Subject: IIsi: partial success, need advice!
To: None <macbsd-general@NetBSD.ORG>
From: Laurence Byrne <byrne1@husc.harvard.edu>
List: macbsd-general
Date: 02/05/1995 02:28:47
Greetings! Although I've been subscribing to the mailing list for a long
time now, I hadn't got the necessary equipment to install MacBSD until now.
The results of my experiments with MacBSD1.0 (patched) (Nov. 3rd, I think),
on a 9Mb IIsi:

* It looks like you can add another accelerator card to the 'compatible' list.
  My IIsi is fitted with an Accomplice 50Mhz 030/882 combo; I disabled the cache
  and it appeared to boot successfully (see caveats below)

* Is it necessary to put the IIsi into 1-bit mode, *and* to set the internal
  video 'reserve video memory' settings to 1-bit? Before I did this, I suffered
  horrendous screen munges right after the "73360 bytes reserved for symbol
  table" message.

* Unfortunately, I can't actually use the system, because I can't offer it any
  input. Yup, I know IIsi ADB doesn't yet work (incidentally, the MRG kernel
  hung while probing the adb bus), but I'm not having any success with the
  serial ports either, and so I can't get beyond the "Press return for sh, or
  enter other shell" message. I have a Mac Portable, running some comms s/w,
  hooked up to the IIsi's modem port via a printer/IW cable. So far, I've
  seen absolutely nothing on the Portable, and the IIsi doesn't get out of
  the booter when it's told to use the modem port (printer port or no port
  at all work fine as outlined above), where "doesn't get out" means Vulcan
  death grip time.
        Should this setup work?
        If so, what adjustments should I make to MacBSD?
        What serial port settings should I use on the Portable?
        [preempts the above] After consulting the mailing list archives, I've
        read that the last person to admit to using a IIsi in this manner
        had to use a null modem. Is the printer cable just not up to the task?

* Finally, someone wrote recently that they have a working driver for the
  Asante IIsi/SE30 ethernet card. I've got one of these cards, but the ftp
  site mentioned doesn't appear to exist any more (nameserver lookup fails)...
  Is there a mirror? (The failed site was 'ftp.fcr.com')

Muchas gracias in advance for any advice on these problems. Before I sign
off, though, let me express my admiration for and gratitude towards the
members of the Alice project. It's a remarkable achievement.

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