On May 26, 2005, at 2:18 PM, Chris Tribo wrote:
>
> No, OF 1 and 2 machines typically lose their settings if you do a 
> power manager reset (powerbook), dead PRAM battery, or boot MacOS (1.x 
> mainly, 2.x will change real-base I believe). You could update nvram 
> or the firmware over firewire. The firmware update process on OF 3 
> machines basically consists of copying the firmware update executable 
> binary to the root of the hard drive, blessing it, telling the machine 
> to restart and boot hd:,\\:tbxi, then when it's done it does 
> "mac-boot" to get back to OS 9, erases the firmware file and blesses 
> the OS 9 system folder. I don't really know a reason why you would 
> want to update it over firewire, but I'm sure it could be done with 
> some coding.

Makes sense.  Actually, its probaby better if doesn't can't what I was 
thinking, at least as far as firmware updating..  Firewire /1394 is 
memory addressed bus , arch, from my limited understanding, that 
communicating over firewire is similiar to memory mapped access over 
pci bus.   There's a machack program "FireStarter" where one can attach
two macs over firewire, and one can write to videoram of the other's 
display, performing
a fractal fire place kinda of demo, it just writes directly to the 
attached mac's vram,
so I was thinking since there's a of-node for nvram, perhaps on could 
do it 'over' firewire...
>
> It is firewire bootable, but once booted the firewire code is so buggy 
> that I question why anyone has enabled it in GENERIC kernels. The mere 
> presence of the code seems to cause system instability. The code is 
> just atrocious. It should be re-marked as experimental and disabled in 
> all kernels until someone fixes it, or imports the FreeBSD code which 
> allegedly works fine.
>
I've heard so little about it, I had thought one couldn't even attempt 
it using a drive, that it recognized the controller, and not much more. 
  I'll have to try it out -- experimentally.

>>> I can't think of anything show stopping that would prevent NetBSD 
>>> from running on an old version of the firmware.
>>
>> Recently, I'm having problem with my mac's screen distorting, and 
>> collapsing, kinda like
>> a tv or crt in a brown out, but lasting much longer, and not winking 
>> out.  Hitting the net I found links to people having the problem who 
>> didn't apply firmware update 4.1.9 before installing osx, well I had, 
>> and my boot rom version seems to match the upgrade,
>> it affects everything, forth, macosx, and NetBSD, sometimes the 
>> screen just stays off.
>> I've noticed there's PM update I've never applied though, and if it's 
>> that I guess I'm glad I have macos available to try the update... 
>> It's wierd, I can fix it by unplugging the mac for around hour, then 
>> it will work for a few days.
>
> It could be the inverter board on your screen is going, or the cable 
> is having issues. If the backlight is staying on then it's not likely 
> to be power related. It is certainly possible that it is power manager 
> related, our abtn driver does not handle brightness correctly and 
> often tends to cause no display in OS X. I usually have to boot to OS 
> 9 and adjust the brightness and contrast, then reboot to OS X, since 
> OS X doesn't let you adjust the contrast from the buttons on the 
> machine; and you can never get to full brightness in NetBSD. The pm 
> update should keep your battery from going dead so quickly if I 
> remember right.
>
>> Then again, my pram battery has been dead for maybe 2 years now, I'm 
>> also kinda wondering if it may be the battery alone,  I remember once 
>> not being able jump start a car, and thinking it was in pretty bad 
>> shape, and mechanic jumped it by taking the battery out completely, 
>> he sad something like a battery can get so dead it acts like a 
>> resistor and sucks voltage out of the system... Anyway, I already 
>> have a battery, it's just a matter of doing backups and taking the 
>> mac apart...
>
> I hope it isn't as much of a pain as it is for the Wallstreet 
> (complete system disassembly). They seem to have made it pretty easy 
> on the Pismo, just pop the keyboard, replace the battery and snap the 
> keyboard back down. Old world machines typically don't boot with a 
> completely dead battery.
>
Sadly, the PM reset button is reachable, but the battery holder is just 
out of reach of the memory door, so it's nearly as much work as 
installing a new hard drive.