QEMU-based MacOS 9.2.1+ operating systems have no sound, audio not supported

[Cynde_Moya]

Deployment: Please indicate if you are either using EaaSI’s managed service (hosted.eaasi.cloud) or self-hosting; if the latter, please provide some basic detail of your computing setup if possible (cloud service, local VM, bare metal, etc.)

AusEaaSI

EaaSI Version (if self-hosting): This corresponds to the release branch/installer version used to deploy your server. This information should be available in the Manage Node menu, if accessible

2021,10

Browser: The name and version of the browser you are using to access the EaaSI UI, if applicable

Google Chrome

Description: Please describe your issue in as much detail as possible, including name + ID of any relevant environments, software or content. You can also attach screenshots or relevant error report files.

MacOS built using QEMU do not have sound enabled. I saw a note on the hosted node on “Mac OSX 10.2 Jaguar (CDROM Fixed)” environment, reads: “- audio currently not functional (none of QEMU’s emulated audio devices have native OSX driver support)”

I cannot get the sound to work in MacOS9.2.1, which is also QEMU-based.

I found some likely instructions at

https://gist.github.com/unnamedd/1430410fb329bc3480359ef32e38f94a

which look hopeful. However I am not sure if I at AusEaaSI am close enough to the metal to actually perform all of these operations.

Are you able to reproduce the issue or did it happen once? What steps can you take to repeat the issue? What did you expect to occur and what was the actual outcome?

This issue seems well-known around QEMU and MacOS emulators.

Urgency: If possible, please give an indication of how urgently the issue needs to be addressed - is there a timeline or deadline (e.g. upcoming demo, researcher request, etc.) that EaaSI support staff should be aware of?

I have an interview with an artist on May 17, 2023 where I need sound on a MacOS9.2.1 or later environment to show the artist their artwork.

[ethan.gates]

Hi @Cynde_Moya, yes, as you say, this is a well-known upstream issue with QEMU that the mainstream releases do not support audio output when running Mac OS 9 or OSX systems. Experimental support for sound in Mac OS 9 is only available in the “screamer” fork referenced in the instructions you link.

I don’t believe it would be possible, even with direct access to the EaaSI server, to build the QEMU fork on your AusEaaSI machine and make it selectable in the Emulator settings for relevant Environments. OpenSLX would have to create and publish a version of their qemu-eaas emulator template that uses the “screamer” fork instead of a mainline QEMU release, to make it compatible with the EaaS back-end and available to import into EaaSI deployments. I will have to pass along your request (or you could post an Issue on that GitLab repository), but I can’t estimate the timeline as expanding the number and capabilities of the currently available emulator templates is not an EaaSI program development priority at the moment.

[rafaelgieschke]

Coincidentally, we did look at integrating the “screamer” fork of QEMU into EaaS for Rhizome just last week in Integrate "screamer" build of qemu-system-ppc (#20) · Issues · Emulation-as-a-Service / eaas · GitLab.

It is pretty hackish currently and I am not familiar with the EaaSI interface at all but you might be able to import it (image name “registry.gitlab.com/emulation-as-a-service/emulators/qemu-eaas”, tag “screamer”). In EaaS (not sure about EaaSI), you then have to enable “WebRTC Audio (Beta)” and “XPRA Video (Experimental)” (or it will probably not work at all). Additionally, you have to specify -audiodev pa,id=pa,server=/emucon/data/sockets/pulse-iosocket as “nativeConfig” (“Emulator configuration” in EaaS’s UI).

If you want a relative mouse pointer, adding -device usb-tablet to nativeConfig might also help (but might also make things worse).

[rafaelgieschke]

The good people at Rhizome also added information on how to install the tablet driver in Mac OS, which is necessary for relative-mouse support: https://github.com/rhizomedotorg/qemu-ppc-screamer/blob/main/MacOS921_ConfigurationGuide.md#installing-the-usb-tablet-driver-for-mouse-integration-in-mac-os-921-emulator.