So I've been trying to figure this one out for a few days…
I have a Power Mac G4 (Mirror Drive Doors), which doesn't have an NMI button ("Programmer's Button" or "Interrupt" button, or sometimes with a funny symbol on it). As far as any Googling would take me, Command+Eject on an Apple Pro Keyboard will cause an NMI (just like Command+Power does on Apple keyboards with a power key), but out of all three of my Mac keyboards the eject keys are unrecognized under Mac OS 9. I have an Apple Keyboard model A1048 (with its USB hub ports on the back near the cord), an Apple Aluminum Keyboard with the OS X Lion keys model MB110LL/B (which incidentally doesn't work correctly on OS X 10.5.8, either) and a Logitech diNovo Keyboard for Mac, which was an overpriced wireless keyboard with a very similar layout to the original Apple Aluminum Keyboard model MB110LL/A (that DOES work on Leopard…with shitty Logitech software installed…) but I digress. The point being that Control+Eject performed the same function as pressing a power key, and otherwise in traditional low-level hot keys the Eject key took the power key's place on the Apple Pro Keyboard.
Anyway, because the eject key on these keyboards presumably sends a different scan code than the Apple Pro Keyboard (with its USB ports on the sides), any n-finger salutes that require it (including the NMI Command+Power/Eject hotkey to pop into MacsBug) fail to do much of anything at all under OS 9. I could buy an Apple Pro Keyboard, and I probably actually will buy a couple, but short of hitting Command+Eject on an Apple Pro Keyboard (or simulating one with something like a Teensy) I don't know how I can enter MacsBug intentionally on my G4 without crashing my system. Is there another way? My understanding was always that NMI's were 100% a hardware line usually down to actually being a pin on the CPU, but I'm really doubting that the USB controller in these systems actually listened for some sort of "magic packet" generated by the Apple Pro Keyboard; if I were to change the keyboard mapping around to listen for the scan code emitted by one of these keyboards I'd imagine a similar result, because it has to be at least partially done in software maybe in the keyboard driver, no?
I'm willing to risk fucking up my system with shoddy reshacking and unstable system extensions. What are other ways to trigger MacsBug, and are there ways to remap a key so it is interpreted like the "special" eject key on the Pro Keyboard?
I expect to buy an Apple Pro Keyboard anyway — they're $15-30 or less shipped, and rather easy to find on eBay and Amazon, but that isn't my ultimate "goal," as it would still require a specific keyboard in order to enter the debugger on this system. It seems so unnecessary.
I have a Power Mac G4 (Mirror Drive Doors), which doesn't have an NMI button ("Programmer's Button" or "Interrupt" button, or sometimes with a funny symbol on it). As far as any Googling would take me, Command+Eject on an Apple Pro Keyboard will cause an NMI (just like Command+Power does on Apple keyboards with a power key), but out of all three of my Mac keyboards the eject keys are unrecognized under Mac OS 9. I have an Apple Keyboard model A1048 (with its USB hub ports on the back near the cord), an Apple Aluminum Keyboard with the OS X Lion keys model MB110LL/B (which incidentally doesn't work correctly on OS X 10.5.8, either) and a Logitech diNovo Keyboard for Mac, which was an overpriced wireless keyboard with a very similar layout to the original Apple Aluminum Keyboard model MB110LL/A (that DOES work on Leopard…with shitty Logitech software installed…) but I digress. The point being that Control+Eject performed the same function as pressing a power key, and otherwise in traditional low-level hot keys the Eject key took the power key's place on the Apple Pro Keyboard.
Anyway, because the eject key on these keyboards presumably sends a different scan code than the Apple Pro Keyboard (with its USB ports on the sides), any n-finger salutes that require it (including the NMI Command+Power/Eject hotkey to pop into MacsBug) fail to do much of anything at all under OS 9. I could buy an Apple Pro Keyboard, and I probably actually will buy a couple, but short of hitting Command+Eject on an Apple Pro Keyboard (or simulating one with something like a Teensy) I don't know how I can enter MacsBug intentionally on my G4 without crashing my system. Is there another way? My understanding was always that NMI's were 100% a hardware line usually down to actually being a pin on the CPU, but I'm really doubting that the USB controller in these systems actually listened for some sort of "magic packet" generated by the Apple Pro Keyboard; if I were to change the keyboard mapping around to listen for the scan code emitted by one of these keyboards I'd imagine a similar result, because it has to be at least partially done in software maybe in the keyboard driver, no?
I'm willing to risk fucking up my system with shoddy reshacking and unstable system extensions. What are other ways to trigger MacsBug, and are there ways to remap a key so it is interpreted like the "special" eject key on the Pro Keyboard?
I expect to buy an Apple Pro Keyboard anyway — they're $15-30 or less shipped, and rather easy to find on eBay and Amazon, but that isn't my ultimate "goal," as it would still require a specific keyboard in order to enter the debugger on this system. It seems so unnecessary.
