qemu Starting a 2004 FreeBSD in a VM - can't load kernel

cracauer@ · 2026-03-24T22:26:03+0000

bakul said:
Coy boot1, boot2 from a 2004 disk image or iso.

They are the old versions.

But the bootstrap code in the MBR is not. Unfortunately I can't just copy it and I forgot the magic to cross-install it. So full install it is.

cracauer@ · 2026-03-24T22:27:38+0000

MG said:
It doesn't load manually either, like load /kernel + boot but instead it goes to this "bad path" situation? Really weird, like the kernel doesn't understand the initial / tree...

The kernel doesn't get loaded in the first place.

But the boot code might be unable to read the filesystem.

bakul · 2026-03-24T22:29:53+0000

You can do ls, lsdevs etc. from the loader prompt to see if the loader can grok the filesystem.

Jose · 2026-03-24T22:31:13+0000

Interesting project. I'm assuming version 5.3. Do lsdev or show currdev report anything curious?

(Love "Syntax for devices is odd." in the man page.)

cracauer@ · 2026-03-24T22:35:44+0000

Hmmm, the 5.1 install CD wants the kernel to be in /boot/kernel/kernel, which my old tarfile does not have. I have /kernel. Maybe my install was even older?

QEMU hangs after the beastie logo when booting the install CD. Encountering a lot of resistance here...

_martin · 2026-03-24T22:44:56+0000

Fetched some random 5.1 ISO image and did:

Code:

qemu-img create -f qcow2 test.qcow2 10G
qemu-system-x86_64 -m 2048 -hda test.qcow2 -cdrom 5.1-RELEASE-amd64-miniinst.iso

and booted it straight to installer ( 10.1.0 on osx ).

Jose · 2026-03-24T22:56:26+0000

cracauer@ said:
Hmmm, the 5.1 install CD wants the kernel to be in /boot/kernel/kernel, which my old tarfile does not have. I have /kernel. Maybe my install was even older?

Yep. Hopefully 4.9?

The new kernel will be copied to the root directory as /kernel and the old kernel will be moved to /kernel.old.

Vs.

The new kernel will be copied to the /boot/kernel directory as /boot/kernel/kernel and the old kernel will be moved to /boot/kernel.old/kernel.

cracauer@ · 2026-03-24T23:03:26+0000

Jose said:
Yep. Hopefully 4.9?

Vs.

Thanks for that. I always hated FreeBSD-5. Looks like this machine never made the switch to 5.

And three cheers to the FreeBSD docs team!

cracauer@ · 2026-03-24T23:08:07+0000

_martin said:
Fetched some random 5.1 ISO image and did:

Code:

qemu-img create -f qcow2 test.qcow2 10G qemu-system-x86_64 -m 2048 -hda test.qcow2 -cdrom 5.1-RELEASE-amd64-miniinst.iso

and booted it straight to installer ( 10.1.0 on osx ).

Oh.

I was using -nographics. With graphics on it loads the kernel. My apologies.

However, it bombs out as follow. Also on a Mac's qemu.

Code:

qemu-system-x86_64 \
  -cdrom 5.1-RELEASE-amd64-miniinst.iso

qemu-system-x86_64 -m 2048 \
  -cdrom 5.1-RELEASE-amd64-miniinst.iso

_martin · 2026-03-24T23:16:18+0000

Had the same issue, seems to be related to not having a disk. Hence my example above with -hda.

cracauer@ · 2026-03-24T23:21:51+0000

_martin said:
Had the same issue, seems to be related to not having a disk. Hence my example above with -hda.

Ah.

Confirmed. Adding hda make it enter the installer. Thanks for that.

cracauer@ · 2026-03-24T23:41:22+0000

sysinstall failed to install the base system, saying the /dev/ entry for the root filesystem does not exist.

However, it partitioned the drive and installed the bootloader. I'm unpacking my tarfile now after newfsing in a md mapped file.

cracauer@ · 2026-03-24T23:49:09+0000

Grrr, same result. kernel isn't loaded. `ls` output is a bit different.

Code:

Hit [Enter] to boot immediately, or any other key for command p 
Booting [kernel]...                
can't load 'kernel' 
can't load 'kernel.old' 
 
Type '?' for a list of commands, 'help' for more detailed help. 
ok ls ? 
open '?' failed: no such file or directory 
ok ls 
open '/' failed: no such file or directory 
ok boot /boot/kernel/kernel 
can't find '/boot/kernel/kernel' 
ok boot /kernel 
can't find '/kernel'

Re-trying with a FreeBSD-4.9 ISO now.

Alain De Vos · 2026-03-24T23:50:31+0000

dont eat an elefant, too big. Try to find out where it goes wrong. First loader , then boot0 , boot1 , boot2 , mount of / & starting init.
seems loader cant find /boot/kernel. So its the beginning. I'm not a specialist here , can you choose MBR,UEFI. Do you have a screen with ? , there normally it can list partitions , the you put something like "boot thispartition".

cracauer@ · 2026-03-24T23:57:25+0000

4.9 ISO creates the root filesystem successfully.

_martin · 2026-03-25T00:03:26+0000

cracauer@ said:
sysinstall failed to install the base system, saying the /dev/ entry for the root filesystem does not exist.

I went through the basic install (triggered my mbr/bsdlabel ptsd) and got it running just fine.

Code:

# uname -a
FreeBSD  5.1-RELEASE FreeBSD 5.1-RELEASE #0: Sat Jun  7 09:22:34 GMT 2003     root@hammer.corp.yahoo.com:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC  amd64
#

Ran it with qemu-system-x86_64 -hda test.qcow2 -serial stdio.

_martin · 2026-03-25T00:09:42+0000

cracauer@ said:
Grrr, same result. kernel isn't loaded. `ls` output is a bit different.

Well, here you at least get the proper output and not the error. Your original issue from newish loader was an error.
As we don't know what you're unpacking with that tar image it's hard to say.

cracauer@ · 2026-03-25T02:19:37+0000

It works. Thank you everybody, especially Martin.

The final obstacle was a QEMU issue that has been nagging me forever. The window it opens when you don't use -nographics doesn't work for remote displays (probably using SDL for something). But in this case the kernel load doesn't continue displaying with -nographics, which took me a while to figure out. So I have to copy the whole thing to the machine I am sitting in front of.

kent_dorfman766 · 2026-03-25T02:24:19+0000

yeah, QEMU console management can be...interesting...

_martin · 2026-03-25T08:29:53+0000

cracauer@ said:
But in this case the kernel load doesn't continue displaying with -nographics, which took me a while to figure out.

As -nographic sets the console to stdio you need to have serial console enabled to see it. On FreeBSD that means console=comconsole in /boot/loader.conf. Not sure if multicons was supported in those early versions.

If you have qemu compiled with curses I find the option -display curses very handy.