Qemu package and guide for Windows available

[MetalloSquirrel]

12-08-2025
Qemu-system-ppc-win64-withGUI-12-08-2025.zip
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AFFQEp ... sp=sharing
Note: Contains an experimental GUI.

Thank you so much for providing these packages. It appears that the August 12 ppc link actually points to an m68k build. Will a ppc build be made available?

[Cat_7]

Oops, fixed!

Best,
Cat_7

[Taiyaki]

How is mouse support in video games in Qemu PPC emulation? I love Sheepshaver and does everything I want out of a PPC emulator well except mouse. The mouse is unplayable in games even with the improvement fix that was kindly made possible some years ago. If the mouse is better I'll happily make the transition.

[Ronald P. Regensburg]

I love Sheepshaver and does everything I want out of a PPC emulator well except mouse. The mouse is unplayable in games even with the improvement fix that was kindly made possible some years ago.

The mouse should work fine in SheepShaver in most games with the appropriate settings for the mouse cursor in SheepShaver prefs. As this is a forum about Qemu, ask about it in the SheepShaver forum.

[Cat_7]

How is mouse support in video games in Qemu PPC emulation?

I don't know what you expect of mouse behaviour, so you would have to try for yourself.

Best,
Cat_7

[Taiyaki]

Thank you to both of you. So yes I tried it and the mouse feels very similar to Sheepshaver (with the ctrl + F5 trick), and I guess the problem must be with the Marathon engine as Prime Target still plays very poorly with the mouse.

Thank you so much for having made the Qemu experience so smooth with these builds (especially the screamer one for the sound)!

A lot to love with this alternative to sheepshaver. In many aspects feels more authentic to what I remember with Mac OS 9 (slower boot up etc), and I can see myself using it alongside Sheepshaver for Mac OS 9. Only issue I have with it is the way it upscales non integer resolutions, but I guess that's probably just a flaw with Qemu in general. Texts look noticeably off when using a resolution non integer to my monitor's resolution, which doesn't happen in Sheepshaver.

[Cat_7]

I created a new experimental qemu-system-ppc. Find it in the first post under experimental builds.

Some example command lines are:
qemu-system-ppc64.exe ^
-L pc-bios ^
-M mac99,via=pmu ^ (enables usb keyboard and mouse for all supported Mac OS and OS X, can be timer calibration sensitive)
-cpu g4 ^
-smp 4 -accel tcg,thread=multi ^ (enables symmetric multiprocessor. Use smp 2 for Mac OS 9 to Mac OS X 10.3, use smp 4 for Mac OSX 10.4 and 10.5)
-m 512 ^
-display sdl ^
-boot c ^
-drive file=C:\mac-hd\10.4.qcow2 ^
-device sungem,netdev=network01,mac=52:54:00:12:34:56,phy_type=1 ^ (,phy_type=1 enables the GMAC network device)
-netdev tap,ifname=TapQemu2,id=network01 ^ (note that tap networking is used, revert to standard command line for user networking)
-serial stdio ^
-device usb-audio (enables the usb-audio device)

For Server1.2v3:
qemu-system-ppc.exe ^
-M g3beige ^
-cpu g4 ^ (must be set to g4)
-L pc-bios ^
-m 256 ^
-boot c ^
-g 1024x768x8 ^ (define window size, colour depth must be 8)
-display sdl ^
-drive file=c:\Mac-hd\Server1.2v3.img,format=raw,media=disk ^
-serial stdio ^
-usb -device usb-mouse ^ (enables 1 usb device as supported by this OS (per documentation). Attempts to minimize mouse jumpiness)
-nic tap,model=bmac,mac=52:54:00:12:34:56,ifname=TapQemu2 (enables the bmac network device, can be timer calibration sensitive: functionality is very dependent on host speed). (note that tap networking is used, revert to standard command line for user networking)

[Cat_7]

Yet another experimental build has landed in the first post in this thread.
It supports a shared folder on the host and includes the latest usb-audio fix. Both are for Mac OS 9.x only!

Create a folder on your host and adjust this example command line:

qemu-system-ppc.exe ^
-L pc-bios ^
-M mac99,via=pmu ^
-m 512 ^
-cpu g4 ^
-display sdl ^
-boot c ^
-drive file=path\to\some\harddiskimage ^
-device loader,addr=0x4000000,file=ndrvloader ^
-prom-env "boot-command=init-program go" ^
-device virtio-9p-pci,fsdev=share0,mount_tag=SharedFolder ^
-fsdev local,id=share0,macos_compat=on,security_model=none,path=path\to\some\folder ^
-device usb-audio

[macfly]

@Cat_7 hello and thanx for your builds! But latest 26-02-23 experimental build runs slower than screamer 9.1.0 (v1.4.0-90571-g1c47688ed6-dirty) build according to Macbench 5.0 CPU test - can it be optimized to match at least 9.1.0? (win11 ryzen)
P.S. how can we boot nortonutils9.iso - now it boots into screen with floppy icon and blinking question mark (
PPS. after i try to reboot macos 9.2.2 from inside guest just black screen appears and qemu log says Error in long name Error in long name Error in long name

[Cat_7]

Hi,

It might very well be that the shared folder functionality in that build slows down Qemu. I haven't tested that.
With which command line are you running that build?

Can you point us to a norton utilities download?

Best,
Cat_7

[macfly]

Norton https://www.macintoshrepository.org/dow ... hp?id=1955

same lines for both builds:

qemu-system-ppc-screamer ^
-M mac99,via=pmu ^
-m 128 ^
-hda z:\hdd.qcow2 ^
-accel tcg,thread=multi,tb-size=8192,split-wx=off ^
-device usb-storage,drive=fat32 -drive file=fat:rw:z:\tmpz,id=fat32,format=raw,if=none ^
-L pc-bios ^
-cpu G3 ^
-boot c ^
-g 1024x768x32 ^
-display sdl ^
-net none ^
-parallel none ^
-serial none ^
-device VGA,edid=off ^
-device usb-audio ^
-rtc base=localtime,driftfix=slew

except :
qemu-system-ppc ^
-device loader,addr=0x4000000,file=ndrvloader ^
-prom-env "boot-command=init-program go" ^

for latest experimental build

[Cat_7]

Hi,

How much of a performance hit do you see?

There seem to be multiple performance issues that gradually slow qemu down:
-usb-audio slows down the system as it constantly keeps the audio stream open. This can't be helped
-accel tcg,thread=multi,tb-size=8192,split-wx=off ^ should only be used when running an smp-enabled build. I assume you see an error when using this.

There is no need to run these:
-device loader,addr=0x4000000,file=ndrvloader ^
-prom-env "boot-command=init-program go" ^
If you do not use the functionality of the shared drive with something like this:
-device virtio-9p-pci,fsdev=share0,mount_tag=SharedFolder ^
-fsdev local,id=share0,macos_compat=on,security_model=none,path="C:\qemu-shared" ^

The error you see might come from using the usb-storage which is inherently unsafe.

As for the norton cd not booting, I don't know the cd layout. It might be the system folder is not on a partition number qemu searches.

Best,
Cat_7

[macfly]

Hi, so Macbench score was 2539 on experimental build and 2715 on old screamer build - nothing critical I guess but catched my eye
Thanx for reply!