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Linux on Mac Classic or Centris 610

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bben...@nh.aspectdv.com

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Dec 3, 1997, 3:00:00 AM12/3/97
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Hi!

I've been doing a bit of research on m68k linux, macbsd (yuk!) and
other *nixen that purportedly can/will run on the motorola 680x0
processor line.. The only two 680x0 based machines I have are a
Macintosh Classic (68000) and a Macintosh Centris 610 (68LC040)

I can't seem to find a definitive answer on whether the Classic will
run Linux - and I've heard a bunch of scary reports that state that
the Centris with it's 68LC040 processor is a mad-house of problems
and will probably never work without a wholesale processor
replacement... (or will it?)

Can anyone offer any definitive answers on these two machines? I'd
love to get the Classic running Linux... (my other alternatives for
this machine include making it into a fish-bowl...

Any help appreciated....

Michael Schmitz

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Dec 3, 1997, 3:00:00 AM12/3/97
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bben...@nh.aspectdv.com wrote:
> I've been doing a bit of research on m68k linux, macbsd (yuk!) and
> other *nixen that purportedly can/will run on the motorola 680x0
> processor line.. The only two 680x0 based machines I have are a
> Macintosh Classic (68000) and a Macintosh Centris 610 (68LC040)

Forget Linux or any other Unix on the 68000. The 68000 lacks the
MMU and virtual memory managemeent won't run without.

> I can't seem to find a definitive answer on whether the Classic will
> run Linux - and I've heard a bunch of scary reports that state that
> the Centris with it's 68LC040 processor is a mad-house of problems
> and will probably never work without a wholesale processor
> replacement... (or will it?)

Depends on whether the LC040 behaves according to spec when it comes
to F-line traps. Easy test: if it runs SoftwareFPU without crash, it
will eventually run a Linux FPU emulator (there isn't any yet).

If it crashes, your LC040 is one of the many with a bug; Apple got
slapped with a lawsuit for selling LC040 in machines that were
advertised as 040. If yours is one of those, they should replace the
LC040 with a 040 at no extra cost.

> Can anyone offer any definitive answers on these two machines? I'd
> love to get the Classic running Linux... (my other alternatives for
> this machine include making it into a fish-bowl...

I'd vote for the fish bowl.

Michael

Marc Coevoet

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Dec 4, 1997, 3:00:00 AM12/4/97
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just try

www.macbsd.com.

I booted my colour classic from a terminal...
Just need somebody that tells me how to boot
my adb-port (yes, I tried ADB kernels by jpw).

BTW, minimal config is 68020 + MMU. A 68000 is
good enough to run minix.

Regards,
Marc

Thomas Boenig

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Dec 8, 1997, 3:00:00 AM12/8/97
to

hi,
according to the docs i got with my freeBSD rel. 2.1 cd-rom this *nix will
not work with the classic and ALL 68LC040 macs. the classic has a 68000
only which lacks the memory management unit, which in turn is necessary to
use virtual memory. virt. mem. seems to be essential for *nix machines.
ok, the 68lc040 might work, but the keyboard and the mouse won´t. formerly
i used the lc475 which is very similar to the centris 610. for the lc475
they guys from freeBSD wrote this into some of the readme-files.
on my quadra650, the freebsd runs nice. due to lack of time, i can only
start the machine, enter some shell commands and say "shutdown now". that
all works. i assignated approx. 300mb to freebsd on a scsi-disk-partition
and that looks enough.
sorry, more info i can´t provide due to limited time with freebsd. i bought
it because i start collecting apple-related material.

regards.
thomas...@pcm.bosch.de

bben...@nh.aspectdv.com schrieb im Beitrag
<3485c9d9...@client.news.psi.net>...
> Hi!


>
> I've been doing a bit of research on m68k linux, macbsd (yuk!) and
> other *nixen that purportedly can/will run on the motorola 680x0
> processor line.. The only two 680x0 based machines I have are a
> Macintosh Classic (68000) and a Macintosh Centris 610 (68LC040)
>

> I can't seem to find a definitive answer on whether the Classic will
> run Linux - and I've heard a bunch of scary reports that state that
> the Centris with it's 68LC040 processor is a mad-house of problems
> and will probably never work without a wholesale processor
> replacement... (or will it?)
>

> Can anyone offer any definitive answers on these two machines? I'd
> love to get the Classic running Linux... (my other alternatives for
> this machine include making it into a fish-bowl...
>

> Any help appreciated....
>

Joern Plewka

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Dec 8, 1997, 3:00:00 AM12/8/97
to

bben...@nh.aspectdv.com -> "Linux on Mac Classic or Centris 610"
(03.12.1997)

> Hi!
>
> I've been doing a bit of research on m68k linux, macbsd (yuk!) and
> other *nixen that purportedly can/will run on the motorola 680x0
> processor line.. The only two 680x0 based machines I have are a
> Macintosh Classic (68000) and a Macintosh Centris 610 (68LC040)
>
> I can't seem to find a definitive answer on whether the Classic will
> run Linux - and I've heard a bunch of scary reports that state that
> the Centris with it's 68LC040 processor is a mad-house of problems
> and will probably never work without a wholesale processor
> replacement... (or will it?)

How about the 475 (don`t know its marketing name..)?
Anybody running Linux on it?

We`d like to use it for future replacement of MacOS if Raysody is
there for PowerMACs;-).

Back to reality: Here many of these machines are used in 19" racks.
An additional OS for different solutions (R&D) would be nice.

Thanks a lot for your time!


| / /\ ----- -- - Melody-1200, FDuplex 20bit and MPEG-Board
|/ | | | | | - Melody-Z2 , extendable 16bit ...
|\ |--| | | | - OctaMED Soundstudio
| \ | | | __ - Simmfonie, SIMM-Modules in A3000(T)
kat...@usa.net home.pages.de/~kato

Please forward to uwe....@gkss.de (Uwe Apel), he`s responsable
for the machines.


Michael Schmitz

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Dec 9, 1997, 3:00:00 AM12/9/97
to

Joern Plewka wrote:
> How about the 475 (don`t know its marketing name..)?
> Anybody running Linux on it?

I think people are running Linux on the LC475 (or Performa 475)
now, but you'll need a full 040, not a LC040 (no FPU emulator).
And I guess keyboard support is still being worked on.

Michael

Thorsten Goertz

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Jan 8, 1998, 3:00:00 AM1/8/98
to

Michael Schmitz <sch...@lcbvax.cchem.berkeley.edu> wrote:

I have such a LC475 with a "full" 040 and booting with a ram-disk is
possible (but no keyboard-support:-(.
Is there a kernel already that supports ADB and SCSI for this machine?

Thorsten

Michael Schmitz

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Jan 8, 1998, 3:00:00 AM1/8/98
to

Thorsten Goertz wrote:
>
> I have such a LC475 with a "full" 040 and booting with a ram-disk is
> possible (but no keyboard-support:-(.
> Is there a kernel already that supports ADB and SCSI for this machine?

No, not yet. Try booting vmlinux-991221.ELF, I've had one report that
the
keyboard worked with that one (and broke again with later kernels).
Work on ADB has begun, I've not heard from someone working on the SCSI
driver
though I pointed several times in the right direction ...

Michael

Thorsten Goertz

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Jan 9, 1998, 3:00:00 AM1/9/98
to

Michael Schmitz <sch...@lcbvax.cchem.berkeley.edu> wrote:

>
> No, not yet. Try booting vmlinux-991221.ELF, I've had one report that the
> keyboard worked with that one (and broke again with later kernels).
> Work on ADB has begun, I've not heard from someone working on the SCSI driver
> though I pointed several times in the right direction ...
>
> Michael

Thanx, I can send you the 2nd report of a working keyboard on a 475.
For SCSI, to which direction did you point? May we help you?!?

Thorsten

Michael Schmitz

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Jan 9, 1998, 3:00:00 AM1/9/98
to

Thorsten Goertz wrote:
> > Work on ADB has begun, I've not heard from someone working on the SCSI driver
> > though I pointed several times in the right direction ...
>
> Thanx, I can send you the 2nd report of a working keyboard on a 475.

Fine. Now I've got to figure out what I did to break it in later
versions :-(

> For SCSI, to which direction did you point? May we help you?!?

Any help appreciated. I did point in the general direction of existing
code
for the NCR 53C96 chip in 2.1 kernels (esp.c, mac53c96.c to name a few)
as well
as the existing Open/Net/*BSD code for the Mac. Though it should be
fairly
easy to glance the Mac bits from mac53c96.c and the m68k bits from the
Amiga driver
using esp.c code. A new 2.1 diff for the Mac is being prepared.
Subscribe to the
linux-...@wave.lm.com mailing list if you start work on any drivers.

Michael

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