </td> </tr>
<tr><td><a href="docs-html/index.html ">docs-html/* </a></td> <td> a local copy of all Bochs documentation ( <a href="http://bochs.sourceforge.net/docs-html">Online copy</a> )</td> </tr>
<tr><td><a href="CHANGES.txt ">CHANGES.txt </a></td> <td> what is changed between versions </td> </tr>
<tr><td>BIOS-bochs-latest </td> <td> ROM BIOS image for Bochs </td> </tr>
<tr><td>VGABIOS-elpin-2.40 </td> <td> VGA BIOS image for Bochs </td> </tr>
<tr><td><a href="VGABIOS-elpin-LICENSE.txt ">VGABIOS-elpin-LICENSE.txt </a></td> <td> license for VGA BIOS </td> </tr>
<tr><td>bochs.exe </td> <td> the main Bochs executable </td> </tr>
<tr><td>bximage.exe </td> <td> tool for making new disk images </td> </tr>
<tr><td>sb16ctrl.exe </td> <td> tool to control sb16 in Bochs </td> </tr>
<tr><td><a href="sb16ctrl.txt ">sb16ctrl.txt </a></td> <td> examples of sb16ctrl commands </td> </tr>
<tr><td>dlxlinux/ </td> <td> directory containing DLX linux sample disk image </td> </tr>
<tr><td><a href="dlxlinux/README.txt ">dlxlinux/README.txt </a></td> <td> description of DLX linux</td> </tr>
<tr><td><a href="dlxlinux/bochsrc.txt ">dlxlinux/bochsrc.txt </a></td> <td> Bochs configuration file for DLX</td> </tr>
<tr><td>dlxlinux/hd10meg.img </td> <td> disk image file (10 meg) </td> </tr>
<tr><td>dlxlinux/start.bat </td> <td> Run this BAT file to try out DLX Linux inside Bochs! </td> </tr>
<tr><td><a href="dlxlinux/testform.txt ">dlxlinux/testform.txt </a></td> <td> Form for reporting success or failure </td> </tr>
</table>
<a name="quickstart">
<BR>
<font face="arial, helvetica" color="#1e029a" size="4">
<b>How can I try out Bochs in 10 minutes or less?</b>
</font>
<BR>
This package includes a sample disk image containing DLX Linux, which you can
boot within Bochs. Use the Windows Explorer to find
c:\bochs\dlxlinux\start.bat, and double-click start.bat. This will launch two
windows: one is the Bochs Display window, and the other is text window that
shows Bochs log messages. Normally the display window is the most
interesting, but if something goes wrong the log messages should give
an idea of what has happened. You may notice that your mouse pointer has
disappeared into the Bochs Display window. Press F12 to get the cursor
back.
<br><br>
Meanwhile, the Bochs display screen looks like a PC booting, and in fact it is!
Bochs begins simulating a PC from the time the power turns on. You will see
the VGA BIOS message, and it begins loading Linux from the disk image. (The
disk image is just a big file that Bochs uses as if it were a real hard drive.)
After a while, you see Linux boot messages and eventually a login prompt. You
are now running Linux in a window!
<br><br>
Bochs simulates every instruction of an x86 CPU, so it is very memory- and
compute-intensive. The speed of your real CPU will make a big difference in
how fast the DLX Linux image boots. On a 750MHz Pentium, the sample Linux
image takes about 25 seconds to boot.
<br><br>
Booting is complete when you see "dlx login:" and a cursor. At this login
prompt, type "root". On UNIX systems, root is the system admin user.
There is no password for root on this image, so it lets you log in
immediately. Now you should see a UNIX prompt, and you can begin to
type UNIX commands.
<BR><br>
<center>
<table border=1>
<td>
<PRE>
Welcome to DLX V1.0 (C) 1995-96 Erich Boehm
(C) 1995 Hannes Boehm
dlx login: <b>root</b>
Linux 1.3.89.
dlx:~# <b>pwd</b>
/root
dlx:~# <b>cd /</b>
dlx:~# <b>ls</b>
bin/ etc/ lost+found/ root/ usr/
boot/ fd/ mnt/ sbin/ var/
dev/ lib/ proc/ tmp/ zip/
dlx:/# <b>df</b>
Filesystem 1024-blocks Used Available Capacity Mounted on
/dev/hda1 10060 2736 6005 29% /
dlx:/# _
</PRE>
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<br>
One thing you may notice is that the screen saver turns on (screen goes
blank) very quickly when you have stopped typing. The reason is that Bochs
always simulates as fast as it can. If the CPU is very busy (running
instructions nonstop), simulated time goes by slowly. If the CPU is idle (just
waiting for you to type, for example), simulated time speeds up dramatically.
In any case, If the screen saver blanks out the screen, just press a key (try
shift or control) to restore the screen.
<br>
<br>
When you get tired of playing with UNIX, just type "reboot" to shut
down the Linux operating system. You can also press the "Power" button to stop the simulation.
<br>
<br>
In this brief introduction you saw how Bochs can boot and run an x86 operating
system in a window. It doesn't have to be Linux, of course! Various people
have been able to install and run DOS, Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Windows 98,
Windows NT, Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, and probably others that we've
never even heard of. In fact Bochs is used by many operating system developers
to test out their software in a controlled environment without having to
reboot their development machine.
<br><br>
<a name="tools">
<BR>
<font face="arial, helvetica" color="#1e029a" size="4">
<b>What tools are included in this package?</b>
</font>
<BR>
There are two tools for win32: bximage and sb16ctrl.
<br><br>
<font face="arial, helvetica" color="#1e029a" size="3">
<b>bximage</b>
</font>
<BR>
Bximage is a small program that helps to create empty floppy disk
and hard disk images. To use it, you should run bximage in an MSDOS window.
(You could also double-click on it, but then you won't be able to read the last
few lines of output before the window disappears.) Just CD to the directory
where you want the disk images to go, and run bximage. Bximage will ask you
some questions about what type of disk image you need, and then create one for
you.
<br><br>
Here is an example run of bximage, in which I made a 12-meg hard disk image called c.img. The default answer to a question is always printed in brackets.
If you want to accept the default choice, you can just press return. Also,
you can always quit bximage by pressing Control-C.
<br><br>
<table align=center border=1>
<td>
<pre>
c:\bochs> <b>bximage</b>
========================================================================
bximage
Disk Image Creation Tool for Bochs
========================================================================
Do you want to create a floppy disk image or a hard disk image?
Please type hd or fd. [hd]
Enter the hard disk size in megabytes, between 1 and 32255
[10] <b>12</b>
I will create a hard disk image with
cyl=24
heads=16
sectors per track=63
total sectors=24192
total size=11.81 megabytes
What should I name the image?
[c.img]
Writing: [............] Done.
I wrote 12386304 bytes to c.img.
The following line should appear in your bochsrc:
diskc: file="c.img", cyl=24, heads=16, spt=63
</pre>
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<br><br>
In order for Bochs to know to use the hard disk image, you should type
the diskc line into your bochsrc.txt. You can also change it to diskd
if you already have a diskc line, but be careful not to have both
diskd and cdromd--these options cannot be used together.
<br><br>
<font face="arial, helvetica" color="#1e029a" size="3">
<b>sb16ctrl</b>
</font>
<BR>
The other tool for windows is called sb16ctrl, and it is used to configure
the Bochs emulated sound blaster. (If you know any more about it please
post a description to bochs-developers.)
<br><br>
<a name="learnmore">
<BR>
<font face="arial, helvetica" color="#1e029a" size="4">
<b>Where can I learn more?</b>
</font>
<BR>
Here are some sources of more information about Bochs:
<ul>
<li> The rest of the documentation (<a href="docs-html/index.html"> local copy</a> - <a href="http://bochs.sourceforge.net/docs-html">online</a>)
<li> The bochs-developers mailing list ( <a href="http://bochs.sourceforge.net/mailinglists.html"> online </a>)
<li> The Bochs website at <a href="http://bochs.sourceforge.net">http://bochs.sourceforge.net</a> has a collection of disk images of different operating systems. Some disk images are the size of a floppy disk (1 meg compressed) and others are gigantic (160 meg compressed). ( <a href="http://bochs.sourceforge.net/diskimages.html">Go there</a> )
</ul>
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