Setup Autostart Drive Emulation on MFM Emulator

[Forgotten Machines]

David & Group,

I recall early in 2015 when I started using the MFM Emulator that there was some kind of parameters I could set so that on power up the BBB would always launch the hard drive image, by automatically executing the commands, like

./setup_emu

./mfm_emu  -d 1 -f ../HardDriveImage.emu

But milling around the page at https://www.pdp8online.com/mfm/, I'm unable to find it.

Perhaps I'm searching for the wrong keywords, or it's on a subpage linked here somewhere?

If anyone can remember and link to me where the startup/autostart sequence is documented, I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks always,

Best,

AJ

[Santo Nucifora]

It's noted under "Starting Emulation on Power On" if you click on the "Example Usage" link.  I did that just recently.

https://www.pdp8online.com/mfm/revb/revb_board_build.shtml#checkout

Santo

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[Forgotten Machines]

OK, thank you so much, Santo!!

[Forgotten Machines]

OK, sorry for missing it, but there's a lot of info on that page to wade through.  The section you refer to says to just run:

systemctl enable mfm_emu.service

So, perhaps that handles automatically doing the  ./setup_emu every time, right?

But then where do I specify the drive number and .emu image file for it to run after this?

Is there some sort of batch file I need to set up or something?

Or is "mfm_emu.service" the batch file itself that is editable somewhere?

Sorry,  if I'm just missing it should it be right there in front of my face...that happens to me sometimes, especially when I work on this stuff late at night...

Thanks again everyone,

Best, 

AJ

On Monday, September 8, 2025 at 3:14:48 AM UTC-5 santo.n...@gmail.com wrote:

[d...@pdp8online.com]

But then where do I specify the drive number and .emu image file for it to run after this?

 

From page pointed to: If you wish to change the options edit /etc/mfm_emu.conf. 

Is there some sort of batch file I need to set up or something?

There is a shell script which runs at boot which the config files controls its operation.  You shouldn't need to edit it.

If you want to see what it does with new OS its in  /opt/mfm/emu/start_mfm_emu