At 3:03 PM -0500 7/27/01, David Burgess wrote:

:)Things I have learned so far:
:)
:)1)  Hooking a 'terminal' up to the serial port is wholly unsatisfying.
:)My VT102 and VT220 both are limited to 19200 bps, but the serial port
:)on the 7600s both default to 38400.

D'oh.

:)3)  Both 7600's are in a more 'advanced' video mode than the monitor
:)I want to use.  I found a reference to the "Apple" icon, followed by
:)"Audio and Video" settings.  Right now, the screen appears to sit more
:)or less 'side-by-side'.

Boot the machine up and hold down command-option-p-r until it chimes a
second time, and that should zap your MacOS video settings.  Open Firmware
(with the patched System Disk) should drive your screen at 640x480 at 67 Hz.

:)4)  It is not possible to 'start' NetBSD without at least one working
:)computer already available.  Apparently, this working computer will
:)need to be a Mac as well.

For your model, yes.  You need either that machine to be running a real
install of MacOS, or another machine to be serial console, or netboot
server (which may not work on early PowerMacs).

:)Point 2 needs some more explanation.  I have gotten the OF interface
:)working, as well as the MacOS fixit disk.  How do I use the .smi
:)image to patch 1.0.5?
:)
:)My choices are:
:)
:)	a)  Copy it onto an MS-DOS floppy as a program.
:)	b)  Use one of the macutils to put it onto a floppy.
:)	c)  'dd' it onto a floppy.
:)	d)  Some other 'if you had a Mac you'd understand' thing.

Yeah, it's easy for a semi-experienced Mac user.  You're running across the
problem of inexperience and lack of a full MacOS installation.  The stuff
you're trying to do is pretty general "how do I download and install a new
program".  Unfortunately, it's pretty different from the Windows way of
doing things, and totally alien from the unix way.

:)One of the other "interesting" things that I've run across is that
:)the "Disk Tools" disk won't eject once I've booted from it.

You're trying the "put away" command.  Try the "eject" command.  I think I
may have misled you at one point on this topic.  With the "eject" command
(from the "special" menu), it will leave the disk mounted and somewhat
cached, but may still request the disk back to get more info.

:)> > I haven't even started on that one yet.  I'm a little perplexed as to the
:)> > usability of a lap top computer where you can't use the screen that comes
:)> > with it....
:)
:)Rephrase that to "where you can't use the screen ...." to "where you
:)need another computer to run a program on it."   Right now, it looks
:)like I'm going to need about $1000 worth of computer to run programs
:)on a old, slow Mac with 8 Meg of memory.

Huh?  Which system are you talking about?  Other than needing at least 16
MB RAM in your PowerMac, and an additional VSIMM (to get rid of the partly
missing screen issues), I don't think you need any additional hardware.
Maybe another HD to leave MacOS installed onto so you don't have to do the
floppy business.

As to why you'd want NetBSD on a PowerBook that couldn't use its screen --
people install onto those machines "because it can be done" :)

:)I've been curious about this for a couple of days now.  Is the video
:)completely useless (as in, no text-only display mode) or is it just
:)that there is no extended (graphics) mode?

Once you use the patched System Disk (or even without it, but you'll need a
good multi-sync monitor to use your screen), your PowerMac can do text
console and unaccelerated 8 bpp 640x480 X11R6.

:)> Probably with the only source of information coming from
:)> decompiling the Apple ROM and searching through ~2MB of Assembly language
:)> for the init bits. Possibly using a logic probe on chip itself, which is
:)> probably built into a custom motherboard ASIC. As is the case with the ADB
:)> controller on my 950.
:)
:)There are certainly other sources of information.  Besides, searching
:)through 2M of Assembly code is a SNAP!  I've done tougher things in my
:)short career (core dumps by IBM, DEC, and Honeywell; as well as writing
:)my own BIOS for the CP/M I built in the early 80's).  I'm a trained
:)assembler programmer - it doesn't scare me at all.

Cool!  hp300 needs someone to go through the 425e rom to figure out how to
talk to the SGC bus and access the framebuffer (of course, it's the *only*
model to use that bus for its framebuffer).

  -- MW