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RaSCSI on/in Powerbook Duo 280c

redphantom

Member
Hello All.

New to the forums, and wanted to share this. I originally posted this over on the RaSCSI github, but I figured you guys might be interested in it as well. I suspect this the right section of the forums to post in, but if I am in error, I will gladly change it. Happy Reading.

Big fan of the project. Action Retro's video on Youtube turned me onto this little device. When I found it, I had also just happened to have acquired a Powerbook Duo 280c in fairly good condition. I made it a goal of mine to pickup one of these for some time, especially since it was big in the movie Hackers, (although there's a discussion as to whether they really used the 280c) so I wanted to own one, and keep it in my collection.

duoopen

Now the downside to the Duo, besides the staggering cost currently to upgrading its RAM, is that it has a ADB Port, a Modem, and the dock connector, so I figured that the RaSCSI would be the perfect device to enhance its connectivity. I had a Raspberry Pi Zero W lying around from a Pi-Hole project, but I eventually moved that to a Raspberry Pi 4, so it was now free. I then purchased the "Powerbook Configuration" from LandoGriffin, and refreshed my knowledge in soldering by adding the GPIO header to the Pi Zero. I had the bracket 3D Printed through a third party, I realized that there was no cutout for the micro USB port on the RaSCSI board, so I had to modify that design, and reprint here at home using PETG. My design is not perfect as I have no experience with modeling, but I was able to get the hole in the right place for the port.

drivebracket

The Design allowed the drive to drop in place of the Duos hard drive, and use the existing brackets to mount it to the existing frame. It seemed to push the SCSI cable ends up against the trackpad housing slightly so I dropped a piece of 3M Vinyl Electrical tape against the wall to prevent any possible conflicts, or shortages. There were no height issues, and while I did not screw either of the boards into the bracket, they fit pretty snugly into place. I'm not too worried about them moving. I decided on using a 16gb micro SD card, because the original Duo drive was not that big.

drivebay

I had some problems getting it to boot at first, but I suspect that had more to do with my solder job then anything else. However, while researching what I might be doing wrong, I came across the already documented issues about the .hda drives becoming corrupted if you do not shutdown the Pi before the computer. This took me several hours to work through, but using the Bootstrap HDA files for 7.53 and Bootstrapping tools that have been provided by these fine folks, and making sure to shut down the Pi each time before restart, I got into a stable pattern of keeping the drive running.

The next problem was more of a software issue of running Classic OS then anything else. At first I just made a bigger .hda file of about 2gb, and copied the Bootstrap drive over so I had some space to work with. My next challenge was transferring files onto the main drive. I'll admit, I did not have much luck trying to create scsi drives by downloading files to the RaSCSI web interface and trying to mount them. After about an hour of failures on that path, I returned to my normal path of copying files over from my NAS. The first step was to access the files I would need to bring the 7.5.3 up to a place where it would be easier to access the NAS. I was able to edit the Bootstrap HDA that they provide, using Basilisk II, to include a newer version of Fetch, I think v2.** was included, but I need v3.0.3 to access the passive mode for the FTP on my NAS. If anyone who is responsible for the files is reading, first thanks for the HDAs they were a big help, and I would urge them also to add the newer version of Fetch.

ftp

Once I had AppleShare to 3.8.3 and Open Transport to 1.3, and of course with the DaynaLink driver installed, I could access the AFP part of my NAS, and then use Chooser to setup a permanent drive on the Desktop. I created a new .hda for the install files, and was able to add both the Installer for 7.5, and 7.6, and I included the Bootstrap Utilities files on that .hda as well. (I am happy to upload that HDA somewhere if people would like,, its about 1gb.) I then booted up in the 7.5.3 bootstrap HDA again, wiped my 2gb drive, and did a fresh install of 7.6, re-adding all the network, AppleShare, and Open Transport files along the way, and now I stand with a fresh Duo 280c, running 7.6.1, and able to talk to the internet (to the best ability that any classic Mac can,) with a RaSCSI as its main drive, and speaking to modern wifi system.

final

Had a lot of fun with this build. Very thankful to all the developers for your hard work, I think this thing is great. The only two negatives at present with it that I can find, is the file transfer over the network is slow (that may be a setting I have neglected to configure correctly, while the transfer in between "drives" is quite quick. The other issue, as mentioned prior is the caching issue that prevents me from shutting down the drive by shutting down the computer, instead having to shutdown the pi through the Web Interface, and then powering down the Powerbook. Since I know the RaSCSI's primary purpose was not to act as an internal drive, I'm stoked that it works as well as it does. If anyone has any questions about the build or the process, I will be happy to answer them to the best of my ability.

Once again, thanks so much to the developers for the hard work they've put in.
 

pizzigri

Well-known member
Replied by PM, but I'd also like to publicly thank Redphantom, as the HDA did help me a lot figuring out a problem in booting an image I built with Basilisk in the bluescsi in my Mystic CC, due to Basilisk's inability to properly prep the image for booting in a real Mac (?). I ended up simply initializing the HDA image (as a drive) inside the CC, using the tools inside the above mentioned HDA, and hen copying the whole installation I had prepared inside Basilisk - and this one worked, booting correctly in the CC, instead of forever giving me the finger in guise of a flashing disk!
 

3lectr1cPPC

Well-known member
Couple questions about this project that I've been curious about:
1. Is there any wait time before the computer starts up? My external PiSCSI takes itself 30 seconds or so before it's fully started and ready to go. That would be an issue I'd imagine if it's internal, if the computer has to wait at the question mark for a while before it starts.
2. How do you actually shut down the Pi before the computer? I've never done this since I've owned my PiSCSI and I've also never corrupted any HDA files.
 

redphantom

Member
Couple questions about this project that I've been curious about:
1. Is there any wait time before the computer starts up? My external PiSCSI takes itself 30 seconds or so before it's fully started and ready to go. That would be an issue I'd imagine if it's internal, if the computer has to wait at the question mark for a while before it starts.
2. How do you actually shut down the Pi before the computer? I've never done this since I've owned my PiSCSI and I've also never corrupted any HDA files.
1. There is about a 30 second-ish boot time from the PiSCSI.

2. You can shutdown the Pi from the Web Interface at the bottom of the page. From what I’ve read on the threads on the git-hub page the issue has to do with caching to the drive when you just kill the power normally from shut down or the power button when you are using the HDA file as a boot drive.
 

3lectr1cPPC

Well-known member
1. I'm talking about the time for the PiSCSI to boot linux and start the software, then auto-mount the HDA file, not the boot time once it's all mounted. That's the process that takes a bit on my external unit. I'd imagine if that was the case for the internal version, the PowerBook's SCSI bus would go all wonky from having a drive mounted after it's started up and at the question mark already.

2. Alright, I should probably start doing that from now on then. I'm going to stay away from the internal version though I think, having to launch the web interface on another computer every time I want to shut my PowerBook down sounds like a real pain. Wish they could come up with a fix for that.
 

redphantom

Member
1. I'm talking about the time for the PiSCSI to boot linux and start the software, then auto-mount the HDA file, not the boot time once it's all mounted. That's the process that takes a bit on my external unit. I'd imagine if that was the case for the internal version, the PowerBook's SCSI bus would go all wonky from having a drive mounted after it's started up and at the question mark already.

2. Alright, I should probably start doing that from now on then. I'm going to stay away from the internal version though I think, having to launch the web interface on another computer every time I want to shut my PowerBook down sounds like a real pain. Wish they could come up with a fix for that.
1. Yeah, that's what I'm referring too. You spend about 30-ish seconds from power on, with flashing disk icon until the PiSCSI boots. Once the linux OS is in place and the PiSCSI service starts, the flashing disk replaces with happy mac and its off and running. After that its pretty quick with the access time of the SD card and SCSI.
 

olePigeon

Well-known member
Could not find the special clear case one, so I had to go with the grey one. Although I believe by the time they're in the phone booths its a 500-series.
Keep an eye out on Buyee.jp. Several companies in Japan offered clear cases for various models (especially the 2400). May be a bit expensive, but it'll be about about 10000x cheaper than a prototype.

HackersCurator on YouTube has a great tutorial on how to convert a Compaq luggable (preferably a non-working one) into Dade's laptop. He used a Raspberry Pi instead of a real PowerBook, but it turned out fantastic.
 
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3lectr1cPPC

Well-known member
1. Yeah, that's what I'm referring too. You spend about 30-ish seconds from power on, with flashing disk icon until the PiSCSI boots. Once the linux OS is in place and the PiSCSI service starts, the flashing disk replaces with happy mac and its off and running. After that its pretty quick with the access time of the SD card and SCSI.
Yeah that and the shut down thing would make that a deal breaker for me. It’s a great external tool though. I have to admit though, having built in Wi-Fi on one of those thru SCSI is pretty cool.
 

Forrest

Well-known member
Nice build. The shutdown process wouldn’t bother me - most everyone has a smartphone to shutdown the RaSCSI.
 

CC_333

Well-known member
Nice build. The shutdown process wouldn’t bother me - most everyone has a smartphone to shutdown the RaSCSI.
But it would be a thorough pain, and it would spoil the mood (at least for me, the whole point of working with these old Macs is to avoid all these annoyingly invasive modern devices that are dominating virtually every other aspect of daily life (especially smartphones) and enjoy appreciating how things were).

c
 
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