At 4:02 PM +0200 5/11/01, Markus W Kilbinger wrote:

:)    Louis> I want to know if someone manages to install netbsd (1.5 or
:)    Louis> 1.5.1b) on the titanium machine.
:)
:)-current is the one I managed it with.

1.5.1 will support it.  If you can wait for a few weeks until 1.5.1 is
released, that would be by far the easiest solution -- we're still working
out a few bugs that make installation difficult.

If you can't wait, I'll send you a boot image for 1.5.1_BETA2 that will get
you going somewhat quickly.

:)First: You need OF 3...; it doesn't seem to work with OF 4... (Apple's
:)firmware patch).

Woah!  Hold on there a second.  Bad information is worse than no information.

All machine shipped after around 1998 are Open Firmware, version 3.  What
Markus is talking about is a FirmWare Update to the BootROM, which Apple
has specified as version 4.1.7 or 4.1.8.  These are different!  Open
Firmware is still 3.  To verify, run the following command in Open Firmware:
0 > dev /openprom .properties
 name           openprom
 device_type    BootROM
 model          OpenFirmware 3
 relative_addressing
 supports-bootinfo
 boot-syntax    00000001
   ok

It will still say OpenFirmware 3.

When you first boot your system into Open Firmware, at the top of the
screen it will print your model (such as "PowerBook3,1"), the BootROM
version (such as "2.1f1 BootROM"), and the date the BootROM was built.

To reiterate:  Apple's 4.1.7/4.1.8 FirmWare Update is updating is your BootROM.

For example, my PowerBook (FireWire) shipped with Open Firmware 3, but had
a BootROM version of 2.1f1.  If I were to update, it's BootROM version
would be 4.1.8.

And to further reduce the confusion:  this 4.1.7/4.1.8 update only has
negative consequences for PowerBook G4 (Titanium) models.  People are
reporting that their PowerMacintosh G4 systems still work fine with NetBSD
after the update.

Of course, warnings still apply about the RAM issues brought up by this
FirmWare Update (see
http://www.macfixit.com/archives/april.01.a.shtml#firm-04-07), but AFAICT,
NetBSD bootability is only affected on PowerBook G4 (Titanium) systems
updated to BootROM version 4.1.8.

I guess I need to add this to the FAQ/INSTALL notes if there's this much
confusion about it.

  -- MW