On Wed, 17 Nov 1999, gabriel rosenkoetter wrote:

> On Wed, Nov 17, 1999 at 01:54:39PM -0500, Aaron Jackson wrote:
> > It's always worked for me.  I think, like with any free software, it's
> > stability is limited by the number of machines the developer has access
> > to.  I just mention BootX because, as far as I know, it is the only
> > reliable way to boot into "another OS" on most macs.
> 
> Well, considering BootX does nothing but use OpenFirmware, it can't be
> the "only reliable way"... and considering it doesn't always work, I
> wouldn't call it "reliable". :^>

BootX only uses OpenFirmware for device info, not booting.  In theory,
BootX shuld work even if you don't have OF (although the OS it launches
won't... ;-).


> > Also, if you download Darwin, it comes with a MacOS boot loader which
> > will patch buggy open firmware.  I think it only runs on g3s though.
> 
> I'm presuming this won't go anywhere towards patching the (old,
> un-feature-rich, arguably buggy) OpenFirmware in my 7500, even though
> it does have a G3 in it, though, eh? :^>

Actually, I think there are some OF workarounds/patches in Darwin for the
{6/7/8}500's.  You just can't flash the firmware like you can on a G3.
Doesn't mean you can't patch around the problems.  ;-)


David