SE/30 new ROM and other things

[BadGoldEagle]

Sorry to highjack your thread @tommijazz91, but it might be beneficial for you too...

I too want to upgrade the ROM in my SE/30 because Mode32 isn't working so well for me. I'm gonna buy a GGlabs ROM and ask them to flash the ROMs for me. All I have left to do is find the right .rom file.

If I remember correctly, the IIsi ROM works better in SE/30s than the IIfx one (I remember some users experiencing Simasi patterns at boot). So I'll probably end up using that ROM. 

But it might be useful to remove the RAM/ROM check at startup to speed things up for those of us with large amounts of RAM. There are a couple modified ROMs floating around but they have other features (Custom boot chime, logo, ROM boot etc) but I don't really want any of that. Don't get me wrong, this can be fun and useful but I'd like to keep my Mac as stock as possible (I know that adding an accelerator, a NIC, a graphics card and a custom ROM doesn't help but those upgrades could have been performed back in the day). 

So where exactly do I need to change values to disable the RAM/ROM check? I couldn't find any info online... 

Thanks and sorry again for the slight highjack... but it seems that no one else but Bolle checks the Hacks and Development section anymore.

 

[tommijazz91]

Sorry to highjack your thread @tommijazz91, but it might be beneficial for you too...

I too want to upgrade the ROM in my SE/30 because Mode32 isn't working so well for me. I'm gonna buy a GGlabs ROM and ask them to flash the ROMs for me. All I have left to do is find the right .rom file.

If I remember correctly, the IIsi ROM works better in SE/30s than the IIfx one (I remember some users experiencing Simasi patterns at boot). So I'll probably end up using that ROM. 

But it might be useful to remove the RAM/ROM check at startup to speed things up for those of us with large amounts of RAM. There are a couple modified ROMs floating around but they have other features (Custom boot chime, logo, ROM boot etc) but I don't really want any of that. Don't get me wrong, this can be fun and useful but I'd like to keep my Mac as stock as possible (I know that adding an accelerator, a NIC, a graphics card and a custom ROM doesn't help but those upgrades could have been performed back in the day). 

So where exactly do I need to change values to disable the RAM/ROM check? I couldn't find any info online... 

Thanks and sorry again for the slight highjack... but it seems that no one else but Bolle checks the Hacks and Development section anymore.

Interesting! I too am thinking of buying GGLABS ROM. Can they flash a minimal system folder on it?

At first I considered the Rominator, but I disliked the custom boot chime, and the other mod. In the end it went out of stock anyway so problem solved. And I too would like a SE/30 as stock as possible 

 

[jessenator]

I wish you guys luck. I bought mine (from their eBay store) and tried just writing them a message upon buying it now to just put the ROM on it—nothing else. No response in any fashion, so hopefully the clean SE/30 ROM is on there.

But maybe because my request was already their popular purchase configuration, they decided not to respond...

 

[SE30_Neal]

I could do with stopping the ram check too, I’m sure there is a way of doing that i read.

 

[BadGoldEagle]

If you want a bootable system on ROM, custom icons and chime, a few useful utilities, check out this page: http://synack.net/~bbraun/macromboot.html

There is definitely a way to disable the RAM check. I should pay a little more attention to what I read... I've read through this page too quickly and missed the important part!

RAM TestWhen the system cold boots (first powers on), it performs a memory test. This test was pretty quick for the small values of memory used when these systems were produced, but many 68k macs now have more RAM than ever, and the memory test can take an excessive amount of time with these larger values.There are 2 memory test functions located at 0x467E0 and 0x468F8 in the IIsi ROM. Both functions return via JMP (A6). To disable the memory tests, I've overwritten the starts of these functions with opcode 0x4ED6, which is JMP (A6).

Edit: Okay, I've done the modifications but at the last minute I found @bbraun's post here and downloaded his version instead. I've tested it with BasiliskII, it works.

You can download it by clicking on the link below (in case the link on mac68.info disappears or something...):

View attachment 26385

I don't know what extension is better, so i've left it as a .bin but Basilisk will only take .rom files. If you want to try it out yourself, change the extension to .rom

 

[BadGoldEagle]

Can they flash a minimal system folder on it?

Oh and yes, if you modify one of bbraun's ROMs from his website (http://synack.net/~bbraun/macromboot.html) and add your own image on it (I don't know how to do that though), you should be able to send them the updated .rom file and they'll burn that one for you (if we don't run into the same issues as jessenator that is.)

 

[SE30_Neal]

I know the rominator has a separate board to flashing roms

 

[BadGoldEagle]

That's because you can't remove the actual chips from that board. With the GGlabs SIMM you can remove them and flash them separately if you wish or flash them as a complete SIMM with the separate board you just mentioned.

FYI I've just bought one. GGlabs has agreed to flash it with the ROM file I just uploaded. According to eBay, it should arrive before March 21st. Let's hope it'll arrive sooner than that though as I leave France (and my Macs) to come back to the UK on that day...

 

[BadGoldEagle]

I'm actually a bit daft. I asked gglabs to burn a special version when their pre flashed version already comes with both RAM and ROM checks disabled. I've just sent them a message asking them to ignore my request. I hope it's not too late!

 

[jessenator]

I'm actually a bit daft. I asked gglabs to burn a special version when their pre flashed version already comes with both RAM and ROM checks disabled. I've just sent them a message asking them to ignore my request. I hope it's not too late!

lol That's probably why they didn't reply to me.

Earlier you mentioned changing other aspects of the ROM: startup sound, etc.. This is the Mac side I'm a noob at. I'm guessing the ROM editing process requires a modicum of programming ability. Also, are mistake easily correctable? E.g. if I was to make a small mistake, could I simply re-flash with a corrected or the original ROM code and it not have a detrimental effect on my computer? Don't want to derail the hijack, but thought I'd ask here.

 

[tommijazz91]

lol That's probably why they didn't reply to me.

Earlier you mentioned changing other aspects of the ROM: startup sound, etc.. This is the Mac side I'm a noob at. I'm guessing the ROM editing process requires a modicum of programming ability. Also, are mistake easily correctable? E.g. if I was to make a small mistake, could I simply re-flash with a corrected or the original ROM code and it not have a detrimental effect on my computer? Don't want to derail the hijack, but thought I'd ask here.

No hijack, this is getting quite interesting.

Isn't is possible to somehow ask GGLABS wether they can flash something in particular on the ROM? From what I understand they don’t reply to messages, so this could be tricky.

 

[BadGoldEagle]

Isn't is possible to somehow ask GGLABS wether they can flash something in particular on the ROM?

Yes, you can. As long as you don't change your mind half way through like I did... They do respond to messages. I contacted them like 3 times today now and they responded very fast!

BTW, they just changed it back to their own original formula (IIsi, ROM+RAM check disabled) for me for no additional charge. Awesome seller. Will definitely buy from them again if I have the opportunity to do so!

I can't wait to try it out. 

 

[seanrox]

For those interested, BMOW has a new version of his now discontinued "Mac ROM-inator II MEGA SIMM" called the "Mac ROM-inator II Atom SIMM" that he recently released:

https://www.bigmessowires.com/shop/product/mac-rom-inator-ii-atom-simm/

At the time of this comment, it's out of stock, however if you reach out to him directly he can update you on stock. I got one of these last week for my SE/30. So awesome!

 

[trag]

For those interested, BMOW has a new version of his now discontinued "Mac ROM-inator II MEGA SIMM" called the "Mac ROM-inator II Atom SIMM" that he recently released:

https://www.bigmessowires.com/shop/product/mac-rom-inator-ii-atom-simm/\

Is that the 2MB or the 8MB version?

 

[seanrox]

Is that the 2MB or the 8MB version?

It's the 2MB version. I don't think the larger one is being made anymore.

 

[trag]

It's the 2MB version. I don't think the larger one is being made anymore.

I think BMOW said he couldn't get the larger SRAMs any more, but he might have found more, which is why I asked.

 

[SE30_Neal]

I have the 8mb version but never got it work properly with 7.5.5

 

[seanrox]

I have the 8mb version but never got it work properly with 7.5.5

On the back of my board it has 2MB and 4MB with 2MB checked in the little box. I'm running 7.1. I'm pretty new to the Mac world with my SE/30. What's the advantages of OS 7.5.5 over OS 7.1?

 

[Bolle]

It can run more modern software. (which most likely runs in 7.1 as well though after installing Drag&Drop and Thread Manager extensions)

Other than that I don’t see any advantages.

It is more resource hungry so I stay away from it on 030 machines.

Maximum HFS partition size is the only thing that could be a factor to choose 7.5.5 (supports 4GB partitions) over 7.1 (2GB maximum partition size)

I don’t run 7.5.5 on 030 Macs as I have yet to come across a piece of software that wouldn’t work on 7.1 and most of my drives are either smaller than 2GB anyways or are split into several partitions anyways for organization so I mostly don’t care for the 2GB limit.

 

[seanrox]

It can run more modern software. (which most likely runs in 7.1 as well though after installing Drag&Drop and Thread Manager extensions)

Other than that I don’t see any advantages.

It is more resource hungry so I stay away from it on 030 machines.

Maximum HFS partition size is the only thing that could be a factor to choose 7.5.5 (supports 4GB partitions) over 7.1 (2GB maximum partition size)

I don’t run 7.5.5 on 030 Macs as I have yet to come across a piece of software that wouldn’t work on 7.1 and most of my drives are either smaller than 2GB anyways or are split into several partitions anyways for organization so I mostly don’t care for the 2GB limit.

Thank you for the information Bolle. Much appreciated.