Hacking a Control Panel

[BadGoldEagle]

Hi

First of all, I have no idea if that's even possible. I'm really rubbish at coding even in C or C++, so what chances do I have with hacking a Control Panel? Anyway, I could need your help (as ever) with this one (in particular)

I own a Lapis Colorserver 17-30 and a Macintosh SE/30 running SSW 7.5.3

Unfortunately, Lapis was already out of business when 7.5.3 came along in '96 so the card isn't compatible with this os.

Somebody on the web suggested that users using 7.5.x should try to hack it. He says it's hackable but hasn't really tried it I guess...

So I need an expert at Resedit to help me hack the INIT part of the CP as I'm guessing that part is the problem here: I read that this Lapis card won't initialise without the CP. There is a lot of code, most of it is hexadecimal. 

Here is the link to the CP (it is named ColorServer PDS-17) : http://vintageapple.org/macdrivers/video/lapis_videocard_drivers.sea

It is not corrupted anymore. I opened it on SheepShaver and ResEdit 2.1.3.

If someone know how to hack it, that would be great. I'm even considering paying for your services as a hacker lol

 

[Byrd]

Stepping back - why 7.5.3?  7.1 or 7.1 Pro will run anything that 7.5.3 will, probably more stably and faster.

 

[BadGoldEagle]

I'll have to think about that. It is certain that a clean install of 7.1.2 will run significantly faster than an old, stuffed 7.5.3. But I don't know if 7.1 is as good as a 7.5 for internet purposes?

On this machine, I want to use the Daystar PowerCache '030 Accelerator, the Lapis Colorserver 17 and if I can get my hands on one, an Asanté Mini EN/SC base T scsi-to-ethernet adaptor.

So the Lapis is out, won't run on 7.5, but it may run on 7.1. I'll have to try that. My driver says copyright 91 and 7.1.2 was released in '94. That should be interesting.

I read on some post from January 92 that the latest software at that time was version 3.0. So version 4.4 is not from 91 but at least 93 I think. I guess version 4 came out whith the release of 7.1.

There aren't many differences between 7.1.0 and 7.1.2 so... It should work.

The Daystar is supposed to work until 7.5.1. Beyond that is the unknown. The older the SSW is the better it is, it seems. *ahem* So why Apple keep telling us to upgrade our ios ??

The Asante will work with 6.0.7 or later.

I think you are probably right. 7.1 seems to be ideal. I need to find a scsi box to house my current hard drive. I don't want to format it.

 

[techknight]

In my personal opinion these days, all of OS systems are just about equally as bad for Internet purposes, it does not matter which one you go with. None have a decent browser until you hit OS 10.4

 

[BadGoldEagle]

I knew it was going to be pretty bad. That's just for fun !  :beige:

Still I think internet browsing on an SE is a lot worse. If I remember correctly the SE didn't support Quickdraw didn't it?

Thanks guys for you replies. Downgrading to 7.1 is a better idea.

 

[Apache Thunder]

The SE had QuickDraw. What it lacked was Color QuickDraw which is something the SE/30 and Classic II had. The older machines lacked that. Hence why Quicktime and some games won't run on an Classic, SE or older machine. Which is too bad. Kinda hoped Wolfenstien 3D would run on my SE, but looks like an SE/30 is the minimum requirement for that game.

Some of the more graphical oriented browsers (ones that could display image content and whatnot) certainly would have needed Color QuickDraw (there's also 32-bit Color QuickDraw. Not sure if the SE/30 has this or not?). Hence options are quite limited for the SE. The browsing experience on today's internet is going to be terrible either way, but I suppose the SE/30 with it's more fancy version of QuickDraw can perhaps display a few images on a webpage. God knows how they will end up looking after being dithered down to 1-bit monochome. Unless you have one of those mythical SE/30s with the Xceed Grayscale adapter installed where some pages may actually come out looking ok. In which case you are very lucky and I hate you...

Not to mention some of the more advanced browsers also needed a 020 or better CPU. The old 68000 just won't cut it for those even if it had Color QuickDraw. The SE/30/Classic II had a 030, which ran quite a bit more stuff then the SE and older machines. I hear an SE/30 is basically an LC II without the 16-bit bus limitation. Which is pretty bad ass. I suppose if you want to relive the LC II crippled experience then the Classic II would be for you. But the SE/30 is a beast.

 

[CC_333]

I hear an SE/30 is basically an LC II without the 16-bit bus limitation. Which is pretty bad ass.

In a vague sense, it is, but actually, the SE/30 is really much more like the Mac IIx (the SE/30 is basically a miniaturized IIx stuffed inside an SE). Aside from the CPU and a few other minor things, the SE/30 and LCII (and by extension, the Classic II) have almost nothing in common, except they're both Macs (and in the case of the Classic II, they're both Compacts), and both can run the same software on the same OS, more or less.

c

 

[BadGoldEagle]

Apache, 

No I do not own the greyscale video board which enables you to use the crt as a greyscale. As for video cards, I only have that Lapis I bought on ebay for 80 euros or something. With this card, you can add an external color display up to 17 inch (the other, fancier version the 21, displays color up to 21 inch and a has a better resolution)

I'm planing on using it with a 14 inch Apple Macintosh Color Display (which I already own, but I'm afraid it is broken), a modern Samsung 17" LCD and the Apple Portrait Display.

I think this card is better than the Radius because it offers you a lot more modes but you can't have the greyscale mode of the Radius or the color "bootability". 

i.e. The card can't start from the color display. The internal will always remain the main display, unless you change it but the ROM gets re-written every time you boot up the machine, so you'd have to change everything again.

Personally, I don't care, I just want an external color screen.

Do you still hate me ? 

PS: CC is right the SE/30 is basically a Iix without the 32-bit clean ROM. Although you can change your SIMM on the SE/30 and make it 100% 32-bit clean or just add Mode 32 to your HD.

 

[CC_333]

Is the IIx 32-bit clean? I can't remember.

c

 

[BadGoldEagle]

CC you're right. My bad: the IIx is not 32-bit clean.

I got mixed up between the IIx and IIsi IIfx: only the last two have the 32 bit clean ROMs that can be used in the SE/30.

 

[gsteemso]

Wow, sounds like the SE/30 has even more in common with a IIx than we thought! Makes sense though. As I recall, the nomenclature of the day (suffix the model name with an x if the design features the snazzy new 68030) would have had it called the SEx if that didn’t spell what it does. Architecturally, are there any big differences other than form factor (with its concomitant forced reduction in the number of slots) at all? I can’t remember how similar the SE/30 PDS is to a NuBus slot. Wasn’t there some special bracket that could convert between the two types? Mainly used in the IIsi, IIRC.

 

[Paralel]

I would definitely just stick with 7.1.2p (in-place upgrade from 7.1 Pro [7.1.1]), it has the same finder used in System 7.5.0 [Finder 7.1.4]). I just don't see much benefit to working with 7.5.3 in this case. I haven't found anything that won't run on 7.1.2p even if it says it needs 7.5.x SSW.

 

[IvettDore]

Do you have any idea about the control panel?

What are the specifications of it? And what firmware it uses?

Also what are its hardware specifications?

In which applications it is involved?