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Georg Schwarz | 3 Jul 2009 22:52
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installing NetBSD/macppc from/onto USB key

I'd like to share my experience installing NetBSD 5.0/macppc from and  
onto a USB key:

I've booted an iMac G3 350 MHz (slot-loading CDROM) with the MacOS 9  
boot CD, then plugged in a USB key and installed MacOS 9 onto it,  
formatting it as an HFS disk and installing the Apple disk driver to  
it (don't know whether that's necessary).
Afterwards the iMac could boot MacOS 9 from that USB key.
I was curious whether it would also boot NetBSD. So I plugged the USB  
key into a running MacOS X installation (probably any OS that can  
write HFS would do) and directly downloaded the ofwboot.xcf and  
netbsd-INSTALL_MD.gz files to it.
Now I could boot the iMac from the USB key using the following OF  
command:

boot /pci <at> f2000000/usb <at> 18/ <at> 1:,\ofwboot.xcf netbsd-INSTALL.gz

Depending on which USB port is used, it could also be  <at> 19.
I got into the usual NetBSD installer, everything seemed to work fine.

I could take out the boot USB stick and put in another one instead.

Now, when it came to partitioning the hard disk (i.e. the USB stick),  
the install app terminated with the following error message:

Screen too narrow

(74 + 5 > 66) for menu "untitled"

It seems like NetBSD on the iMac provides only a 66 character console
(Continue reading)

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Flavio Donadio | 3 Jul 2009 23:03
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Re: installing NetBSD/macppc from/onto USB key

Georg,

 From what I know, you need to have a small HFS partition to store  
ofwboot.xcf. This partition will be used by OF to load the bootloader.  
After that, the kernel can be loaded from a FFS, which the bootloader  
will understand (OF won't).

At least, that's what I had to do to boot my B&W G3 400MHz (BTW, with  
that crappy Rev. A logic board).

Cheers,
Flavio

On 03/07/2009, at 17:52, Georg Schwarz wrote:

> I'd like to share my experience installing NetBSD 5.0/macppc from  
> and onto a USB key:
>
> I've booted an iMac G3 350 MHz (slot-loading CDROM) with the MacOS 9  
> boot CD, then plugged in a USB key and installed MacOS 9 onto it,  
> formatting it as an HFS disk and installing the Apple disk driver to  
> it (don't know whether that's necessary).
> Afterwards the iMac could boot MacOS 9 from that USB key.
> I was curious whether it would also boot NetBSD. So I plugged the  
> USB key into a running MacOS X installation (probably any OS that  
> can write HFS would do) and directly downloaded the ofwboot.xcf and  
> netbsd-INSTALL_MD.gz files to it.
> Now I could boot the iMac from the USB key using the following OF  
> command:
>
(Continue reading)

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Larson, Timothy E. | 7 Jul 2009 23:35

first timer, and libfreevec

I've recently acquired a G4 and want to try installing NetBSD on it.  I've used the mac68k port quite a bit, and
i386 a little, but this will be my first time with macppc.  Are the installation documents up-to-date, or is
there some other wisdom I should be aware of?

I recently became aware of libfreevec, when I was looking into upgrading my Linux installation on my other
PPC box.  Is this of any use with NetBSD?

Thanks,
Tim
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Havard Eidnes | 8 Jul 2009 10:31
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Re: first timer, and libfreevec

> I've recently acquired a G4 and want to try installing NetBSD
> on it.  I've used the mac68k port quite a bit, and i386 a
> little, but this will be my first time with macppc.  Are the
> installation documents up-to-date, or is there some other
> wisdom I should be aware of?

You may find my notes from installing on a G4 Mac Mini and the
subsequent follow-ups useful, they're at

  http://mail-index.netbsd.org/port-macppc/2009/03/02/msg000617.html

If I recall correctly, the final release of the 5.0 macppc ISO
image is still not bootable, so to get to 5.0, you still need to
use the 4.0 image.  However, I think the radeonfb problem
described at the end of the above message was solved before the
final release of 5.0 (the above was done with a release candidate).

> I recently became aware of libfreevec, when I was looking into
> upgrading my Linux installation on my other PPC box.  Is this
> of any use with NetBSD?

Sorry, I'm not even aware of what problem that would solve...  I
certainly didn't have to use it to get my installation to go.

Regards,

- Håvard
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Radek Kujawa | 8 Jul 2009 10:40
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Re: first timer, and libfreevec

On 07/07/2009 11:35 PM, Larson, Timothy E. wrote:
> I recently became aware of libfreevec, when I was looking into upgrading my Linux installation on my other
PPC box.  Is this of any use with NetBSD?
>    
Yes, and it works with NetBSD 5 on Mac Mini G4. However, libfreevec is 
not included in default installation and even not in pkgsrc. You have to 
compile it "by hand".

Regards
Radek Kujawa
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Niels S. Eliasen | 8 Jul 2009 10:39
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Re: first timer, and libfreevec

Hi Håvard

Den 08/07/2009 kl. 10.31 skrev Havard Eidnes:

>> I've recently acquired a G4 and want to try installing NetBSD
>> on it.  I've used the mac68k port quite a bit, and i386 a
>> little, but this will be my first time with macppc.  Are the
>> installation documents up-to-date, or is there some other
>> wisdom I should be aware of?
>
> You may find my notes from installing on a G4 Mac Mini and the
> subsequent follow-ups useful, they're at
>
>  http://mail-index.netbsd.org/port-macppc/2009/03/02/msg000617.html
>
> If I recall correctly, the final release of the 5.0 macppc ISO
> image is still not bootable, so to get to 5.0, you still need to
> use the 4.0 image.  However, I think the radeonfb problem
> described at the end of the above message was solved before the
> final release of 5.0 (the above was done with a release candidate).
>
>> I recently became aware of libfreevec, when I was looking into
>> upgrading my Linux installation on my other PPC box.  Is this
>> of any use with NetBSD?
>
> Sorry, I'm not even aware of what problem that would solve...  I
> certainly didn't have to use it to get my installation to go.
libfreevec does not .. per se... solve any problems .... it is a  
library for the Linux PowerPC world (soon to be others as well.....)  
that greatly speed things up, as it uses the AltiVec engine in the G4/
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Izumi Tsutsui | 8 Jul 2009 12:46
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Re: first timer, and libfreevec

> If I recall correctly, the final release of the 5.0 macppc ISO
> image is still not bootable,

At least it's bootable on my Apus2000 (with OF 2.0), though
I don't know if anyone has tried it on OF 3.x machines.

---
Open Firmware, 2.0
To continue booting the MacOS type:
BYE<return>
To continue booting from the default boot device type:
BOOT<return>
 ok
0 > boot scsi/sd <at> 3:0 
OF_open bootpath=
read stage 2 blocks: 0. done!
starting stage 2...
DEFAULT CATCH!, code=FFF00C00 at   %SRR0: 00E0000C   %SRR1: 00003070 
 ok
0 > reset-all
Open Firmware, 2.0
To continue booting the MacOS type:
BYE<return>
To continue booting from the default boot device type:
BOOT<return>
 ok
0 > boot scsi/sd <at> 3:0 
OF_open bootpath=scsi/sd <at> 3
read stage 2 blocks: 0. done!
starting stage 2...
(Continue reading)

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Flavio Donadio | 8 Jul 2009 15:03
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Re: first timer, and libfreevec

Hello, all!

My blue and white G3 (400MHz, rev. A logic board) booted normally with  
the NetBSD 5.0 ISO. Since I was a first timer with netbsd-macppc, it  
took me some time to figure out the boot-device and boot-file  
parameters in OF. But, as soon as I got them right, it booted perfectly.

It's already filtering packets on my network for weeks with no crashes  
or any other problem, except for hosing my 2-port network card. I  
still haven't fixed that, but I am pretty sure my custom kernel is to  
blame, since the GENERIC was doing quite well.

Cheers,
Flavio

On 08/07/2009, at 07:46, Izumi Tsutsui wrote:

>> If I recall correctly, the final release of the 5.0 macppc ISO
>> image is still not bootable,
>
> At least it's bootable on my Apus2000 (with OF 2.0), though
> I don't know if anyone has tried it on OF 3.x machines.
>
> ---
> Open Firmware, 2.0
> To continue booting the MacOS type:
> BYE<return>
> To continue booting from the default boot device type:
> BOOT<return>
> ok
(Continue reading)

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Larson, Timothy E. | 8 Jul 2009 15:35

RE: first timer, and libfreevec

> libfreevec does not .. per se... solve any problems .... it is a
> library for the Linux PowerPC world (soon to be others as well.....)
> that greatly speed things up, as it uses the AltiVec engine in the G4/
> G5 cpu's ....
> does work like a charm on my Debian Lenny box..... (besides ... Yellow
> Dog Linux claims a 25% speed increase through the use of libfreevec
> ...)

I was looking around for comparisons of various libc implementations, but didn't find any.  Wikipedia
doesn't even have an article on BSD libc, though it does for several others.  Perhaps our libc already has
all the optimizations that freevec gives??  Though it is OSS, it's LGPL, so I don't think it could be pulled
in directly.

I read that the freevec folks want to expand to support other vector implementations.  But I have no idea how
applicable the library is to other operating systems.

Tim
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Larson, Timothy E. | 8 Jul 2009 15:38

RE: first timer, and libfreevec

> You may find my notes from installing on a G4 Mac Mini and the
> subsequent follow-ups useful, they're at
> 
>   http://mail-index.netbsd.org/port-macppc/2009/03/02/msg000617.html
> 
> If I recall correctly, the final release of the 5.0 macppc ISO
> image is still not bootable, so to get to 5.0, you still need to
> use the 4.0 image.  However, I think the radeonfb problem
> described at the end of the above message was solved before the
> final release of 5.0 (the above was done with a release candidate).

Thank you!  What is the issue preventing booting from the ISO?  Is someone looking at this for 5.0.1/5.1?

Thanks,
Tim
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