Emulating Haiku In AMD SimNow

This article is aimed at developers, as AMD SimNow is both a Virtual machine and an AMD hardware emulator. If you just want to try Haiku out, you might want to use another VM that is more aimed at end users.
Go to section:

Downloading Haiku

There are several methods offered to install Haiku. For AMD SimNow will need to download either the iso image or the anyboot image here which is a mix of the iso image and the RAW image and can directly be used as an HDD, i.e. it does not require installation.

Downloading AMD SimNow

There is only the linux version of SimNow available on the AMD's website, but you can get an older 64bit Windows .exe here.

Installing SimNow

Installation of AMD SimNow is just like installing any other software.

Preparing the Virtual Machine

Creating the Hard Disk Image

Go to the installation directory, and run "disktool.exe". We will use this to create a blank hard disk image.

Click on "Create Blank Disk Image"

Choose a location to save the hard disk image to.

Assign a size to your hard disk image and click ok.

Click ok to complete the process and exit disktool.

Mounting ISO image for installation

Now, run "simnow.exe" from the installation directory to run SimNow.

Click on the Open BSD icon.

Choose "cheetah_1p.bsd" from the SimNow directory.

After the BSD is loaded, click on File > Set IDE Primary Master Image

Browse to the hard disk image that you just created in the previous part.

Now, click File > Set IDE Secondary Master Image.

Change File type to "ISO Images (*.iso)" and browse to the downloaded Haiku iso image.

Using the Anyboot image

You can also use the anyboot image to directly run Haiku without installation in the VM.

Just choose the anyboot image as your IDE Primary Master, and you're ready to go!

Running the Virtual Machine

The configuration of your virtual device is now complete.

Click the Play button to Run the simulation.

You can see Haiku loading in the SimNow window.