Bochs x86 Emulator
bochs/
Version:
~
[ SVN-2014-01-05 ] ~
[ 2.6.2 ] ~
1 Bochs - The cross platform IA-32 (x86) emulator
2 Updated: Sun May 26 09:17:00 CEST 2013
3 Version: 2.6.2
4
5 WHAT IS BOCHS?
6
7 Bochs is a highly portable open source IA-32 (x86) PC emulator
8 written in C++, that runs on most popular platforms. It includes
9 emulation of the Intel x86 CPU, common I/O devices, and a custom
10 BIOS. Bochs can be compiled to emulate many different x86 CPUs,
11 from early 386 to the most recent x86-64 Intel and AMD processors
12 which may even not reached the market yet. Bochs is capable of running
13 most Operating Systems inside the emulation, for example DOS,
14 Linux or Windows. Bochs was written by Kevin Lawton and is currently
15 maintained by the Bochs project at "http://bochs.sourceforge.net".
16
17 Bochs can be compiled and used in a variety of modes, some which are
18 still in development. The 'typical' use of bochs is to provide
19 complete x86 PC emulation, including the x86 processor, hardware
20 devices, and memory. This allows you to run OS's and software within
21 the emulator on your workstation, much like you have a machine
22 inside of a machine. Bochs will allow you to run Windows
23 applications on a Solaris machine with X11, for example.
24
25 Bochs is distributed under the GNU LGPL. See LICENSE and COPYING for details.
26
27 GETTING CURRENT SOURCE CODE
28
29 Source code for Bochs is available from the Bochs home page at
30 http://bochs.sourceforge.net. You can download the most recent
31 release, use SVN to get the latest sources, or grab a SVN
32 snapshot which is updated frequently. The releases contain the most
33 stable code, but if you want the very newest features try the
34 SVN version instead.
35
36 WHERE ARE THE DOCS?
37
38 The Bochs documentation is written in Docbook. Docbook is a text
39 format that can be rendered to many popular browser formats such
40 as HTML, PDF, and Postscript. Each binary release contains the
41 HTML rendering of the documentation. Also, you can view the
42 latest documentation on the web at
43 http://bochs.sf.net/doc/docbook/index.html
44
45 WHERE CAN I GET MORE INFORMATION? HOW DO I REPORT PROBLEMS?
46
47 Both the documentation and the Bochs website have instructions on how
48 to join the bochs-developers mailing list, which is the primary
49 forum for discussion of Bochs. The main page of the website also
50 has links to bug reports and feature requests. You can browse and
51 add to the content in these areas even if you do not have a (free)
52 SourceForge account. We need your feedback so that we know what
53 parts of Bochs to improve.
54
55 There is a patches section on the web site too, if you have made
56 some changes to Bochs that you want to share.
57
58 HOW CAN I HELP?
59
60 If you would like contribute to the Bochs project, a good first step
61 is to join the bochs-developers mailing list, and read the archive
62 of recent messages to see what's going on.
63
64 If you are a technical person (can follow hardware specs, can write
65 C/C++) take a look at the list of open bug reports and feature
66 requests to see if you are interested in working on any of the
67 problems that are mentioned in them. If you check out the SVN
68 sources, make some changes, and create a patch, one of the
69 developers will be very happy to apply it for you. Developers who
70 frequently submit patches, or who embark on major changes in the
71 source can get write access to SVN. Be sure to communicate with the
72 bochs-developers list to avoid several people working on the same
73 thing without realizing it.
74
75 If you are a Bochs user, not a hardware/C++ guru, there are still
76 many ways you could help out. For example:
77 - write instructions on how to install a particular operating system
78 - writing/cleaning up documentation
79 - testing out Bochs on every imaginable operating system and
80 reporting how it goes.
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