On Tue, 28 Mar 2000, Thilo Manske wrote:

> I bought a used Umax Apus 3000 and managed to installed NetBSD/macppc
> on it, so it can be added to the "supported models" list.
> 
> Some notes that may be helpfull for others:
> 
> * As with the PowerMAC 9500 and others the screen/keyboard console can't be
>   used (OpenFirmware won't boot - the "CLAIM failed" bug as described in
>   the FAQ), so you have to use the serial console (ttya).
> 
>   The serial console crashed from time to time on me and the only way to
>   recover was a reset of the Apus. Maybe my cables aren't wired correctly
>   (handshake..)

I doubt it; I've got a Performa 6400 (I think it's Alchemy-based, too...)
and I just don't use a serial console on it because it will lock up solid
on me once in a while.  (Actually, pretty often.)

> * OpenFirmware can't boot from IDE. Don't know why... (gives weird
>   error messages I don't remember right now.)
>   NetBSD has no problems with the interface; I used it to shovel the
>   binaries and sources on the Apus from my i386 with an old IDE harddisc.

I have the same sort of problem; once I had booted from floppy once,
though, it would boot fine from the hard drive.  I had to set the
boot-device properly (ata/ATA-Disk@0:0) and then boot from floppy once and
then boot from the hard drive to get it to work.  It's worked ever since.

Stupid Open Firmware.  A great idea that wasn't given enough time and
money.  :(

--fission