The
bsod
program is the finest in personal computer emulation.
bsod
steps through a set of screens, each one a recreation of a different failure
mode of an operating system. Systems depicted include Microsoft's Windows 95
and Windows NT, Commodore-Amiga's AmigaDOS 1.3, SPARC Linux, SCO UNIX, the
Apple Macintosh (both the MacsBug debugger and the rarer "Sad Mac"), and the
Atari ST.
OPTIONS
bsod
accepts the following options:
-window
Draw on a newly-created window. This is the default.
-root
Draw on the root window.
-mono
If on a color display, pretend we're on a monochrome display.
-install
Install a private colormap for the window.
-visual visual
Specify which visual to use. Legal values are the name of a visual class,
or the id number (decimal or hex) of a specific visual.
-delay delay
The delay between displaying one crash and another.
ENVIRONMENT
DISPLAY
to get the default host and display number.
XENVIRONMENT
to get the name of a resource file that overrides the global resources
stored in the RESOURCE_MANAGER property.
X RESOURCES
Notable X resources supported include the following, which control which
hacks are displayed and which aren't.
doWindows,
doNT,
doAmiga,
doMac,
doMacsBug,
doSCO,
doAtari,
doBlitDamage,
doSparcLinux,
and
doSSolaris.
Each of these is a Boolean resource, they all default to true, except for
doSparcLinux and doAtari, which are turned off by default, because they're
really not all that interesting looking unless you're a fan of those systems.
There aren't command-line options for these, so to change them, you'll need
to add entries to your .Xdefaults file, or use the -xrm option.
For example, to tell bsod not to show the NT crash:
bsod -xrm '*doNT: false'
BUGS
Unlike the systems that the images are borrowed from,
bsod
does not require a reboot after running.
bsod
should also emulate more systems, but systems with interesting crash
graphics are not as common as one might hope.
One I'd really like to see is a Unix system getting a kernel panic,
rebooting, and running
fsck(8).
Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Windows 95, and Microsoft Windows NT are all
registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Apple Macintosh is a
registered trademark of Apple Computer. Amiga is a registered trademark of
Amiga International, Inc. Atari ST is probably a trademark, too, but it's
hard to tell who owns it. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds,
but it isn't his fault.
