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Linuxemu is a program that can execute Linux/i386 ELF binaries on Plan9. It was started by Russ Cox and development was continued by cinap_lenrek. Please contact cinap_lenrek AT gmx DOT de with bug reports or improvements. SOURCE [/n/sources/contrib/cinap_lenrek/linuxemu3.tgz | http://plan9.bell-labs.com/sources/contrib/cinap_lenrek/linuxemu3.tgz] [http://9hal.ath.cx/usr/cinap_lenrek/linuxemu3.tgz | http://9hal.ath.cx/usr/cinap_lenrek/linuxemu3.tgz] DOCUMENTATION Documentation is provided in the doc directory: ! doc/linuxemu.txt ! doc/todo.txt INSTALLATION ! tar xzf linuxemu3.tgz ! cd linuxemu3 ! mk ! mk install BOOTSTRAP You need a Linux rootfilesystem packed in a tarball. Go! Get some Linux rootfs: [http://9hal.ath.cx/usr/cinap_lenrek/mroot-linuxemu.tbz | http://9hal.ath.cx/usr/cinap_lenrek/mroot-linuxemu.tbz] [http://plan9.stanleylieber.com/linuxemu/mroot.tgz | http://plan9.stanleylieber.com/linuxemu/mroot.tgz] The -linuxemu version contains no symlinks and can be extracted with plain plan9 tools bunzip/tar. The mroot.tgz version contains the same Debian Sarge base as -linuxemu, but with several additional packages pre-installed: ! 9base ! dmenu-4.1.1 ! dwm-5.8.2 ! gcc 3.3.5 ! linux-kernel-headers ! mercurial 0.9.4 ! opera 10.11 ! python 2.3.5 ! xlib-dev and more. View its [setup | http://plan9.stanleylieber.com/linuxemu/setup] file for more details. You can create your own with debootstrap on Debian Linux, or help write an installer that unpacks and installs Slackware on Plan 9... In any case, linuxemu is not hardwired to any Linux distribution! RUNNING Use the provided "linux" script to chroot into your Linux rootfs. The "linux" script is neccesary because for Linux programs to run, shared libraries from your rootfs have to appear at /lib and /usr/lib, while configuration files are expected to be in /etc. The script will build a private namespace and bind the Linux rootfs over the Plan 9 root. the original Plan 9 namespace is mounted at /9. ! linux -r ./mroot /bin/bash -i If the -r option is omitted, the Linux rootfs defaults to /sys/lib/linux. you may put your Linux rootfs there or add a bind to your $home/lib/profile. In the Linux rootfs, /etc/resolv.conf should be changed to match your network nameserver. In addition, /etc/apt/sources.list should be updated to a working Debian mirror. (Sarge packages can still be accessed at deb http://archive.debian.org/debian-archive/debian sarge main) EXAMPLES Linux X11 programs may be used in conjunction with the Plan 9 [equis | http://www.plan9.bell-labs.com/wiki/plan9/X11_installation] X11 contrib package. For example, to run the Opera web browser under your Linux rootfs, start equis in a rio window, chroot into your LInux rootfs and: ! dwm & ! opera & Opera should (eventually) appear in the equis window. A window manager (this example uses dwm) is recommended so that X11 programs work properly. DEBUGGING If linuxemu crashes, use acid to figure out whats going on: ! mk acid ! acid -l linuxemu.acid <pid> Then you can issue the following commands: ! ustk() dump a (userspace) stacktrace for the current thread ! umem(Current()) dump the memory mappings ! ufds(Current()) dump the filedescriptor table ! utrace(Current()) dump the internal tracebuffer (enabled by -d option) Use xasm()/xcasm() for disassembly for Linux code. You can also enable full trace logging: ! linux -r ./mroot -dd /bin/bash -i >[2]/tmp/linuxemu.log This slows linuxemu down. In case of race conditions, it often happens that the bug disapears when doing full trace logging! NPTL If you get one of these errors: ! cannot set up thread-local storage: cannot set up LDT for thread-local storage This is glibc/libpthread complaining! The problem is the following: glibc on i386 decided at some point to use the extra segment registers GS and FS as an indirection pointer for thread local storage. The operating system kernel therfore must have a mechanism to let userspace change descriptor table entries and swap them in/out on context switch. To make it work here are several options: 1) Recompile and link the program with a pre NPTL version of glibc. 2) On some distributions, a non-tls version of libc/libpthread is available. in the -linuxemu fsroot, the NPTL version is in /lib/tls, the older version is in /lib. By renaming /lib/tls to /lib/_tls_disabled_ the loader will use the non-tls version. 3) Cinap made a kernel patch that adds support for per process descriptors to Plan 9: [http://plan9.bell-labs.com/sources/contrib/cinap_lenrek/segdescpatch | /n/sources/contrib/cinap_lenrek/segdescpatch] [http://9hal.ath.cx/usr/cinap_lenrek/segdescpatch.tgz | http://9hal.ath.cx/usr/cinap_lenrek/segdescpatch.tgz] The above patch adds the files gdt and ldt to devarch (#P).
