Centris 610 - NuBus adapter card, networking and possibly trying A/UX

[MindWalker]

Hello all.

Years ago, I was given a nice Centris 610 machine, interesting little pizzabox, apparently a bit rarer as it was produced for such a short time. I've been slowly upgrading it, and have since recapped the motherboard, CD-drive and PSU. I've also replaced the LC040 with a full 040 and maxed the RAM to 68MB.

One limitation has been no networking as my machine's motherboard is not populated with it. Has anyone ever tried to add the networking components to the board afterwards? That would be cool!

Couple of weeks ago I found a M1402LL 'Centris 610 NuBus Adapter card' on eBay, and bought it. First time I ever saw one for sale! I've just installed it into my 610, and happy to say it works! I borrowed a MacSense E440 ethernet card from my Mac IIcx and was able to get the 610 online - great. It was quite a sandwhich to install, and surely it will not do good to the already limited air-circulation inside the machine...

So now I am getting there with my long-time hope to have A/UX running on it. Reading the stuff on aux-penelope.com, I am getting the impression that the c610 should be supported (with the 68040 I have there now), and the built-in CD-drive is also mentioned as compatible. I couldn't find any mention if the MacSense ethernet card would work with A/UX, any ideas on that? Of course I could buy another NuBus ethernet card, although they do seem somewhat thin on the ground lately.

 

[cheesestraws]

Does the MacSense card require its own driver or is it compatible with the built-in one in the OS? If the latter, you've got a good chance of it working under A/UX: if the former, it almost certainly won't.

 

[MindWalker]

Both on my IIcx (OS 7.1) and now on the 610 (OS 8) the MacSense card was just plug-and-play; it appeared as 'Ethernet' under TCP/IP. Sounds good then I guess.

 

[cheesestraws]

That's not a guarantee but it's a good sign: I'd try it and see

 

[MindWalker]

Wow, I just put an A/UX image into my BlueSCSI and it booted. I was totally surprised how easy it was

And yes, the MacSense card does work under A/UX!

Another thought: if I put the BlueSCSI permanently into the Centris, it would look pretty nice if I replaced the green power LED on the front of the machine with a dual-coloured one to show HDD activity.

Now I am wondering if I could dd the old HDD (OS 8 install) into an image file and somehow dual-boot from either the A/UX or the OS8 images...

 

[cheesestraws]

somehow dual-boot from either the A/UX or the OS8 images...

Yes, you can: my Q950 triple boots 7.5, A/UX and 8.1. Just install them on separate virtual HDs and use the Startup Disk control panel to switch between them

 

[MindWalker]

Just install them on separate virtual HDs and use the Startup Disk control panel to switch between them

Woah, this was again much easier than I thought. I dd'd my original drive, put in onto the BlueSCSI and now I can boot whichever I want.

Happy