Re: Booting a 660AV?

[Mouse <mouse%Rodents-Montreal.ORG@localhost>]

>> In particular, the mac68k pages make it look as though the only
>> known way to boot them is to boot into MacOS and then run a Booter
>> program.
> It's always been thus, [...]
>> But this machine's keyboard is ADB and video is a DA-15.
> Why 'but'?  It's a Mac.

"But" in the sense of "This is a problem, and here's why".

> You can boot to serial console, if you can borrow an ADB keyboard and
> mouse (or get an ADB converter
> <https://www.bigmessowires.com/usb-wombat/>),

Love to, but they give no indication how to find a brick-&-mortar near
me which carries the silly things.  Indeed, what indications I can find
appear to be that they expect to sell entirely over the Web, which is a
total non-starter for me.  I think I may have an ADB keyboard
somewhere; I certainly hope so....

> and a Mac video to VGA adapter (or solder one yourself).

A Mac DA-15 to VGA adapter is entirely passive?  That's very good to
hear.  I'll have to see if I can scare up the relevant pinouts next
time I'm at a work machine.  I also should dig into my (small) bin of
video adapters to see if perchance I have something suitable already.

> [...], I think the mac68k port of Linux does boot from hardware at
> least on some of the supported models.  But then you have to set up
> enough of the Mac's hardware to drive keyboard, video and storage.

...or serial port and storage...

> And that hardware is very diverse, it was never meant to be a
> standard interface.

But no more difficult than what the NetBSD kernel already does during
autoconfig, surely?  Or does NetBSD/mac68k depend on some of the
hardware being set up already?

> The AV Macs are probably the worst models to attempt that, for their
> special hardware.  ISTR martin@ has a 660AV, maybe he can help.

Well, this 660AV happens to be what I have on hand, so....  I think
I've given away all my other mac68k machines; I thought this was a
macppc machine until I looked at the board more closely and noticed
"XC68040RC25M" printed prominently on what I think is the chip with the
largest footprint on the board.  Because of that, I was not surprised
to discover that M9040 indicated a 68k machine.

					Mouse