Linux-PC-98-v0.6.0

Linux/PC-98 v0.6.0

This release provides IDE Linux 7.1 disk images for NEC PC-9800 machines, a Windows x64 build of qemu-pc98, and standalone kernels and boot-loader files.
Public disk images use the GDC display and PC-98 keyboard as the console.

SCSI disk images are intentionally not included in v0.6.0. The current PC-9801-55/92 Linux driver regressed during target probing and can prevent the Debian system from booting even under QEMU. SCSI images will return after the driver passes both QEMU and real-hardware regression tests.

Choosing a disk image

Image	CPU and userland	Interface and geometry	Minimum RAM	Raw size limit
linux-pc98-i386sx-busybox-ide.img.xz	i386SX, static BusyBox	IDE, H=8/S=17	5 MiB	below 40 MB
linux-pc98-i486dx-debian13-ide.img.xz	i486DX or newer, Debian 13/i486	IDE, H=8/S=17	64 MiB	below 2 GB

Windows qemu-pc98

• qemu-pc98-win64.zip contains QEMU binaries.
• virtpc98.exe is a GUI frontend.

Standalone files

• vmlinux-i386 — Linux 7.1 kernel for i386SX + 5MB RAM
• vmlinux-i486-debian — Linux 7.1 kernel for i486DX, used by the Debian images
• ipl-lba0.img — LBA 0 PC-98 disk IPL.
• ipl-lba2.img — LBA 2-15 BOOT98 first stage.
• boot98.bin — BOOT98 first stage, put in the FAT16 partition named BOOT
• boot98.cfg — default script for the boot loader
• linux98.exe — DOS command-line Linux loader

Boot from IDE

Write one of the IDE image to a CF card, then boot from it.

Boot from DOS

Copy linux98.exe and vmlinux to a DOS-accessible FAT volume and run:

linux98 vmlinux root=/dev/sda2 rootfstype=ext4 rw

Run it from plain real-mode DOS. Memory managers or other software that has already entered protected mode can prevent the loader from taking control. The default root device matches the published IDE images.

Reproducible build

The release binaries can be generated through one command:

./build.sh release