Emulators to test non-x86 FreeBSD ports?

[C. P. Ghost]

On Fri, Jan 28, 2011 at 7:43 PM, Robert Bonomi <bonomi at mail.r-bonomi.com> wrote:
>> From owner-freebsd-questions at freebsd.org  Fri Jan 28 11:37:00 2011
>> Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2011 18:27:35 +0100
>> From: "C. P. Ghost" <cpghost at cordula.ws>
>> To: FreeBSD Mailing List <freebsd-questions at freebsd.org>
>> Subject: Emulators to test non-x86 FreeBSD ports?
>>
>> Hello list,
>>
>> are there any emulators out there that can run the non-x86 versions of
>> FreeBSD on a FreeBSD/i386 or FreeBSD/amd64 host?
>
> Such things, by definition, are a 'simulator', not an 'emulator'.  They
> exist, they are *pricey* (think "5 figures", left of the decimal point)
> and they are =SLOW= (very, VERY slow!) compared to the real hardware.

Okay, let it be a simulator then. ;) I don't care that they're slow
(I know how emulators work under the hood). As I've used Bochs
on SPARC back then to run x86 OS, it was slow too, but that
didn't matter either.

The only multiplatform simulators I've seen right now belong
to the qemu family:

/usr/local/bin/qemu                     /usr/local/bin/qemu-system-mipsel
/usr/local/bin/qemu-img                 /usr/local/bin/qemu-system-ppc
/usr/local/bin/qemu-system-arm          /usr/local/bin/qemu-system-ppc64
/usr/local/bin/qemu-system-cris         /usr/local/bin/qemu-system-ppcemb
/usr/local/bin/qemu-system-m68k         /usr/local/bin/qemu-system-sh4
/usr/local/bin/qemu-system-microblaze   /usr/local/bin/qemu-system-sh4eb
/usr/local/bin/qemu-system-mips         /usr/local/bin/qemu-system-sparc
/usr/local/bin/qemu-system-mips64       /usr/local/bin/qemu-system-sparc64
/usr/local/bin/qemu-system-mips64el     /usr/local/bin/qemu-system-x86_64

But they don't emulate enough of a real system to run
the FreeBSD ports, AFAICT. That's why I'm asking for
other (more specialized?) emulators/simulators.

>> I'm especially interested in trying FreeBSD/sparc64 port, but I'd also
>> like to test the FreeBSD/powerpc and the FreeBSD/arm ports on an
>> emulator, before seeking real hardware.
>
> Pick up some low-end used hardware, it's _lots_ cheaper, and will give
> you a better feel for how it works.

Yep, that's always an option.

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