How To : Emulate NeXTStep in Previous or Other Emulator

[Mominul]

Hello! I want to emulate NeXTStep in Previous.If any one know please help me.I have downloaded NeXTStep 0.9.It is in dump format.If any know how to convert the format that Previous supports please let me know.Please Help Me! I need Help!

[24bit]

OpenStep is not an option, I presume?
http://macintoshgarden.org/apps/openstep

[Mominul]

Sorry I can't guess what you meaning for? Do you know how to emulate NeXTStep or Openstep in Previous? Please help Me! I need Help!

[Ronald P. Regensburg]

I understand that Previous is a NeXT hardware emulator. So what you are probably asking is how to use that emulator.

[Mominul]

Yes you are Right!

[Cat_7]

Hi,

Previous works in the same way as Hatari. Hatari has documentation explaining how to run it. You can use that to learn how to run Previous.
If the NextStep version you download is a dump file, I assume it means it is a disk image of a hard disk running NextStep. You would then need to attach the dump file to Previous. I think you need to start Previous, and click SCSI disks. Then click Browse at SCSI disk 0 and select your dump file. Go back to the main menu and save the configuration.
To run NextStep you will also need the correct ROM file. If you have it, you can click ROM and browse to the rom file. Save the configuration again and then run Previous.

EDIT: the version of previous you can download from their site only allows booting into the rom. It will not boot into Nextstep. There is some newer code in the previous repository, so perhaps building your own version will allow booting Nextstep, but I don't know.

Best,
Cat_7

[Mominul]

Very very thank you for you information.I will now learn how to build previous.can you help in this?the dump file is a raw dump file of next step 0.9 optical disk,I have found this information from a text file that was included with the dump file.very sorry for my bad English .

[24bit]

I do not know your plans with NextStep, nor your hardware.
Compiling and running a emulator under construction may imply a steep learning curve.

If you want something simple, I would rather try NextStep 3.3 in VMWare.
The VMWare player is free for many host systems and a playable prebuilt disk image of 3.3 is available on the net.
VMWare player comes with help files. I think you just had to set the player to "import appliance from another machine" to get going.

NextStep 3 in VMWare is a 80X86 BSD based operating system, if your are aiming at a Motorola 680X0 OS it may be of little help.
The VM should look like this:


I gave up, as I could not manage to exchange files with my host.

[adespoton]

I just realized... it's been 20 years now since I was using that OS!
Once upon a time, I had marginal success in getting that VM running in VirtualBox, which allows for easier file exchange. It was buggier than it was in VMWare though.

[Mominul]

Good News!
Previous can boot NeXTStep 0.x to 4.0 beta and OpenStep 4.2 For Mach.
Here are some sreenshots-

imgupload


post images


screen shots


image upload no compression


upload img


screen cap

All of images not by me. I have copyed images form forum.

[adespoton]

Wow... that brings back memories I'll have to dig out my old software and see if I can get it working :D

Truth be told, other than the bugs screensaver, most of what I did on cubes was open a csh terminal, or play the tilemapped version of Rogue.

[Mominul]

To boot the operating systems you have to compile the new source.

Code: Select all

svn checkout svn://svn.code.sf.net/p/previous/code/branches/branch_mmu previous-branch

branch_mmu is recently updates.

[adespoton]

Branch_MMU -- is this another MMU implementation? I know that what Steve did at NeXT isn't the same as what was done with the MMU at Apple, but I find it interesting the number of MMU-savvy projects popping up lately.

[Mominul]

Hello adespoton,
Your thinking about Branch_MMU is not right( may be )! Branch_MMU is a branch of our developer Andreas. He maintain this branch. May be he created this brunch to develop the MMU.
I am trying to learn C and C++ if I can help them.

[adespoton]

I was wondering whether it was an MMU dev branch or just someone's initials. Sounds like that's still murky

[andreas_g]

It was an MMU development branch, but has become my general development branch.

All NeXT computers used either 68030 or 68040 CPUs. Both had an integrated MMU and both are fully emulated in Previous.
There is also near complete emulation of the 6888x FPU and 68040 integrated FPU.

Most parts of the CPU come from Toni Wilen's WinUAE. I wrote the core of the 68030's MMU.
I think the CPU from WinUAE, now also part of Previous, is the most complete m68k emulation that exists.

[adespoton]

Hmm... I wonder how difficult it would be to make a self-selecting 030/040 emulator that used UAE, Previous and a Mac equivalent, using the same hardware core set and swapping hardware as desired... kind of like MESS.

[emendelson]

I gave up, as I could not manage to exchange files with my host.

The way to exchange files with the host with NextStep or OpenStep running in VMware is to use an FTP program on the host to connect with the VMware guest. Set the network adapter of the VMware guest to be shared with the host system. Run NextStep or OpenStep and assign the guest an IP address in your VMware network, and run an FTP program on the host to access the guest.

Under OS X I haven't been able to run an FTP program on the guest to access the host, because OS X now blocks FTP, but it's easy to move things in and out of the guest via an FTP program running in OS X itself.

[adespoton]

http://www.nextcomputers.org/forums/vie ... d304eea37e

There are also sshd builds available for NextStep and OpenStep -- this should give you a safer option, as you can sftp in either direction, and use certs instead of l/p for login.

[edit] Hah! and from that thread...

emendelson
Joined: 06 Feb 2012
Posts: 9
Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2012 8:59 pm
Now that I've got ssh working, thanks to your help, could I continue with another question: