Do any *nix variants support 601 upgrades?

[Quadraman]

Well?

 

[Bunsen]

Or indeed any upgrades? '030, '040 etc

 

[gobabushka]

i have no experiencem so correct me if im wrong, but i wouldnt think so, because most upgrades are activated by an extension, so unless a driver is written into the *nix kernel, i wouldnt think so.

 

[chris]

Actually, if it boots from Mac OS then it should... My 68LC040 in my LC2 is supported fully

 

[QuadSix50]

If I remember correctly some time back when I used to compile Linux kernels (especially under PPC), I think I remember seeing module support for some of the CPU upgrades. I'd have to check and find out.

 

[lorddoomicus]

Mach 10 will run on anything that Mac os 7/8/9 will run on, depending on your mach 10 version.

- Derrik

 

[Unknown_K]

I would think any upgrades that need a control panel to work (or set the cache to on) would have problems.

 

[SiliconValleyPirate]

I know A/UX doesn't like the Turbo040 in my IIci, which is kind of... a bummer (to use the words of Ellen Feiss).

I would doubt that PPC upgrades on a 68k machine would work with any OS that hasn't specifically had support added for them. IIRC they load something to the Mac ROM memory space on startup that reads the PRAM for a flag to enable or disable the PPC, and the PPC does not work if that flag is not detected. That flag is set using the Mac OS control panel. I have no knowledge further than that but my immediate reaction would be...

No.

 

[Charlieman]

IIRC they load something to the Mac ROM memory space on startup that reads the PRAM for a flag to enable or disable the PPC, and the PPC does not work if that flag is not detected. That flag is set using the Mac OS control panel.

Then shove the control panel in the Extensions folder and rename it to load before the Linux/BSD boot loader. If that doesn't work, identify the PRAM value that is being set and use one of the many PRAM loaders to set it during startup. It is always worth a try.

 

[cuvtixo]

IIRC they load something to the Mac ROM memory space on startup that reads the PRAM for a flag to enable or disable the PPC, and the PPC does not work if that flag is not detected. That flag is set using the Mac OS control panel.

Then shove the control panel in the Extensions folder and rename it to load before the Linux/BSD boot loader. If that doesn't work, identify the PRAM value that is being set and use one of the many PRAM loaders to set it during startup. It is always worth a try.

Has this control panel/extension switcharoo worked with something else? How do you rename something to make it load first?

As far as I know, the two ways to run BootX: as an application or as an extension, "and the only difference between the application and extension is that the extension has a (ResEdit-configurable) timeout value, after which the default OS (which the user defines) is chosen. If Linux is selected, BootX shuts down the Mac OS, loads the Linux kernel into memory, and starts it running. If the Mac OS is selected, BootX simply exits."

I think the minute the Mac OS shuts down, everything gets reset, and the system gets confused about which CPU to use again- I have vague memories of such a problem with trying to run linux on a DOS Card Mac. A big problem is that the Mac Boot Rom is completely closed and proprietary (unlike the reverse engineered PC BIOS, while not "open source"-- its workings are well known) It is the Boot ROM settings, not PRAM settings, which causes problems.

 

[TylerEss]

I run OpenBSD on my SE/30 with Turbo040 and it likes it just fine. It's slower than MacOS 'cuz the cache isn't supported, but that's not a big deal.

Years ago there was a private fork of the NetBSD kernel that enabled the cache on NetBSD/68k boxes with DayStar PowerCache 030 upgrades, but I'm fairly certain they're archaic now.

I haven't tried A/UX but would like to sometime if/when I'm bored. I've finally gotten a IIfx ROM SIMM to avoid the 8MB-RAM-limit-in-AUX problem.