kevin havener wrote:
> 
> I have the subject machine with MacOS 7.5.5 on it.  Don't think I'll
> make the transition to 8.  Over the past couple of years I've been
> learning all about linux.  Now I'm proficient enough in that to risk
> doodling with my Mac.  I want to put a MacBSD on it when the next
> release comes out.  I've been lurking on this list, trying to learn a
> little about the BSD way and how to fit it on a Mac.  A couple of
> questions:
> 
> 1.  From what I can tell on www.macbsd.com, this machine is supported
> pretty well.  It's pretty well stock with a new keyboard, an additional
> 16 Mb of RAM (24 total), a different keyboard, and an additional
> external LaCie 1.2 Gb hard drive.  No bogeys here, right?

Sounds good to me!

> 2.  As far as I can tell the machine came from the factory broken.  I've
> owned it for over 5 years now, and I'm plagued by a problem of having a
> frozen cursor on bootup.  That is, the screen comes on, the cursor
> appears, and it is frozen--does not respond to the mouse.  I can hit the
> reset switch (at that instant) to reboot a time or two and it will
> finally recognize mouse input.  This problem repeats itself randomly. 
> In other words, the computer often boots just fine.
>  
>         a.  Does anyone know what causes this behavior?  It has
> persisted through endless extension deconflicting sessions, several
> MacOS system upgrades, the keyboard change, etc.  What hardware should I
> suspect?  I think, but am not sure, the problem persists whether the
> mouse is plugged into the keyboard or either one of the ports on the
> back of the machine.  I haven't swapped the mouse out yet, so does
> anyone have any advice on an appropriate MacBSD compatible 3-button
> mouse? Since the problem is intermittent, it's damn hard to figure out
> what I've changed since the last time I booted the $@%&!

The first thing I'd try is borrowing another mouse.  It might be that the
controller in the mouse is slightly damaged.  If that doesn't fix it, then
it might be that the motherboard ADB controller is a bit damaged (this can
happen if you plug/unplug ADB devices while the machine is turned on).

As for 3-button compatible mice, there is a list of these available in the
INFO sheet (http://www.netbsd.org/Ports/mac68k/info/)...but it seems that
most Logitech mice work, as well as the Mouse Systems A3 mouse and the
MicroSpeed mouse deluxe.  We seem to have some difficulties with
Kensington mice at the moment (although the HWDIRECT ADB might fix
this...anyone with a multi-button Kensington mouse who want's to try using
HWDIRECT adb and see if it works???).

>         b.  Assuming I can't stop the problem with a little looking,
> what ramifications does this have to the MacBSD bootup?  In linux, where
> I use LILO to boot my operating systems, I imagine this problem could
> get ugly.  However if I used a "loadlin" style of bootup where I
> bootstrap MacBSD off of the MacOS, I could still use my index finger
> method of problem-solving.  I am unclear how MacBSD boots--does it
> bootstrap itself or does it bootstrap from the MacOS or both?

MacBSD boots by installing a shutdown task so that as MacOS goes bye-bye
it jumps into the kernel (so it require MacOS to run).  While this may
help with the problem you are seeing, there still might be a problem:  the
ADB driver does an ADBReInit call at boot time which re-initializes the
ADB bus.  So, if it's something screwy with ADBReInit, then you might
still see the problem :-(

I hope this helps some.

Later.

-- 
Colin Wood                                 cwood@ichips.intel.com
Component Design Engineer - MD6                 Intel Corporation
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I speak only on my own behalf, not for my employer.