Re: [Qemu-ppc] PowerPC, enable-kvm, and the Power processor

[Programmingkid]

> On Jun 20, 2018, at 2:01 PM, Howard Spoelstra <address@hidden> wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I have qemu-system-ppc running with kvm support in Linux on a Mac Mini
> G4 1,5Ghz.
> I had to compile kvm support into a new kernel.
> 
> Best,
> Howard
> 
> On Wed, Jun 20, 2018 at 7:58 PM, Programmingkid
> <address@hidden> wrote:
>> 
>>> On Jun 20, 2018, at 1:53 PM, Thomas Huth <address@hidden> wrote:
>>> 
>>> On 20.06.2018 18:19, Programmingkid wrote:
>>>> Would anyone know if qemu-system-ppc could be run on an IBM Power 
>>>> processor in kvm mode? I am interested in finding any bugs with the 
>>>> emulated PowerPC processors in QEMU. My theory is if QEMU runs differently 
>>>> in KVM mode than pure emulation mode, we might have an emulation issue.
>>> 
>>> You mean the 32-bit only qemu-system-ppc? Or do you mean
>>> qemu-system-ppc64, too? It definitely runs on the latter, and I think it
>>> also used to work with the 32-bit only binary in former times (using
>>> kvm-pr) ... but it could be that the 32-bit version is not tested very
>>> well anymore, so no clue about the current shape...
>>> 
>>> Thomas
>> 
>> Thanks for the info. I was referring to testing a 32-bit version of the 
>> PowerPC processor like the PowerPC 750 (G3) with qemu-system-ppc.

Hi Howard. I just finished doing a test on my 2.0 Ghz iMac G5 with a Mac OS 
10.4 guest. KVM mode does work for me also but it is slow. I always thought 
that using QEMU in KVM mode would make it run the guest at near native speed. I 
saw nothing even close to that kind of speed. How is the speed of a Mac OS X 
guest in KVM mode for you? I know when I run a Windows guest in VirtualBox the 
speed feels about as fast as the host. I assumed running QEMU in KVM mode would 
be like using VirtualBox.

I'm still working on making sound work will in QEMU. I'm also still on the 
theory that fixing the floating point unit in QEMU would fix sound playback. My 
floating point test program did pass all 20+ tests in KVM mode. So I thought if 
I test audio playback in that mode, I could see what was wrong with QEMU. The 
problem is the guest runs so slowly that it is hardly usable. Also for some 
reason the usb-audio device doesn't even show up. This lead me to the theory of 
if I had more modern PowerPC/Power hardware, I could use QEMU in kvm mode and 
play back audio perfectly. The problem is the last PowerMac G5 was released 
about 13 years ago. So that would not be a good choice. The only thing I could 
think of would be trying QEMU on a modern IBM Power7/8/9 workstation. I'm 
hoping there is someone out there who has access to such a system who could 
test out a Mac OS X guest on it in QEMU.