On Sat, 10 Mar 2001, Steven Wilkinson wrote:

> I'm trying to boot the installer from a floppy disk and have been pretty
> unsuccessful at getting the open Firmware to start. I hit Command,option,O,F
> at the chime and I get the Black screen problem mentioned (ever so briefly)
> in the install file.
> 
> Here's where I get lost, what am I supposed to do to make this work?

Well, because System Disk won't work on a Performa 6400 (IIRC), you need
to grab a program called Boot Variables, so that you can reset some Open
Firmware defaults to some more reasonable settings.  Get it here:

ftp://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/arch/macppc/macos-utils/bootvars/

Ideally, you could set input-device to "kbd" and output-device to "screen"
but that doesn't work.  The default is somewhat useless; it's set to the
modem port "ttya" which happens to be plugged by a piece of plastic on my
Performa 6400.  Instead, set both input-device and output-device to "ttyb"
which is your printer port.

> I don't completely understand the install file's solution,
> do they mean that you have too hook up some rare device to the serial
> port to keep it from booting? that seems a little ridiculous.

You don't need any "rare device" -- just something that can do serial
communication, like another computer or terminal.  I use an old Mac SE
with ClarisWorks' communication software and a standard Mac printer cable,
which works great.  You could also use a PC if you have the right kind of
converter cable -- minicom, ckermit, cu, tip, or even (heh) HyperTerminal
will probably work fine, provided that the cable is right.  You can even
use a real terminal if you want.  Set your communications to 38400/8/N/1
and you're ready to go.  I set my flow control to XON/XOFF.

Once you've got your serial line set up, you'll be able to use the
Command-Option-O-F key sequence while booting the Performa to access Open
Firmware, after which, all control is passed to the serial port.  You can
then stick in the install disk and type: "boot fd:0".  After that, it's a
fairly standard NetBSD install.

> I'm pretty new to this, so I apoligize if this is stupid or repetitive to
> the veterans.

Actually, what might be useful to you is to go to
http://mail-index.netbsd.org/ and do a search -- I have a 6400/200 and
went through much of this before, eventually getting it to work quite
nicely.

> Thanks for any help,
> 
> steve wilkinson

Good luck; let us know how it turns out.

-- 
Tyler Mitchell

Truth is the most valuable thing we have -- so let us economize it.
		-- Mark Twain