Back in June I posted a few messages regarding my attempts to boot the
NetBSD (and later FreeBSD) install floppies under Connectix' Virtual PC 1.0
product for the Power Macintosh.

To recap, the results I got were:

NetBSD 1.2.1 install floppies:
------------------------------
Didn't work, because the floppy driver was really unhappy when I switched
to the 2nd boot floppy.

NetBSD 1.2D SSTO single floppy (based on a then NetBSD-current from ~ 6/24):
------------------------------
By default, this assumed it could use a PCI_CONF_MODE of 2, and it probed the
emulated PCI bus as such, but found no devices on the PCI bus.

Patrick Welche then sent me a custom SSTO boot floppy with a kernel that
had PCI_CONF_MODE hardwired to be "1".  This successfully probed the PCI bus
but did not find the emulated DEC Ethernet (de0) device properly.

FreeBSD 3.0-970618-SNAP boot.flp floppy:
----------------------------------------
This ate Hot Flaming Death (crash) rather quickly in the initial boot cycle ...

Well, Connectix came out with their 1.0.1 updater, so I thought I'd try it
again.

The good news:

The custom SSTO floppy (with PCI_CONF_MODE hardwired to 1) not only probed
the emulated PCI bus, it also found the emulated DEC Ethernet "card"!  This
is a big step forward as it potentially allows an easy way to get the rest
of the NetBSD software onto the system via Ethernet.

The FreeBSD 3.0 SNAP floppy booted right up, no crash, and right into the
FreeBSD configuration stuff!  Neat to see the color GUI interface come up
exactly as you'd see it on a PC ... dunno what changed in Virtual PC, but
this now boots up ... (I didn't actually try to install it, though.)

The bad news:

The 1.2D default install floppy (with PCI_CONF_MODE not set) still tries to
probe the emulated PCI bus in mode 2, and fails ... (finds nothing on the bus).
Doh!  So near, but yet so far ...

I'll try a newer 1.3_ALPHA boot floppy when I get a chance ...

Anyway, just thought some of you folks who followed the previous discussion
might be amused by the current state of events.  Maybe Jordan knows what
magic FreeBSD knew to use to find the emulated PCI bus stuff automagically  :-)
Might be fun to see how well this would perform on one of the new 266 MHz
PowerMac G3's ...

(Reply-To: header set to point back to me)

	- Greg