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The hardware of the emulated system is defined in the emulator configuration file. Charon-PAR comes with a number of template files that are stored in /opt/charon/cfg. Each template file contains the settings for a particular historic HP3000 ( Charon-PAR/PA3 ) or HP9000 ( Charon-PAR/PA9 ) hardware model or model family. The files also contain important descriptions for all parameters listed.

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Parameter license_key_id 

Optional parameter. There can be several license_key_id parameters in this section. They define a prioritized list of license keys. The first entry has the highest priority. If no key with this ID is available, the next key in the list will be tried. If a higher priority key becomes available, the emulator will switch to this license at the next periodic license check.

Syntax:

license_key_id "key-id-prio1"

...

Optional parameter. There can be several license_id parameters in this section. They define a prioritized list of product license IDs. The first entry has the highest priority. If no key with this product license ID is available, the next product license ID in the list will be attempted. If a higher priority license becomes available, the emulator will switch to this license at the next periodic license check.

Syntax:

license_id "lic-id-prio1"

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The system model configuration section contains one parameter defining the emulated historic HP3000 or HP9000 PA-RISC model.

Syntax:

model "model-name"

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This parameter is optional. It can be used to specify a terminal emulation program that is started automatically when the emulated system is started. Charon-PAR provides preconfigured profiles for PuTTY (HPAPAR-Socket HPA, PAR-Telnet HPA, PAR-Telnet-VT100) that can be used to connect to the emulated system via a serial line.

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File name for logging the output character stream from the CPU to the device. Does not depend on the port being operational (the actual transmission is not logged). Depending on the data sent, the file may best be viewed using a tool such as hexdump or od.

in_log

File name for logging the input character stream from the port to the device. Best be viewed using a tool such as hexdump or od.

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To start the xhpterm emulator (HP3000Charon-PAR/PA3), the following setting should be used:

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Every Charon-PAR emulated model has preconfigured SCSI controllers that can be used to configure emulated disks for the guest system. All models also have the option to load additional controllers. Please refer to the section I/O Slot Configuration in this chapter.

Please note:

• The description below shows how to work with preloaded SCSI controllers. Once an additional SCSI controller has been loaded, the steps below also apply to such a controller.

Preloaded SCSI Device Controllers

Charon-PAR implements I/O using controllers. Each controller

• supports up to 15 SCSI devices,
• is identified by a character code,
• is assigned a path corresponding to the leading for elements of the device path.

The tables below show the preconfigured SCSI controllers of an rp2400 model as an example.

Please note: Other models may have more or less preconfigured controllers with different device paths and code mappings. For details regarding your model refer to the configuration file template or the chapter Emulated Model Hardware Configuration Details.

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• It is not recommended to place emulator storage devices (in particular vdisks) on NFS as this will have a significant impact on performance. However, if any of the storage (e.g., ISO files or vdisks) is on an NFS share, NFS locking must be enabled and all intermediate firewalls between client and server must allow the port used by the lockd and statd. Failure to do so will cause the emulator to hang at startup.

Preloaded SCSI Device Controllers

Charon-PAR implements I/O using controllers. Each controller

• supports up to 15 SCSI devices,
• is identified by a character code,
• is assigned a path corresponding to the leading for elements of the device path.

The tables below show the preconfigured SCSI controllers of an rp2400 model as an example.

Please note: Other models may have more or less preconfigured controllers with different device paths and code mappings. For details regarding your model refer to the configuration file template or the chapter Emulated Model Hardware Configuration Details.

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The following table shows the parameters relevant to the log file and their values:

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YYYYMMDD:hhmmss.uuuuuu:<severity><message>

   where

YYYY   - year
MM     - month
DD     - day
hh     - hour
mm     - munites
ss     - seconds
uuuuuu - usecs

<severity> := '(warn|err|ERR):' or empty

warn   - warning
err    - error
ERR    - fatal error

<message> the component's message in free form

Parameter system.license_logging_level

...

Please note that this parameter must be placed towards the end of the configuration file and will not work if placed before the memory configuration.

SuperIO Configuration

General Information

The SuperIO module is included in the Astro chipset and emulates a historic HP9000 PCI board with PC style peripherals:

• parallel port
• 2 serial ports
• dual-channel IDE controller
• floppy disk controller
• USB controller
• timer
• PIC interrupt controller

The current version of Charon-PAR supports only a subset of these devices. And the SuperIO module is only supported on models that are based on the Astro chipset (rp24xx and rp54xx).

Currently supported are (depending on support by the emulated model and guest operating system)

• two serial ports
• one parallel port

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Other Parameters

Parameter system.do_timer_correction

If the system time of the emulated system deviates too much from the correct time, it can cause application problems in the emulated system. If this cannot be solved by other means (e.g., NTP), the parameter described here can be used to adjust the system time of the emulated system based on the host system's NTP adjusted time.

Syntax:

system.do_timer_correction = false | true

Parameters:

If set to false, no time correction will take place.
If set to true, the time of the emulated system will be corrected as described above.

Default: false

Parameter fma_check

Charon-PAR requires a host CPU that supports the FMA capability. Normally, an emulator will not run when trying to start it on a CPU without the required capabilities. 

This parameter allows you to disable the FMA check. However, this may lead to unexpected problems with the guest operating system.

Please note: Do not use this parameter if you run PA9 instances. For PA3 instances, use the configuration option at your own risk.

Syntax:

...

SuperIO Configuration

General Information

The SuperIO module is included in the Astro chipset and emulates a PCI board with PC style peripherals used in historic 64-bit PA-RISC systems:

• parallel port
• 2 serial ports
• dual-channel IDE controller
• floppy disk controller
• USB controller
• timer
• PIC interrupt controller

The current version of Charon-PAR supports only a subset of these devices. And the SuperIO module is only supported on models that are based on the Astro chipset (rp24xx and rp54xx).

Currently supported are (depending on support by the emulated model and guest operating system)

• two serial ports
• one parallel port

Other Parameters

Parameter system.do_timer_correction

If the system time of the emulated system deviates too much from the correct time, it can cause application problems in the emulated system. If this cannot be solved by other means (e.g., NTP), the parameter described here can be used to adjust the system time of the emulated system based on the host system's NTP adjusted time.

Syntax:

system.do_timer_correction = false | true

Parameters:

If set to false, no time correction will take place.
If set to true, the time of the emulated system will be corrected as described above.

Default: false

Parameter fma_check

Charon-PAR requires a host CPU that supports the FMA capability. Normally, an emulator will not run when trying to start it on a CPU without the required capabilities. 

This parameter allows you to disable the FMA check. However, this may lead to unexpected problems with the guest operating system.

Please note: Do not use this parameter if you run PA9 instances. For PA3 instances, use the configuration option at your own risk.

Syntax:

fma_check = false | true

Parameters:

If set to false, Charon-PAR will not check the FMA support of the host CPU.

Default: the check is enabled.

Parameter system.stop_on_halt

Available starting from version 3.0.5. This parameter is applicable to emulated systems in which a HP-UX guest operating system runs. When HP-UX is shut down with the shutdown -h command, the guest system will be halted. By default, the emulated system will be powered off automatically when a halt is detected (that is, the Charon-PAR process will be stopped). The stop_on_halt parameter allows the user to influence this behavior.

Syntax:

system.stop_on_halt = false | true

Parameters:

If set to false, Charon-PAR will not check the FMA support of the host CPUstop the emulated system automatically after the guest operating system has been halted. The emulator must be stopped from the Charon-PAR console (at the pa9-64> or pa9-32> prompt).

Default: the check is enabled true. the emulated system will be stopped automatically after the guest operating system has been halted.