On Sun, 13 Aug 2000, Chris wrote:

>     Actually there are three major problems: (listed in the order they need
> to be fixed before it'll work)
> 
> 1.) as you mentioned, the 601 CPU support has not been added. I don't recall
> exactly why it hasn't been added, the info is out there, just no one has
> done it yet. [or taken it from MkLinux/LinuxPPC]

I'm assuming the big problem here are the BATs.  That and the clock stuff
if you're using it.  Can't think of anything else really major different
between the 601 and the rest of the 6xx family, but I'm probably missing
something.  Unless I'm missing something pretty big, though, it doesn't
seem like that much work.  So... what am I missing?  ;-)


> 2.) As the reply mentioned, it has no OpenFirmware to boot a kernel with at
> the ROM level. This means we have to boot MacOS and then use a program Like
> (a modified version of) BootX to load a *BSD kernel into RAM and execute it.
> (This could also be done, just hasn't yet) [or taken from MkLinux/LinuxPPC]

This is the tough one.  The first one can be hacked around if you get
things booting with a hacked BootX, as there are 604 and G3 upgrade cards
for the x100 family.


> 3.) It has NuBus instead of PCI. At this time, macppc doesn't have NuBus
> support. I was looking at the NuBus source code from the Mac68k port this
> afternoon, (I've got a 6100/60 myself) wondering if all it needs to be is
> copied over. Although I don't think this is the case, IIRC there were some
> modifications to the NuBus controllers between 68k models prior to Quadra
> 660 and 840AV, and PowerPC models; but I could be wrong. [This could also be
> taken from MkLinux]

This one really isn't important.  I got most of the critical stuff on the
x100's working and semi-documented, but MkLinux still doesn't have working
NuBus support.  It's just not required for using the system.  You have to
have the interrupt handling stuff in place, but that's about it.  And I
think you're right, the Quadra AV machines probably did use a BART or
something close.  They were a lot like the x100s in many ways.


David

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A brief Haiku:

Microsoft is bad.
It seems secure at first glance.
Then you read your mail.