Hi,

So I guess the question is: how do we find out this info and change it
without inadvertantly trashing the computer? Also, I don't really have 
access to MacOS 9.x so I don't have a way to just change the resolution 
using that way (although I do have 10.2 but unfortunately, that OS was 
only able to use 640x480x8 on the machine also).

-John

On Sat, 30 Apr 2005, Michael wrote:

> Hello,
> 
> > I have been wondering the mechanism of default display size
> > for G2 Macs for a long time.
> > 
> > My impression is that the value is stored on disk. 
> > 
> > Somewhere in one of following etc.
> > 
> >  1: Apple_partition_map Apple                 63 @ 1       
> >  2:      Apple_Driver43*Macintosh             54 @ 64      
> >  3:      Apple_Driver43*Macintosh             74 @ 118     
> >  4:    Apple_Driver_ATA*Macintosh             54 @ 192     
> >  5:    Apple_Driver_ATA*Macintosh             74 @ 246     
> >  6:      Apple_FWDriver Macintosh            200 @ 320     
> >  7:  Apple_Driver_IOKit Macintosh            512 @ 520     
> >  8:       Apple_Patches Patch Partition      512 @ 1032    
> > 
> > If I wiped out those stuff while installing NetBSD, 
> > the information is gone.
> > 
> > If you set disaplay size in MacOS 8 or 9, and then 
> > installing NetBSD in the manner that some info in above
> > is preserved, the display size stays what you set in Mac OS.
> > 
> > Am I wrong ?
> 
> I'm pretty sure it's stored in NVRAM - the display gets initialized ( at least when you enter the OF prompt ) long before there's any disk activity. Of course MacOS sometimes likes to switch resolution when booting ( and even does that pretty early ). OF prior to 2.0 doesn't preserve this information at all so MacOS sets it and it's 'forgotten' when you boot something else :)
> 
> have fun
> Michael
>