Veneer.exe: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 00:48, 7 February 2024

VENEER.EXE is a Microsoft COFF executable used to start the boot sequence for Windows NT on PowerPC.

VENEER.EXE is an ARC firmware implementation that runs on an existing Open Firmware environment.^[1]

It treats IDE devices as SCSI devices.^[2]
It only recognizes 601, 603, 603e, 604, and 604e CPUs.^[3]
It appears to be present in the Windows NT source tree. Version 3.0 has strings referring to files in D:\nt\private\ntos\boot\veneer\, and Version 3.03 has S:\BUILDS\NT400\1345.960918\SRC\DAYTONA\MOT\VENEER\.
Version 1.0 complains about multi, whereas Version 3.0 and 3.03 do not. Version 1.0 will print: GetDeviceAttribute: node multi(1) not PeripheralClass.
Tested in Version 3.03, if a given node in the path is not PeripheralClass, a dump_node diagram of the node, its parent, its children, and its peers will be printed to the screen, along with the name, class, type, and key of the offending node.
Windows NT thinks it is a 16-bit executable for some reason. If you try to run it as such, you get a Program too big to fit in memory message.

Open Firmware ARC Interface Version 3.03 (Sep 19 1996 - 02:29:26), 128512 bytes^[4]
Open Firmware ARC Interface Version 3.0 (Jul 12 1996 - 18:46:28), 161792 bytes^[5]^[6]
Open Firmware ARC Interface Version 1.0 (May 10 1995 - 19:01:10), 83968 bytes^[7]

The following boot-time error messages have been seen so far:

@@ Line 11: / Line 11: @@
 * It appears to be present in the Windows NT source tree. Version 3.0 has strings referring to files in <code>D:\nt\private\ntos\boot\veneer\</code>, and Version 3.03 has <code>S:\BUILDS\NT400\1345.960918\SRC\DAYTONA\MOT\VENEER\</code>.
 * Version 1.0 complains about <code>multi</code>, whereas Version 3.0 and 3.03 do not. Version 1.0 will print: <code>GetDeviceAttribute: node multi(1) not PeripheralClass.</code>
-* Tested in Version 3.03, if a given node in the path is not <code>PeripheralClass</code>, a <code>dump_code</code> diagram of the node, its parent, its children, and its peers will be printed to the screen, along with the name, class, type, and key of the offending node.
+* Tested in Version 3.03, if a given node in the path is not <code>PeripheralClass</code>, a <code>dump_node</code> diagram of the node, its parent, its children, and its peers will be printed to the screen, along with the name, class, type, and key of the offending node.
+* Windows NT thinks it is a 16-bit executable for some reason. If you try to run it as such, you get a <code>Program too big to fit in memory</code> message.
 == Versions ==