Best *NIX for a Performa 475?

[onlyonemac]

Just that. I've been bitten by the UNIX bug and now I want a good ol' terminal on my Mac.

And preferally one which can run Mac applications as well.

 

[finkmac]

The only one that can run Mac applications (that I'm aware of) is A/UX.

A/UX doesn't work with the LC-series video circuitry, so that's not an option.

 

[Gorgonops]

NetBSD is usually considered the "go to" *nix for 68k Macs. It's about the only one that still has developers actively using the platform. Note that for most practical purposes your Performa would need to be upgraded to a full 68040 if it has a 68LC040. (There are serious issues with the floating point emulator due to a bug in most revisions of the 68LC040.)

For the "runs Mac applications" part the BasiliskII documentation mentions at least the possibility of using "native CPU mode", IE, using Basilisk as "virtualizer" instead of an emulator on NetBSD 68k. (The "virtualization" bit is how Basilisk worked on Amigas. My vague understanding is it comes with a lot of stability risks.) I don't know of anyone ever making that actually work, at least at all recently; the parts of the docs that mention are a dozen years old and I think it may depend on kernel support that isn't there anymore. It might be "interesting" to try to make it go, I guess, but good luck there.

 

[onlyonemac]

I know AU/X doesn't work. Now I'm glad to know why.

Any idea why no one's tried to make it work?

EDIT: I've looked into NetBSD before, but I can't seem to understand how to install it.

 

[Anonymous Freak]

Installing any *nix on a 68k Mac is an undertaking, there is no "simple to install" distribution, like Ubuntu on modern hardware.

NetBSD is the distribution that has the best hardware support for 68k Macs, but it *IS* a bear to install. It is a lot easier if you have a network card (as you can do a "single floppy network-based install," but still no easy task.

If you want to do it for the challenge, go for it! Check out the NetBSD mac68k page for more info.

 

[uniserver]

is there a certain network card that works good, (supported)

or are many of them supported?

i would assume the AAUI ones might be the most widely supported.

 

[markyb86]

it's going to have to be very minimal if you want to run from a floppy.

 

[NJRoadfan]

Its safe to say any card that is register compatible with Apple's built-in Ethernet driver will work. They usually have the National Sonic series NIC on them.

 

[Gorgonops]

it's going to have to be very minimal if you want to run from a floppy.

What he's referring to is using a minimal kernel + miniroot environment to do the installation onto your hard disk over a network, verses having to create floppies or CDs with the full file set on them. NetBSD is very good at installing from a network as long as you can get the miniroot environment loaded "somehow", be that via floppy, BOOTP, etc. I've found it a godsend for installation on ancient machines even when they have CD-ROM drives because most of those old drives have issues with modern CD-R media, which makes hard to burn a full installation CD that works.

(Network installation in general is awesome; heck, with the last Pentium-era x86 machine I installed *nix on I accomplished it by slotting in a PXE-ROM-equipped Ethernet card and doing a network install because the system's BIOS had issues with modern CD-ROM bootloaders.)

 

[onlyonemac]

It is a lot easier if you have a network card (as you can do a "single floppy network-based install,"

Correction: It's a lot easier if you have a floppy drive (I don't ).

it's going to have to be very minimal if you want to run from a floppy.

I've got a hard disk now .

 

[CC_333]

Hmm, you've gone from no hard disk to no floppy.

Is your drive manual inject or auto inject?

c

 

[markyb86]

I've got a hard disk now .

awesome!

 

[onlyonemac]

Hmm, you've gone from no hard disk to no floppy.
Is your drive manual inject or auto inject?

c

Manual. But the bottom head cracked after I dropped it .

 

[Cory5412]

without a network connection and some way to install it, you're not going to get very far unless you can find something like Mac Minix and it works on your particular hardware.

If you're interested in learning how UNIX works, it may be easiest to sign up for an account on SDF and look at some of the getting started documentation they've got.

This may also be a better route for learning how UNIX works than running an unpatched linux box.