Create a hard drive with the installation

use an existing virtual machine
power it off
add a new IDE drive called "vsta.vmdk" with 0.5G storage, in my case its IDE0:1 (hdb in linux)
power on the machine and log in as root

partition and format the drive

    # fdisk /dev/hdb
      - use "n" to create a new primary partition #1 covering the whole disk
      - use "t" to change the type of the partition to hex "e".
      - use "w" to write and quit
    # mkfs -t vfat /dev/hdb1
    # mount /dev/hdb1 /mnt

install a grub config file

    # mkdir -p /mnt/boot/grub
    # cat > /mnt/boot/grub/menu.lst
    default=0
    timeout=10
    title VSTa
        root= (hd0,0)
        kernel= /vsta/boot/vsta
        module= /vsta/boot/cons
        module= /vsta/boot/namer
        module= /vsta/boot/wd d0:readp
        module= /vsta/boot/dos -d //disk/wd:wd0_p0 -n fs/root
        module= /vsta/boot/init
    ^D

create a new floppy image called grub.flp and attach it to the machine

get grub and install it onto the floppy ( ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/grub/grub-0.95-i386-pc.tar.gz)

    # cd /tmp
    # wget ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/grub/grub-0.95-i386-pc.tar.gz
    # tar xzf grub*gz
    # cd grub*pc/boot/grub
    # dd if=stage1 of=/dev/fd0 bs=512 count=1
    # dd if=stage2 of=/dev/fd0 bs=512 seek=1

copy stage1 and stage2 to the vsta drive
```
    # cp stage1 stage2 /mnt/boot/grub
```

grab vsta.tz and extract it onto the drive under /vsta ( http://vsta.sourceforge.net/dist/1.6.8/vsta.tz)

    # cd /tmp
    # wget http://vsta.sourceforge.net/dist/1.6.8/vsta.tz
    # mkdir /mnt/vsta
    # cd /mnt/vsta
    # tar -xzf /tmp/vsta.tz

optionally install more packages
get a kernel with the vmware patch applied (see below) and put it in the boot directory: ( http://www.lava.net/~newsham/vsta/vsta.gz)
```
    # wget http://www.lava.net/~newsham/vsta/vsta.gz
    # gzip -d vsta.gz
    # mv vsta /mnt/vsta/boot
```
shutdown the machine and disconnect the drive and the floppy

Create a new machine for vsta

create a new machine using custom settings
- set the os to "other" and the name to "VSTa"
- use an existing drive that was previously created (move it into the VSTa directory if desired)
remove the usb, audio and cdrom devices, these are not needed
add a floppy device and attach it to the existing floppy image, and set it to connect on power on.
power on the machine, and from the grub floppy install grub onto the hard drive:
```
    grub> root (hd0,0)
    grub> setup (hd0)
```
disconnect the floppy image and reboot the machine

Login and enjoy

  login: root
  password: charlie

Odds and Ends

Remember if you rebuild the kernel to apply the vmware kernel patch first!

My VSTa page includes an ethernet driver for the NIC emulated by VMWare.

Appendix - kernel patch

The stock 1.6.8 kernel doesn't work with VMWare. To fix this, apply the following patch and then rebuild the kernel. Make sure that you get the real include file (/vsta/include/mach/vm.h) in addition to your src tree.

Index: vm.h
===================================================================
RCS file: /vsta/cvs/vsta/src/include/mach/vm.h,v
retrieving revision 1.4
diff -u -3 -r1.4 vm.h
--- vm.h        1 Sep 2007 15:03:52 -0000       1.4
+++ vm.h        27 Sep 2002 17:48:44 -0000
@@ -71,7 +71,7 @@
  */
 #define UBASE (0x0)
 #define UOFF (0x80000000)
-#define USTACKADDR (0x80000000-UMAXSTACK)
+#define USTACKADDR (0x77000000-UMAXSTACK)

 /*
  * Address of utility map used by hat_attach() on i386

Appendix - Known issues

When the console server beeps, it causes a presistent clicking sound. To fix, apply the following patch to /vsta/src/srv/mach/cons2:

Index: cons.c
===================================================================
RCS file: /vsta/cvs/vsta/src/srv/mach/cons2/cons.c,v
retrieving revision 1.22
diff -u -3 -r1.22 cons.c
--- cons.c      16 Dec 2011 18:20:23 -0000      1.22
+++ cons.c      6 Jul 2004 23:15:36 -0000
@@ -802,7 +802,11 @@
                 * Ring bell
                 */
                if (c == '\7') {
+                       int count = 1193180 / 440;
                        outportb(beep_port, inportb(beep_port) |  3);
+                       outportb(0x43, 0xb6);
+                       outportb(0x42, count & 0xff);
+                       outportb(0x42, (count >> 8) & 0xff);
                        __msleep(100);
                        outportb(beep_port, inportb(beep_port) & ~3);
                }