On Fri, 20 Mar 2009 10:35:00 -0400 (EDT) Daniel Barowy <m...@barowy.net> wrote:
> I just reinstalled the MacOS on the machine (10.5), and that runs > OK. I haven't tried any other OSes, but I suppose I could. > > Anyway, here's my dmesg. Anyone have any suggestions, or things I > could try to get some kind of debug info back? As time allows I've recently been working on getting OpenBSD running on an (unsupported) PowerMacintosh G3 Beige in spite of it's infamously buggy firmware. I am not real familiar with apple product names and nicknames, so your description of "G4 Sawtooth" doesn't mentally register. None the less, it is still one of the older "new-world" macs (i.e. "new-world" == G4 or better). The fact you've had MacOS 10.5 on there means you've had the Apple BootX (i.e. the BootX part of Darwin, not the "BootX" of linux) do it's firmware patching magic to your NVRAM. Yes, OpenFirmware can be patched and this is done by saving the patches (written in Forth) into the NVRAM of the system. There are two ways that Apple does it's magic firmware patching; (1) using the BootX part of Darwin, and (2) an application for MacOS 9.x and earlier called "System Disk." Swapping hard drives or disk controllers would have no effect on what, if any, patches were stored in your NVRAM. The only way to get rid of the patches is by doing a "Parameter RAM" (PRAM) reset via Opt-Cmd-P-R on boot. Booting into MacOS is known to re-patch the firmware, but I'm unsure of the exact MacOS versions that do this. Needless to say, getting an operating system to play nice with firmware that is in an unknown patch state is a major pain in the ass. The first thing you should try is getting the OpenBSD 4.5-current ISO since your issue may have been fixed since 4.4-Release was completed in Sep 08. # ftp ftp://ftp.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/snapshots/macppc/install45.iso # cdio tao install45.iso If you're unable to install with the current ISO, you can try resetting your PRAM via Opt-Cmd-P-R and see if you have any better luck with the mystery firmware patches removed. Since you're OpenFirmware has a working ELF loader, it's at least version 3.0 or better. If your system has OpenFirmware version 3.0 you need to be very careful when messing with the firmware settings. Due a bug in these systems, it is possible to actually over-write the firmware itself, resulting in a serious mess. -- J.C. Roberts
