(NOTE: for more 'current' details see Running Open Genera 2.0 on Linux in particular Ubuntu 18.04 LTS)

(NOTE: this a copypaste of the page at http://labs.aezenix.com/lispm/index.php?title=VLM_On_Linux&direction=prev&oldid=44205 which appears (as of 2008-10) submerged in $PA.M. it compliments the instructions at http://collison.ie/blog/2008/04/lisp-machines and/or those at http://www.advogato.org/person/johnw/diary/12.html)

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This file gives some additional hints on running the Symbolics Virtual Lisp Machine (VLM) port to Linux/x86_64 by Brad Parker. I am running the VLM on a Ubuntu 6.06.1 host, so whatever I describe here may not work with other distributions. My background is FreeBSD, so some things I describe may be obvious to those with a Linux background. The configuration I describe in this file does not try to provide “security”, so by following it, you will potentially expose all files on your Linux host as well as all passwords you may enter into this configuration to the Internet, and beyond. What is the VLM?

The VLM is a development by Symbolics that, in a way, represents the last Lisp machine built before Symbolics went bankrupt. It was originally written for the DEC Alpha processor, which was the first 64 Bit CPU that was commercially available. A software implementation of the Lisp machine required a 64 Bit CPU to attain acceptable performance. The VLM implements the full Lisp machine architecture, so it is largely software compatible to the “real” Symbolics Lisp machines (36xx, Ivory).

Brad Parker wrote an implementation of the VLM for Linux. It is based on the Symbolics software, and there is some uncertainty about its legal status as well as the legal status of the rest of Symbolics intellectual property. This seems to mean that redistribution of the software or using it in a commercial context is not possible at the moment.

The VLM program is an emulator, it implements the environment for the Lisp machine operating system, Genera, that looks like real hardware from the Lisp side. It supports a virtual ethernet interface and a console. The screen is implemented using the X Window System, so you need to have X11 running on your host.

Presently, the ethernet interface is hardwired to use the address 10.0.0.1 for the Linux host and 10.0.0.2 for the VLM. This cannot be changed. See the section on “Networking the VLM” in this file for some information on how to work with this.

First of all, you need to get the VLM for Linux tar ball from http://www.unlambda.com/download/genera/snap4.tar.gz - There may be a newer version, so please check out the base directory and read this file with extra care if you are using a newer version. Unpack the snap4 distribution on your Ubuntu host system. Make sure that you have read the README file in the distribution, at least briefly. This file supplies additional information you'll need.

You also want the OpenGenera 2.0 distribution tarball which includes the system sources as well as additional software packages and example files. There is no official distribution site for this tar ball, so you will have to ask around for this. If you have it, unpack it in a directory that you wish to be accessed by the VLM, for example /vlm.

My starting point is a plain Ubuntu installation from the 6.06.1 boot CD without any special options. A few packages need to be added in order to make the Linux host system provide the neccessary service to the VLM. Some of these services are found in auxilary package source which need to be enabled in /etc/apt/sources.list (I uncommented all commented-out package sources).

$ sudo apt-get update

needs to be run after the sources have been enabled in order to refresh the local cache of package names.

The following packages are required in addition to the base system:

$ sudo apt-get install inetd nfs-common nfs-user-server

If “inetd” doesn't work for you, try “netkit-inetd”. If “nfs-user-server” doesn't work for you, you probably didn't uncomment the package sources in /etc/apt/sources.list as described above.

The Internet superserver is used to provide the VLM with the system date and time during startup. After installation, the following entries in /etc/inetd.conf need to be added or uncommented:

$ cat /etc/inetd.conf 
daytime stream  tcp     nowait  root    internal
daytime dgram   udp     wait    root    internal
time            stream  tcp     nowait  root    internal
time            dgram   udp     wait    root    internal

After the file has been updated, restart inetd with

$ sudo /etc/init.d/inetd restart

The NFS file server is used to give the VLM access to a file system. In theory, the kernel mode NFS server should give better performance, but I had difficulties getting it to run. After installation, /etc/exports needs to be updated in order to export the host's file system to the VLM by adding a line like:

$ cat /etc/exports
/       10.0.0.2(rw,no_root_squash)

Depending on NFS server flavour, you may want to add also the following options after the no_root_squash option to squelch some warnings

sync,subtree_check

After this has been done, restart the NFS server using

$ sudo /etc/init.d/nfs-user-server restart

Now verify that your file system is properly exported:

$ showmount -e localhost

Note that the VLM now has full access to the hosts' file system and can overwrite or delete any file. You may restrict access by exporting only part file system, but I have not tried this. Also note that this example exports the file system to 10.0.0.2, which is the compiled-in address of the VLM. Other systems in the network have no access to the hosts' file system.

If you access files from the VLM through NFS using “anonymous” access, the uid 4294967294 and gid 4294967294 will be used. These ids are presumably meant to mean “nobody”. Add entries to /etc/passwd and /etc/group for this uid and gid in order to have something better than the numeric uid be displayed when listing files on the host system.

$ grep lispm /etc/passwd /etc/group
/etc/passwd:lispm:x:4294967294:4294967294::/tmp:/bin/false
/etc/group:lispm:x:4294967294:

You now have a basic setup that will allow you to start Genera. Skip to “Starting Genera and defining your site” if you are impatient.

If you want to set up log ins from the VLM to the NFS server on the host system, the VLM needs to get access to the mapping from user ids and group ids to user names and vice versa. When Genera was written, the NIS protocol was commonly used to provide this service within local networks. NIS basically exports the authentication files in the traditional unix format to a local area network.

To run NIS, you need the nis package:

$ sudo apt-get install nis

You need to decide what your NIS domain name will be. This domain name does not need to correspond to your DNS domain name. My NIS domain name is the same as my Genera site name (“pharmacy”), but anything else could be used instead. The NIS domain name must be put into the file /etc/defaultdomain:

$ cat /etc/defaultdomain
pharmacy

You need to set up your system as NIS master in the file /etc/default/nis:

$ grep NISSERVER /etc/default/nis
NISSERVER=master

Your password file needs to use “unix crypt” style passwords instead of the now-common md5 passwords. On Ubuntu with the default installation I use, this is configured in the file /etc/pam.d/common-password by commenting out the string “md5”:

$ grep md5 /etc/pam.d/common-password
password  required  pam_unix.so nullok obscure min=4 max=8 # md5

Note that you will now have to re-set all passwords using the “passwd” command so that they appear in the correct format.

The VLM does not support shadow passwords, so you need to convert your password database:

$ sudo pwunconv
$ sudo grpunconv

Once all this is done, you have to initialize your NIS database:

$ cd /var/yp
$ sudo make

This should leave you with a NIS server that can be used for authentication from the Lisp machine. Starting Genera and defining your site

Once you have set up a suitable host environment, you need to configure the .VLM file in the snap4/ directory. (Note: Make sure you are using the .VLM file and not the dot.VLM file!) As distributed, it contains two wrong lines:

genera.world: ../symbolics/MIT.vlod
genera.debugger: ../symbolics/VLM_debugger

These should read

genera.world: MIT.vlod
genera.debugger: VLM_debugger

Fix the two lines and save the file. Now you are ready to start the VLM by changing your working directory to the snap4/ directory and type:

$ sudo ./genera

The VLM should start and present you with a welcome screen that asks you to log in. You will then have to define your site, please see the quickstart.text file in the OpenGenera distribution directory for information how to do that.

Once you have defined your site, save your world:

Command: Reset Network
Command: Save World <your-host>:/tmp/my-genera.vlod

Replace <your-host> by the name of your Linux host, as defined in the Define Site process. The path you specify needs to be writable from the VLM through NFS. If it is not writeable, the VLM will crash and you'll loose the site definition.

As mentioned, the VLM has a fixed network configuration with a private IP address. In order to be able to access hosts in the Internet, your Linux host needs to do network address translation. I used the “firestarter” utility to get a basic configuration running, but this has the drawback that the firewall has to be manually started after the VLM had come up. firestarter creates interface-dependent firewall rules and the tun0 interface, which is used by the VLM, exists only while the VLM runs. I am sure that a better setup can be created by someone who knows more about Linux firewalls, and the best way would be to use a bridge interface in the VLM so that the Linux network stack would be fully circumvented. Maybe in the next release.

Try

$ xmodmap -e "keysym Alt_L = Meta_L Alt_L"
$ xmodmap -e "add mod1 = Meta_L"

if your left Alt key does not act as a Meta key.