Shells available on NetBSD mac68k machine

[johnklos]

Hi, all,

If anyone would like a shell with all the accoutrements on a real m68k Mac, please let me know. It is a Quadra 630 with 132 megs of memory, a clock doubled (50 MHz) m68040, 10 Mbps ethernet, static IPv4 and IPv6, a 750 gig internal IDE drive, and it's running NetBSD current.This machine is colocated with much more bandwidth than it can use, so (usually static) web hosting will be available, too.

Some pictures of the machine during the build process:

http://www.ziaspace.com/~john/quadra630/

Please PM me if you're interested, and feel free to ask any questions here.

 

[Dog Cow]

What's the uptime like?

 

[ChristTrekker]

Would definitely be interested in an account, especially if it can be set up for pkgsrc development.

Have I asked you this before? The domain sounds familiar, but maybe it's just because I've seen your posts before.

 

[johnklos]

What's the uptime like?

Well, the machine is new, so not high. It's uptime is ten days, which is exactly as long as it's been at the datacenter. I'll probably update to the latest current in the next day or two, but after that I won't be rebooting it until there are good reasons (security, mostly).

I always test the machines as best I can before bringing them to the datacenter. I had it sitting in my office for almost a month compiling and getting its disk thrashed and other such tests. It seems quite happy.

Some machines will run forever without problems because the hardware is happy. For instance:

11:24AM up 525 days, 1:31, 1 user, load averages: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00

 

[johnklos]

Would definitely be interested in an account, especially if it can be set up for pkgsrc development.
Have I asked you this before? The domain sounds familiar, but maybe it's just because I've seen your posts before.

I have two other machines which are going to be used for compiling pkgsrc, and you're welcome to accounts on them, too. I suppose it depends on how much CPU you intend to use. If it's a lot (multiple days of compiling), I'd lean towards you using one of the other machines which has less bandwidth but same speed CPU. If it's just an occasional package (such as the Apple II emulator), then you could use this machine.

The email address from which I typically write is john at ziaspace.com, and you probably remember that from the NetBSD mailing lists.

 

[ChristTrekker]

I have two other machines which are going to be used for compiling pkgsrc, and you're welcome to accounts on them, too. I suppose it depends on how much CPU you intend to use. If it's a lot (multiple days of compiling), I'd lean towards you using one of the other machines which has less bandwidth but same speed CPU. If it's just an occasional package (such as the Apple II emulator), then you could use this machine.

Well I don't plan on bulk builds if that's what you mean. Most of my time on NB/m68k was building stuff for my own amusement and the occasional request for something that wouldn't build out-of-the-box for whatever reason, or just wasn't available in a recent version. I'm a handy enough programmer that I can sometimes patch my way around platform-specific issues. As I'm without a NB/m68k machine at present, I'd be happy with anything.

 

[Dog Cow]

11:24AM up 525 days, 1:31, 1 user, load averages: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00

Well that's not surprising considering that there's been 0 load avg over the past 15 mins... :-/

Also, is that stat from a 68k machine that you're giving accounts out on?

 

[johnklos]

11:24AM up 525 days, 1:31, 1 user, load averages: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00

Well that's not surprising considering that there's been 0 load avg over the past 15 mins... :-/

This is a PowerMac which is doing NAT, IPv6 tunneling and routing, and BIND. It's mostly idle because it mostly just slings packets.

Also, is that stat from a 68k machine that you're giving accounts out on?

No. The machine I'm making available is relatively new, so the uptime is quite modest. I got it in October, finished putting it together by the end of October, tested it for much of November, then moved it into the datacenter a week and a half ago.

 

[Dog Cow]

Oh well, it's a free service, so hopefully some people find it useful!

Actually, it's people like you running BSD and such on the 68k hardware that makes me want to try it (and AUX) out for myself.

 

[johnklos]

Oh well, it's a free service, so hopefully some people find it useful!

That's the idea! I started hosting in the mid 1990s because hosting companies were such a pain in the ass and I just wanted to have a nice place for myself and my friends. I'd like to extend this offer because good shell servers are hard to find.

Actually, it's people like you running BSD and such on the 68k hardware that makes me want to try it (and AUX) out for myself.

I had fun playing with A/UX, but I found it difficult to get larger software packages compiled. NetBSD is nice because it's completely modern - you can run the very latest version on an m68k Mac the exact same way you'd run it on an x86 server. m68k users aren't "second class" with NetBSD.

 

[ClassicHasClass]

What's the uptime like?

Until the last cache card it chewed through (requiring a replacement and reboot), my apartment IIci had an uptime of over 800 days. The Q605 does nearly as well. They are astonishingly stable, and handle proxy, DNS and print services for the other systems.

 

[ChristTrekker]

I had fun playing with A/UX, but I found it difficult to get larger software packages compiled.

Yeah, anything much newer than it's time period and it's going to have problems. Obviously it doesn't support the C99 standard, just to name one thing. (I wonder how hard it would be to write a compatibility library for that...hmmm.) Even if I finish porting pkgsrc to it, that's still only the build framework...if the packages don't build, they don't build, and will need porting work. I was thrilled to get bash 2 working.

NetBSD is nice because it's completely modern - you can run the very latest version on an m68k Mac the exact same way you'd run it on an x86 server. m68k users aren't "second class" with NetBSD.

I have to say that NetBSD is what's kept my interest in m68k alive. Without a modern OS, I wouldn't be playing with them much at all any more.

 

[johnklos]

The shell server has been upgraded to 196 megs:

 

[ChristTrekker]

The shell server has been upgraded to 196 megs:

Rockin'!

I'd still be interested in any NB/m68k or A/UX accounts for doing pkgsrc work. I'm not aware of anyone beating down the door for m68k binaries that don't already exist, but for my own amusement I'd like to get Aleph One to build.

 

[ClassicHasClass]

Pookie, huh?

 

[johnklos]

Pookie, huh?

Yep. pookie.ziaspace.com. It also hosts mac68k.org.

Now that the hardware is finished (unless something fails, I have no reason to change anything), I'll be setting up more long term stuff on there, so if anyone wants to host any projects or sites, or just wants a shell, let me know.

 

[ChristTrekker]

It also hosts mac68k.org.

OK, I have to ask: what kind of upgrades you got crammed in there? Interesting pics...

 

[johnklos]

OK, I have to ask: what kind of upgrades you got crammed in there? Interesting pics...

Thanks. I got the new motherboard from Mike Richardson (adoptamac) for less than $10. He says it's an LC / Performa 580 motherboard, but it might not be. According to Marc Schrier's clock chipping page those motherboards can't be clock chipped. On the other hand, on Marc's Quadra 630 page:

http://homepage.mac.com/schrier/q630.html

it mentions that the revision A of the Quadra / Performa 630 (and friends) motherboard is part number 820-0624-A and that it is clock chippable; this motherboard has that part number, and it had the resistors exactly where that page said, so I underclocked the motherboard to 25 MHz. It worked fine the very first time.

This motherboard replaced the Quadra 630 motherboard so I could get two SIMM sockets - one is dual banked and the other single, so with a 128 meg SIMM and a 64 meg SIMM (which Mike threw in for no additional charge - thanks, Mike!) plus the 4 megs on the motherboard, I have 196 megs which you can see in the pictures.

The ethernet is a standard Sonic based LC-PDS card, and the hard drive is a 7200 RPM 750 gig Seagate IDE drive.

I underclocked the motherboard to 25 MHz because I have a board similar to a QuadDoubler installed. It was sold by Newer Technology but made by a company called Spectrum Engineering and it's labelled model 700-C. I had to add two empty sockets to raise the board to clear the ports on the back, and even then it was a tight fit because the board pushes a little on the metal back:

The picture is of the doubler in the previous motherboard, but the arrangement on the new motherboard is the same.

Beyond that, I used three lithium AA batteries in place of the motherboard battery, and that's all. Oh - and it's running NetBSD-current compiled with -m68040 optimizations.