bochs-announce Mailing List for Bochs x86 PC emulator

Hi all!

The final release of the new Bochs version is now available for 
download. The online documentation is up-to-date and the website will be 
updated soon.

Brief summary of changes:
  - Bugfixes for CPU emulation correctness (CPUID/VMX/SVM fixes to
    support Windows Hyper-V as guest in Bochs)
  - Improvements for the plugin handling to simplify Bochs extensions
  - Added "multiple NICs" support to the NE2000 and E1000 devices
  - Added experimental FTP service for networking modules 'vnet' and
    'socket'
  - Fixes and improvements for all supported Voodoo graphics adapters
  - Added USB keyboard emulation with most of the keys supported
  - GUI "cmdmode": create a headerbar event with key combo starting with
    F7
  - LGPL'd VGABIOS updated to version 0.8a (new VGABIOS for Voodoo
    Banshee)

-- 
Volker Ruppert

Hi all!

The first pre-release of the new Bochs version is now available for 
download. The online documentation has been updated to reflect the 
feature of the upcoming version.

Brief summary of changes:
  - Improvements for the plugin handling to simplify Bochs extensions
  - Added "multiple NICs" support to the NE2000 and E1000 devices
  - Added experimental FTP service for networking modules 'vnet' and
    'socket'
  - Fixes and improvements for all supported Voodoo graphics adapters
  - Added USB keyboard emulation with most of the keys supported
  - GUI "cmdmode": create a headerbar event with key combo starting with
    F7
  - LGPL'd VGABIOS updated to version 0.8a (new VGABIOS for Voodoo
    Banshee)

--
Volker Ruppert

Hi all!

The bugfix release Bochs 2.6.11 has been released on January 5th, 2020. 
Most of the files are now available for download, the online 
documentation is up-to-date and the website update will be
updated soon.

Summary of changes:

- General
   - Added 64-bit support to the NSIS installer script
   - Several fixes in the build system based on Debian patches

- CPU / CPUDB
   - Bugfixes for CPU emulation correctness
     - Many critical bugfixes for Protection Keys, AVX512*, VMX/SVM, 
SHA, GFNI emulation
   ! Implemented CET (Control Flow Enforcement Technology) emulation 
according to Intel SDM rev071

- I/O Devices
   - Added missing Cirrus SVGA bitblt feature "transparent color compare"
   - Some fixes in HPET emulation (patch by Oleg)
   - Fixed disk image lock mechanism in the USB MSD case

- BIOS / VGABIOS
   - LGPL'd VGABIOS updated to version 0.7b (Fixed VESA extension 'read 
EDID' for Bochs VBE and Cirrus)
   - Updated SeaBIOS ROM image to current version 1.13.0
   - Added SeaVGABIOS ROM image for the Cirrus adapter
   - Bochs BIOS built to work with CPU level 5 again

--
Volker Ruppert

Hi all!

The intermediate (bugfix+) release Bochs 2.6.10 has been released on
December 1st, 2019. Most of the files are now available for download, 
the online documentation is up-to-date and the website update will be
updated soon.

Brief summary of changes:

- CPU: Bugfixes for CPU emulation correctness (critical bugfixes for
   PCID, ADCX/ADOX, MOVBE, AVX/AVX-512 and VMX emulation)
- CPU: implemented AVX-512 VBMI2/VNNI/BITALG, VAES, VPCLMULQDQ / GFNI
   instructions emulation
- VMX: Implement EPT-Based Sub-Page Protection
- CPUID: Added new CPU models Skylake-X, Cannonlake and Icelake-U
- CPUID: Implemented side-channel attack prevention reporting and
   corresponding MSR registers, enabled for Icelake-U
- Added basic support for the i440BX PCI/AGP chipset.
- Added basic Voodoo Banshee / Voodoo3 emulation support.
- Added basic DDC support for the VGA-compatible adapters.
- Implemented HPET emulation (ported from Qemu).

--
Volker Ruppert

Hi all!

The intermediate (bugfix+) release Bochs 2.6.9 has been released on
April 9th, 2017. Most of the files are now available for download, the 
online documentation is up-to-date and the website update will be 
updated soon.

Brief summary of changes:


- CPU: implemented new instructions and x86 architecture extensions.
- Bugfixes for CPU emulation correctness.
- Added Android host platform support.
- Added USB EHCI device emulation support.
- Added USB floppy (UFI/CBI) support.
- Added ethernet module 'socket', designed to interconnect Bochs
   instances.
- Show textconfig at runtime in the Bochs VGA window (gui console).

-- 
Volker Ruppert

Hi all!

The intermediate (bugfix+) release Bochs 2.6.8 has been released on
May 3rd, 2015. Most of the files are now available for download, the 
online documentation is up-to-date and the website update will be 
updated soon.

Brief summary of changes:

   - Bugfixes for CPU emulation correctness (critical bugfix for x86-64
     emulation).
   - Memory type calculation support for Bochs debugger and instrumentation.
   - Added Pentium (P54C) and Broadwell ULT CPU models.
   - Full save/restore support for enhanced gui debugger settings.
   - Added Oracle(tm) VM VirtualBox image support (VDI version 1.1).
   - SB16: Ported OPL3 emulation from DOSBox.
   - Major rewrite of the lowlevel sound code (mixer thread, more detailed
     configuration, WAV file output).
   - Bugfixes in the floppy, lowlevel cdrom, rombios, slirp and win32 
gui code.

--
Volker Ruppert

Hi all!

The intermediate (bugfix+) release Bochs 2.6.7 has been released on
November 2nd, 2014. Most of the files are now available for download
(new: win64 binaries), the online documentation is up-to-date and the
website update is in progress.

Brief summary of changes:

- CPU: implemented AVX-512BW/AVX-512DQ/AVX-512VL extensions emulation.
- CPU: implemented AVX512-IFMA532 instructions emulation.
- CPU: implemented AVX512-VBMI instructions emulation.
- Bugfixes for CPU emulation correctness
- The VGA update timer and the status LED timer now always use the
   realtime mode independent from the 'clock' option setting.
- Added native SDL2 GUI support to Bochs. To enable configure with
   --with-sdl2.
- Write enhanced gui debugger settings to file on exit and restore on
   initialization.
- USB xHCI model now emulates a NEC/Renesas uPD720202 device
- ROM BIOS: fixed int74_function() for 4-byte (wheel mouse) packets.
- LGPL'd VGABIOS updated from CVS (fixed building VBE modes list)
- Visual Studio workspace files updated to VS2013Ex format.

--
Volker Ruppert

Hi all!

The bugfix version Bochs 2.6.6 has been released on June 15th, 2014.
Most of the files are now available for download, the online 
documentation and the website are up-to-date now.

List of changes:

- CPU / CPUDB
   - allow sandy bridge configuration even when AVX is not compiled in

- Configure and compile
   - fixed compilation error when 3dnow support is enabled
   - speedup Visual Studio build by almost 20% by adding /Gr compiler
     option

- Misc
   - fixed minimizing win32 gui window and resolution change while
     minimized
   - added compiled SeaBIOS 1.7.5 image into Bochs tree along with Bochs
     BIOS images
   - documentation fixes and updates

--
Volker Ruppert

Hi all!

The intermediate (bugfix+) release Bochs 2.6.5 has been released on
June 1st, 2014. Most of the files are now available for download, the 
online documentation is up-to-date and the website update is in progress.

Brief summary of changes:

- CPU: extra 5-10% emulation speedup with new trace linking optimization
- CPU: implemented new instructions (e.g. AVX-512, SHA, XSAVEC)
- CPUDB: added 2 new CPU models
- Bugfixes for CPU emulation correctness (including some critical ones)
- Gui debugger output window now can be used as a log viewer
- Added built-in slirp (user-mode networking) support (ported from Qemu)
- Added global sound config option and volume control support to the
   devices
- Added new experimental gui 'vncsrv" using the LibVNCServer library
- Rewrite of the bximage utility in C++ for image creation, conversion
   and resize

--
Volker Ruppert

Hi all!

The bugfix release Bochs 2.6.1 has been released on May 26th, 2013. Most 
of the files are now available for download, the online documentation 
and the website are up-to-date now.

List of changes:

- CPU
   - VMX: implemented VMENTER to non-active guest state (HLT, SHUTDOWN, 
WAIT-FOR-SIPI)
   - VMX: fixed write of guest segment access rights VMCS fields (32-bit 
field
     was truncated to 16-bit)
   - CPUID: Don't report Architectural Performance Monitoring in CPUID.
     Reporting true capabilities without actually supporting them breaks 
Win7 x64 installation.
   - CPUID: Fixed bx_generic CPUID std leafs (all std leafs > 2 were 
corrupted)
   - CPUID: Enable all supported VMX capabilities for bx_generic CPUID 
configuration.
   - CPUID: Enable X2APIC support for Ivy Bridge CPUDB configuration.

- Configure and compile
   - Enabled VMX compilation by default in shortcut scripts.
   - Allow CPU_LEVEL=5 configurations (pentium_mmx and amd_k2_chomper) 
even when Bochs was
     compiled with CPU_LEVEL > 5.

- Misc
   - Fixes for Bochs port on MorphOS (based on a patch by Thore Sittly):
     missing functions, byte-swapping and cdrom support.

--
Volker Ruppert

Hi all!

The intermediate (bugfix+) release Bochs 2.6.1 has been released on 
April 7th, 2013. Most of the files
are now available for download, the online documentation and the website 
will be updated soon.

Summary of changes:

- CPU / CPUDB
   - Bochs is fully aligned with rev45 of the of Intel(R) Architecture 
Manual.
     - Implemented Supervisor Mode Access Protection (SMAP) support
     - Implemented VMX APIC Registers Virtualization and VMX Virtual 
Interrupt Delivery
     - Implemented VMCS Shadowing and #VE exception secondary VMEXIT 
controls emulation
     - Implemented RDRAND and RDSEED instructions
   ! CPUDB: Added AMD FX-4100 (Zambezi) configuration to CPUDB
   - Bugfixes for CPU emulation correctness (critical fixes for SVM and 
AVX2 emulation)

- Bochs Debugger and Instrumentation
   - Use Enhanced GUI Debugger instead of old-style wx debugger with wx gui.
     The old-style wx debugger support was deprecated and removed from 
the source code.

- I/O Devices
   - Implemented 3dfx Voodoo Graphics card emulation based on DOSBox 
patch, to enable
     configure with --enable-voodoo option.
   - Hard drive / HD image
     - Added full save restore support for most of the disk image formats
     - undoable / volatile mode: added support of other types of r/o 
base images
     - DLL HD support rewritten and enabled for WIN32 host
   - PCI chipset
     - Implemented i430FX chipset emulation
     - USB UHCI always enabled in the i440FX case

- Config interface
   - Configure option --enable-misaligned-sse moved to runtime option in 
.bochsrc. The old
     option is deprecated and should not be used anymore.
   - moved 'user_shortcut' bochsrc option to the 'keyboard' option
   - save log options per device to bochsrc
   - win32: implemented scrollable dialog items for large parameter lists

- GUI and display libraries
   - Graphics snapshot feature rewritten to support all kinds of 
graphics modes
   - wx: starting a second simulation without closing Bochs now almost 
possible

- Tools
   - bxcommit: added support for converting flat to growing mode images

--
Volker Ruppert

Hi all!

Bochs 2.6 has been released on September 2nd, 2012. Most of the files 
are now available for download, the online documentation is up-to-date 
and the website will be updated soon.

Brief summary of changes:

- More than 10% CPU emulation speedup !
- Support for AMD's SVM hardware emulation (including extended XAPIC
   support).
- Implemented support for new x86 ISA extensions.
   Bochs is fully aligned with rev043 of Intel(R) Architecture Manual.
- Improved emulation accuracy (critical fixes for APIC, VMX and AVX/XOP
   emulation).
- Bochs internal debugger: new command to show state of a device from
   the debugger.
- ROM BIOS: improved PCI boot ROM support (for VGA and other devices)
- Networking:
     - Ported Intel(R) 82540EM Gigabit Ethernet adapter emulation from
       Qemu.
     - Added PCI network boot ROM support to all network adapters.
     - Added TFTP support to the 'slirp' networking module.
- Harddrive: added support for VirtualPC disk images, fixed sparse disk
   images.
- Sound:
     - implemented PC speaker beep using the lowlevel sound interface.
     - SDL audio output support.
- Added ability to set log action per device from .bochsrc.
- Moved disk imaging, networking, sound and USB devices to
   subdirectories in the iodev folder.

--
Volker Ruppert

Hi all!

The bugfix release Bochs 2.4.1 is out now. The sources and binary
package for Linux and Windows are available for download. The website will be 
updated tomorrow.

Summary of changes since release 2.4:

- Fixed bunch of CPUID issues
  - Bochs is now able to install and boot 64-bit Windows images!
    (special thanks to Mark Ebersole for his patch)
- Several bugfixes in CPU emulation (mostly for x87 instructions)
- Fixed two critical deadlock bugs in the Win32 gui (patches from @SF tracker)
- Fixes related to the 'show ips' feature
  - removed conflicting win32-specific alarm() functions ('win32' and 'sdl'
    gui)
  - feature now works in wx on win32
- Added support for gdb stub on big endian machine (patch by Godmar Back)
- Rewritten obsolete hash_map code in dbg symbols module (patch from @SF)
- BIOS: implemented missing INT 15h/89h (patch by Sebastian Herbszt)

--
Volker Ruppert

Hi all!

The final release of Bochs 2.4 is out now. The sources and binary
package for Linux are available for download. I have also updated 
the online documentation. The packages for Windows will be available soon.

Brief summary of changes since release 2.3.7:

- Added graphical Bochs debugger frontend for most of the  supported
  platforms.
  - Thanks for Chourdakis Michael and Bruce Ewing.
- Many new CPU features in emulation 
  - Support for > 32 bit physical address space and configurable  MSRs 
  - VMX, 1G pages in long mode, MOVBE instruction 
- Bugfixes for CPU emulation correctness, debugger and CPU  instrumentation. 
- New config interface 'win32config' with start and runtime menu 
- USB: added OHCI support, external hub and cdrom 
- Added user plugin interface support. 
  
--
Volker Ruppert

Hi all!

Bochs 2.4 is coming soon !

The first pre-release of Bochs 2.4 is now available for downloading from
Bochs homepage !

Brief summary  of changes:

- Added graphical Bochs debugger frontend for most of the supported 
platforms.
 - Thanks for Chourdakis Michael and Bruce Ewing.
- Many new CPU features in emulation
 - Support for > 32 bit physical address space and configurable MSRs
 - VMX, 1G pages in long mode, MOVBE instruction
- Bugfixes for CPU emulation correctness, debugger and CPU instrumentation.
- New config interface 'win32config' with start and runtime menu
- USB: added OHCI support, external hub and cdrom
- Added user plugin interface support.

TODO for final release:

- documentation updates
- enable USB OHCI support for binary packages
- new MSVC project files

--
Thanks

Volker

Hi Bochs developers!

The intermediate (bugfix+) release Bochs 2.3.7 is out now. The sources and
binary packages for Linux are available for download. The packages for Windows 
will be added tomorrow. The website and the online documentation will be 
updated soon.

Here brief summary of changes since release 2.3.7:

+ More optimizations in CPU code - Bochs 2.3.7 is more than 2x faster
  than Bochs 2.3.5 build !
- Implemented LBA48 support in BIOS
- Added memory access tracing for Bochs internal debugger
- Implemented Intel(R) XSAVE/XRSTOR and AES instruction set extensions
- Many fixes in CPU emulation and internal debugger
  - MenuetOS64 floppy images booting perfect again !
- updated LGPL'd VGABIOS to version 0.6b

--
Volker Ruppert

Hi Bochs developers!

The intermediate (bugfix+) release Bochs 2.3.6 is out now. The sources and 
binary packages for Linux and Windows are available for download. The website 
and the online documentation will be updated soon.

Here brief summary of changes since release 2.3.6:

+ More than 25% emulation speedup vs Bochs 2.3.5 release!

      - Thanks to Darek Mihocka (http://www.emulators.com) 
        for providing patches and ideas that made the
        speedup possible!

+ Up to 40% speedup vs Bochs 2.3.5 release with trace cache optimization!

- Lots of bugfixes in CPU emulation
- Bochs benchmarking support
- Added emulation of Intel SSE4.2 instruction set

--
Volker Ruppert

Hi Bochs developers!

The intermediate (bugfix+) release Bochs 2.3.5 is out now. The sources and 
binary packages for Linux and Windows are available for download. The website 
and the online documentation will be updated soon.

Here brief summary of changes since release 2.3:

- Critical problems fixed for x86-64 support in CPU and Bochs internal
  debugger
- ACPI support
- The release compiled with x86-64 and ACPI
- Hard disk emulation supports ATA-6 (LBA48 addressing, UDMA modes)
- Added emulation of Intel SSE4.1 instruction set

--
Volker Ruppert

Hi Bochs developers!

The final release of Bochs 2.3 is out now. The sources and binary
packages for Linux and Windows are available for download. I have also updated 
the online documentation and the website.

Brief summary of changes since vorsion 2.2.6:

- limited save/restore support added (config + log options, hardware state)
- configuration parameter handling rewritten to a parameter tree
- lots of cpu and internal debugger fixes
- hard disk geometry autodetection now supported by most of the image types
- hard disk emulation now supports ATA-3 (multiple sector transfers)
- VBE memory size increased to 8MB and several VGA/VBE fixes
- updated LGPL'd VGABIOS to version 0.6a

--
Volker Ruppert

Hi Bochs developers!

The intermediate (bugfix+) release Bochs 2.2.6 is out now. The sources and 
binary packages for Linux and Windows are available for download. I have also 
updated the online documentation. The website will be updated soon.

Here is the list changes since vorsion 2.2.5:

- several APIC and I/O APIC fixes make SMP Bochs booting Windows NT4.0 in
  SMP configuration
- critical APIC timer bug fixed
- several fixes in the hard drive, keyboard, timer, usb and vga code
- fixes in Bochs debugger
- obsolete SMP BIOS images removed (MP tables created dynamicaly)
- new userbutton shortcut "bksl" (backslash)
- enabled #PCE bit in CR4 register, previosly setting of this bit
  generated #GP(0) fault
- enabled LAHF/SAHF instructions in x86-64 mode
- determine number of processors in SMP configuration through .bochsrc file
  - new .bochsrc option to choose number of processors to emulate
  - new configure option --enable-smp to configure Bochs for SMP support,
    the old --enable-processors=N option is deprecated
- fixed bug in PMULUDQ SSE2 instruction
- enable VME (virtual 8086 mode extensions) by default if cpu-level >= 5
- enable Bochs disassembler by default for all configurations
- win32 installer script improvements
- ips parameter moved to new cpu option
- show IPS value in status bar if BX_SHOW_IPS is enabled
- updated Bochs instrumentation examples
- user and development documentation improved

--
Volker Ruppert

Hi Bochs developers!

The intermediate (bugfix+) release Bochs 2.2.5 is out now. The sources and 
binary packages for Linux and Windows are available for download. I have also 
updated the online documentation. The website will be updated soon.

Here is the list of the most important changes since vorsion 2.2.1:

- added virtual 8086 mode extensions (VME) implementation
- several fixes/improvements in x86-64 emulation, debugger and disassembler
- new serial mode 'socket' connects a network socket
- IDE busmaster DMA feature for harddisks and cdroms completed and enabled
- many improvements in Bochs emulated I/O devices (e.g. floppy, cdrom)
- Updated LGPL'd VGABIOS to version 0.5d

--
Volker Ruppert

Hi Bochs developers!

The bugfix release Bochs 2.2.1 is out now. The sources and binary
packages for Linux and Windows are available for download. I have also updated 
the website and the online documentation.

Here is the list of changes since vorsion 2.2:

- Fixed several compilation warnings and errors for different platforms
- Fixed FPU tag word restore in FXRSTOR instruction
- Added missing scancodes for F11 and F12 to BIOS translation table
- Bochs disassembler bugfixes
- About 5% emulation speed improvement
- Handle writing of zero to APIC timer initial count register
- Enable Idle-Hack for 'TERM' GUI
- Reduced overhead of BX_SHOW_IPS option to minimum. Now every simulation 
  could run with --enable-show-ips without significant performance 
  penalty.
- Fixed pcipnic register access
- Limited write support for TFTP server in 'vnet' networking module added
- Changed some timing defaults to more useful values
- WinXP/2003 style common controls now supported
- Updated LGPL'd VGABIOS to version 0.5c
- Added new BX_INSTR_HLT callback to instrumentation

--
Volker Ruppert

Hi Bochs developers!

The final of Bochs 2.2 is out now. The sources and binary
packages for Linux and Windows are available for download. I have also updated 
the online documentation and the website updates are in progress.

Brief summary of changes since vorsion 2.1.1:

- New floating point emulator based on SoftFloat floating point 
  emulation library.
- improved x86-64 emulation
- Cirrus SVGA card emulation added
- status bar with indicators for keyboard, floppy, cdrom and disk (gui 
dependant)
- many improvements in Bochs emulated I/O devices (e.g. PCI subsystem)

--
Volker Ruppert

Hi Bochs developers!

The 4th pre-release of Bochs 2.2 is out now. The sources and binary
packages for Linux and Windows are available for download. I have also updated 
the website and the online documentation. I intend to release the final 
version of Bochs 2.2 next weekend if possible.

Most important changes from pre3 to pre4:

- Cirrus SVGA 24bpp bugfix
- fixes in the SMP and x86-64 code
- flat-style tool bar for win32
- simple read-only TFTP server added in networking module 'vnet'

--
Volker Ruppert

 Bug fix version 2.1.1 has been released, and is now ready for download i=
n
 the SourceForge files area.  Many thanks to all developers who contribut=
ed
 fixes. MacOS and MacOS/X binary packages will be uploaded soon, thanks t=
o
 Daniel Gimpelevich. =20
 =20
 Changes in 2.1.1 (February 8, 2004):

 - fix bug in int15h function 0xe820 (Christian Neubert)
 - fix vmware3 disk support on big-endian platforms (Christophe Bothamy)
 - fix conditions for NM exception on FWAIT instruction (Christophe)
 - fix symbol conflict in rfb and x display libraries (Volker Ruppert)
 - allow 16 bit writes to ne2k page 0 (Volker)
 - notify display libraries on change of bpp (Volker)
 - fix bug in int13h function 0x10 (Volker)
 - fix floppy dialog error on win2k (Volker)
 - fix adress check in TSS IO permission bitmap (Christophe)
 - fix buffer overflow vulnerability pointed out by SeSoX (Christophe)
 - updates for MacOS compile (Daniel Gimpelevich)

  Bochs web site : http://bochs.sourceforge.net
  Download version 2.1.1 :
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=3D12580&package_id=3D=
17475&release_id=3D215733

--=20
--
Christophe Bothamy
cb...@fr...