Subject: Re: WHY DOES MACBSD ONLY WORK ON MAC II
To: None <thebush@cyberg8t.com>
From: Allen Briggs <briggs@puma.bevd.blacksburg.va.us>
List: macbsd-development
Date: 08/04/1995 16:48:29
> I have a question why does macbsd only work on MACII's If it does work on an 
> LCIII i would like to know

You just stated that it doesn't, so I guess it doesn't.

> The files i found WERE NOT helpful at telling me how to install it or
> at telling me what files i need

And your question wasn't phrased in such a way that I'm too inclined to
give you any more info.  You haven't done anything at all for me.  I
work on NetBSD on my own time.  Heck.  If you were a paying customer,
I'd be inclined to give you your money back and tell you to not come
back.

Anyway, since I'm a nice guy, I'll answer the question that I think you
were trying to ask.

NetBSD/mac68k aka MacBSD only works on a fairly limited (but growing)
range of Apple Macintosh systems.  It started out on the Mac II and now
runs on the II, IIcx, IIx, SE/30, IIci, IIsi, IIvx, IIvi, P600, and
maybe one or two others.  On the LCIII, LC550, PB145, PB170 and others,
it can't work with the apple desktop bus, but should work once that's
fixed.  When it gets fixed is a function of when I, or someone else, can
puzzle out what Apple did differently on these machines.  The reason it
doesn't work now, is because Apple _did_ do something different, but
they don't release their documentation on their hardware to us.

Now, the machines that wedge on the ADB might work with a "serial
console," but they don't at the moment because Apple also uses
different clocks to feed the serial chip(s) and they don't bother
documenting that for most systems, either.  I hope to have a test
program for this, soon, so that these systems can at least work in
this limited fashion.

-allen

PS. You caught me at a grumpy time.

-- 
Allen Briggs - end killing - allen.briggs@bev.net ** MacBSD == NetBSD/mac68k **
   Where does all my time go?  <a href="http://www.netbsd.org/">Guess.</a>