= RTEMS on Virtualbox =


You can run RTEMS in the [http://www.virtualbox.org/ VirtualBox] x86 virtualizer. 

The main advantage of VirtualBox over other virtualizers is that it provides several board/controller emulation options, including a SATA controller and several network adapters.= Introduction =

This page describes how to setup a “one click solution” for booting RTEMS in VirtualBox; if the RTEMS application gets updated is just a matter of rebooting the virtual machine to boot the new updated application.

A solution for debugging RTEMS remotely through VirtualBox serial port is also described. = What we will need? =

 * VirtualBox
 * Etherboot 
 * Opentftp 
 * Socat relay= Get Virtual Box =

The first step is to get and install VirtualBox.

You can get Virtual box from [http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Linux_Downloads here]; you can download the file suited for your Linux distribution or setup the VirtualBox repository.

The pre-requirements for this installation are:
 * Qt 4.4.0 or higher;
 * SDL 1.2.7 or higher (this graphics library is typically called libsdl or similar)
 * DKMS
They should be already installed, if not install them from your distro’s repository:
{{{
yum install qt
yum install SDL
yum install dkms
}}}
Assuming that you added the VirtualBox repository you only have to issue:
{{{
yum install VirtualBox
}}}
VirtualBox installations can become quite tricky because a kernel module needs to be installed, so please refer to the VirtualBox [http://dlc.sun.com.edgesuite.net/virtualbox/3.2.4/UserManual.pdf documentation] if you have any problem.
= Get opentftp =


Opentftp is a tftp(Trivial File Transfer Protocol) server that will enable us to boot a file from the host computer(the RTEMS application) on the virtual machine.

You can get opentftp from [http://sourceforge.net/projects/tftp-server/files/tftp%20server%20multithreaded/opentftpmtV1.62.tar.gz/download here]. The opentftp server comes already compiled, so you only need to run it. The README explains various options for the server, including how to run it as a linux service. 

We need to change the directory that is mapped in the server to the directory where our rtems applications is( In my case /home/cdcs/testbed-build/). You can do this be opening the opentftp.ini file that stores the server options. In this file find the "[HOME]" marker and place there the path to your application. This is how my file looked:

{{{
[HOME]
#You should specify home directory(s) here
#The home directory can be specified
#in two different ways, with alias or 
#bare names without aliases. Using alias you
#can specify upto 8 directories like
#routers=c:/RouterImages/Images
#without aliases, only one directory can
#be specified, which will become root
#directory for tftp.
#mixup of bare names and aliases not allowed
#default will be home directory of user
/home/cdcs/testbed-build/
}}}

This option will map the root of the server to "/home/cdcs/testbed-build/". This means that 
when you access "tftp://127.0.0.1/test.exe" you are accessing "/home/cdcs/testbed-build/test.exe". You can also specify up to 8 aliases, eg: "myhome=/home/cdcs" will map "tftp://127.0.0.1/myhome/test.exe" to "/home/cdcs/test.exe".

You also need to change the "username=" option in "[TFTP-OPTIONS]" to your username. eg:"username=cdcs"

Once you have made these changes you are ready to run the server:

{{{
./opentftp -v -i opentftp.ini
}}}

For me this command produces the following output:

{{{
[root@cdcs opentftp]# ./opentftpd -v -i opentftpd.ini 
TFTP Server MultiThreaded Version 1.62 Unix Built 1621

starting TFTP...
username: cdcs
alias / is mapped to /home/cdcs/testbed-build/
permitted clients: all
server port range: all
max blksize: 65464
default blksize: 512
default timeout: 3
file read allowed: Yes
file create allowed: No
file overwrite allowed: No
thread pool size: 1
listening on: 0.0.0.0:69
}}}