Subject: Re: Mode32
To: None <port-mac68k@netbsd.org>
From: Tom Spindler <dogcow@redback.com>
List: port-mac68k
Date: 11/12/1999 18:13:03
> Chill? Chill on what? The ROMs are doing what they do. The older ones were
> only intended to run in 24-bit addressing, so they boot in it.
> 
> Getting into 32-bit addressing requires 2 things: 32-bit clean roms (where
> Mode32 fits in) and MacOS modifying the PMMU tables to work right in
> 32-bit mode.
> 
> The latter (adjusting the PMMU tables) is what we need to learn to get
> into 32-bit addressing.

When people start trawling the MMU tables, I'd urge caution, and
possibly not trusting entirely what the tables have to say.

When I had my IIvx, the Booter hung mysteriously no matter what I did.
It turns out that the Booter went traipsing through the MMU tables,
assuming that after  hitting the bottom of the (according to the 030
manual, 3 levels at most) memory tree it would hit a valid block
descriptor, and continue on its way.

What plopping through the PMMU indicated is that on my 20M IIvx, once
you dropped off the end of memory, the third-level block pointer would
point to the first-level one, causing Booter to go into an infinite
loop.

Fortunately, things are made easier by the fact that the Mac always
runs in supervisor mode.