Emulated System Firmware Functions

Owned by W.Erber
Last updated: Mar 24, 2023Version comment
3 min read

When a Charon-PAR instance is started, the first interface visible to the user is the PDC (processor dependent code) console of the emulated system (i.e., the firmware of the system).  It provides some important function that will be described below:

PDC Main and Configuration Menus

At the console prompt Main menu: Enter command or menu > the user can enter either one of the available commands directly or display the main menu by entering menu:

Please note: Commands can be entered by typing the full command or the abbreviation indicated by the uppercase letters. The commands must be entered in lowercase.

There is an overlap between menus, as shown by the configuration menu (type co or more letters of the command) below:


Important commands in the main menu:

CommandDescription

boot pri

Boot from the primary boot device.
boot alt
Boot from the alternative boot device.
boot deviceBoot from device with specified device path. Example device path: 0/0/1/0.0.0
path priDisplay primary boot path.
path altDisplay alternative boot path.
path <pri | alt> pathSet the boot path. If neither PRI nor ALT is specified, the primary path will be set.
searchSearch for boot devices
lif path lifimage
Boot a lif file. This parameter is currently mostly used for testing. Use only as advised by Stromasys. The path parameter is a SCSI device path for 64-bit systems, on a 32-bit system it can be the device path of a network card or a SCSI device path. The lifimage parameter contains the path of the bootable lif file (absolute path or path relative to the directory in which the emulator runs).
resetRestart the system.

Important commands only available in the configuration menu:

CommandDescription
autoDisplay the autoboot settings.
auto boot on | off Enable or disable system autoboot.
bootinfo

Displays a summary of boot parameter and paths as shown below:

defaultReset the parameter values to the predefined settings.


Please note: the service menu and the information menu currently do not contain important additional commands.


ODE MAPPER2 Program

The MAPPER2 program can be used to report all the emulated hardware of the emulated historic PA-RISC system.

To start it, perform the following steps:

  1. Start the Charon instance.
  2. At the PDC menu, enter boot pri to boot from the main path.
  3. At the prompt Interact with IPL (Y or N)? >, enter Y.
  4. At the ISL> prompt, enter the command ODE.
  5. At the ODE> prompt, enter RUN MAPPER2.

The program will display the hardware found on the system. A partial output is shown below:

After the program has completed, type exit at the ODE prompt to return to the ISL prompt, or type exit in the Charon-PAR console to stop the emulator.


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