While we’re out here raising funds to make me daily-drive HP-UX 11i v1 – we’re at 59% of the goal, so I’m starting to prepare for the pain – it seems you can actually run older versions, HP-UX 10.20 and 11.00 to be specific, in a virtual machine using QEMU.
QEMU is an open source computer emulation and virtualization software, first released in 2003 by Fabrice Bellard. It supports many different computer systems and includes support for many RISC architectures besides x86. PA-RISC emulation has been included in QEMU since 2018.
QEMU emulates a complete computer in software without the need for specific virtualization hardware. With QEMU, a full HP Visualize B160L and C3700 workstation can be emulated to run PA-RISC operating systems like HP-UX Unix and compatible applications.
↫ Paul Weissman at OpenPA
The emulation is complete enough that it can run X11 and CDE, and you can choose between emulating 32bit PA-RISC of 64bit PA-RISC. Devices and peripherals support is a bit of a mixed bag, with things like USB being only partially supported, and audio not working at all since an audio chip commonly found in PA-RISC workstations isn’t supported either. A number of SCSCI and networking devices found on HP’s workstations aren’t supported either, and a few chipsets don’t work either.
As far as operating system support goes, you can run HP-UX 10.20, HP-UX 11.00, Linux, and NetBSD. Newer (11i v1 and later) and older (9.07 and 9.05) versions of HP-UX don’t work, and neither does NeXTSTEP 3.3. Some of these issues probably stem from missing QEMU drivers, others from a lack of testing; PA-RISC is, after all, not one of the most popular of the dead UNIX architectures, with things like SPARC and MIPS usually taking most of the spotlight.
Absolutely nothing beats running operating systems on the bare metal they’re designed for, but with PA-RISC hardware becoming ever harder to obtain, it makes sense for emulation efforts to pick up speed so more people can explore HP-UX. I’m weirdly into HP-UX, despite its reputation as a difficult platform to work with, so I personally really want actual hardware, but for most of you, getting HP-UX 11i to work properly on QEMU is most likely the only way you will ever experience this commercial UNIX.
I used to use HPUX PA-RISC systems at work in the early 2000’s. Some things to note:
They have USB ports and use them for keyboards and mice, they are not hotpluggable. If you disconnect the keyboard or mouse from the machine, you will have to reboot it to restore functionality to the mouse and keyboard.
Processes that end (this may be specific to the config used at my site) don’t get removed, they remain for programs like ps as zombie processes.
If there is a GUI host table editor, it may have a bug that will occasionally save a blank version of the /etc/hosts file. HPUX cannot start up without a host entry for itself.
Our machines in particular actually had tape drives in them, and they were restored from tape drives.
MS-DOS compatible FAT filesystems may be interacted with (including floppy disks), but these are not with kernel level mounting, these are with one-shot userspace utilities that interact with the raw block devices in /dev.
Have fun, it’s a pretty obscure platform, but CDE has it’s charms!
I was a HPUX administrator back in the early 2000s. The program used to restore a server (or workstation) with a tape drive is called ignite.
Only some of the later PA-RISC systems even have USB at all, Old systems like the B160L that Qemu is trying to emulate never had USB support. Generally the older systems are easier to emulate, and AFAIK the B160L should still run the latest version of HPUX that supported HPPA.
Let know later if you want a hand getting your C8000 up and running once you get it. =)
It is true – once you remove the USB keyboard/mouse, you are dead until you reboot. And rebooting takes FOREVER.
However – if you hook up a serial console, you can see exactly what it is doing during boot (it is a very pedagogical experience) and the moment when it tries to detect the USB keyboard and mouse, so you are ok to until that point. The same applies to scanning the CD drive for a valid boot partition. =)
CDE is indeed very charming. My own grudge with old CDE and nextstep is how much clicking it takes to get anything done. CDE’s strongest point is making very clear all the time what are the keyboard shortcuts and what is a clicable target. It is quite intuitive and gets out of the way if you want to focus on work and forget about everything else.
And, on HP UNIX land, I really like Softbench. =)