At 5:41 PM -0400 7/27/01, Ken Wellsch wrote:
>David Burgess wrote:
> > If I "setenv boot-device fd", the disk spins and spits.
>
>I had to type "boot fd0" or I got a nasty fatal gripe from OF.

OF can be really pickey.  Also different OF versions want different 
details even for the same thing.

> > I'm just a rube here, but wouldn't just about any PCI video card
> > solve your primary problem?
>
>Well, as I understand this, most/all cards on pretty much any vendor
>architecture include some PROM type glue on the card.  So for example,
>a Mac PCI card has open-firmware glue.  While a PC card may have x86
>code or something.

Unless you don't need the card until you're booted, you need a card 
with Open Firmware code.  That means either a Mac card or a Sun PCI 
card.  The latter may not work because it assumes a real, debugged 
Open Firmware implementation instead of Apple's though.  If you can 
wait until netbsd is booted then all you need is a netbsd driver in 
the kernel.

> > Working seems to be a relative term in MacBSD land.  The documentation
> > I've D/Led for the machine indicates that it should be able to use the
> > el-cheapo monitor that is sitting on top of the box right now.
>
>Is this a PC monitor with a VGA to D15 converter dongle?  Or is it
>a real Mac monitor?  A real Mac monitor is supposed to provide pin
>settings that "tell" the Mac what resolution it can do.  While a less
>than cheap VGA converter has some sort of switch(es) to select what
>resolution you want to emulate I believe.

Open Firmware and netbsd both ignore the switch settings AFAIK.  If 
you are running an OF 1.0.5 machine (like the 7600) then you can 
*only* do 640 X 480 @ 66 Hz, not the 60Hz that VGA uses.  That 
resolution is typically only supported on monitors that explicitly 
claim Mac compatibility.

Newer OF implementations will support changing default resolution. 
Maybe that's in the FAQ?

> > I'm going to try and 'blind-mouse' my way around the screen and see
> > if I can't accidentally get the video mode into a position I can use.
> >
> > > I suppose the 7600 is so broken in its OF you'd not get this to work,
> > > but it should be easy to try and cost no money B^)
> >
> > Actually, it's tantalizingly close.  It acts like it might TRY to
> > boot every once in a while, and I am seeing things that I expect
> > to happen happen.  Maybe I'll get another set closer tonight.

Should I interpret this as saying that you can't even get the display 
up under OF?  There are some nvram patches to fix this.  Learn to use 
nvedit inside OF and copy them in by hand from the web page.  (Not 
hard.  It's a one-line emacs editor.  Type nvsave or nvstore after 
you ^c to exit.)

Even bad machines in my experience will come up sometimes.  My 
daughter's 7500 will fail to sync the display in OF about 80% of the 
time, but I just set auto-boot false and reboot a few times until it 
works.  Then I proceed with a normal boot command.  (The machine 
stays in MacOS most of the time.)


Cross my heart, strike me dead, stick a lobster on my head.
John Crichton -- Farscape, 6/15/01
h.b.hotz@jpl.nasa.gov, or hbhotz@oxy.edu