Building Mac OS HDAs within Infinite Mac

[GerrySch]

Good evening all. I recently found out from a YT video that Ron McAdams did on using the Infinite Mac website to build bootable .HDAs for a BlueSCSI Mac. This was perfect for me as I've been trying to build from scratch a bootable Mac OS 7.5.3 volume for my SE/30. When I try to do it using the BlueSCSI v2, the SE/30 boggs down and stops part way through the installation. That's true whether I get the installation files from BlueSCSI's website or from the Apple Legacy Recovery CD. So, I followed Ron's steps and produced a 'Saved HD.hda.' when I renamed and installed it as HD60_512 OS 7.5.1 SE30 HD.hda in the BlueSCSI microSD, but upon booting, it just blinked the enigmatic ?. So I put the microSD in my LC475 (it too has an internal BlueSCSI v2 )and it booted OS 7.5.3 fine. I tried to use an external 25-pin BlueSCSI and the SE/30 got to the 'Welcome to Macintosh' before freezing. Perhaps I'm wearing out the SD port in the back of the internal BlueSCSI.

I even went back to OS 7.1 using the Apple LR CD and made a new .hda image but still got the freezing. But on the LC475, this same image boots fine and I can do anything I need to do. If I build OS 7.5.3 on the LC475, upon booting it on the SE/30, it says that this OS doesn't run on this hardware. So I'm stuck. I'm going to build an OS 6.0.8 and selecting only SE/30 selections to see if I can boot off of that. Then, if that works, I'll move up to 7.0.1 and see if that works. Also, what options and leeway do I have when selecting the emulated hardware in the Infinite Mac website?

Has anyone else had issues building SE/30 boot disks using the Infinite Mac website? Are there steps missing from Ron's procedure to keep me from building an SE/30 bootable .HDA?

Please let me know your experiences to help me figure this out. Are there any other ways to build BlueSCSI bootable drives for the SE/30? I know the range of OSes that are compatible with the SE/30 are from 6.0.8 to 7.5.3 rev 2. I found some prebuilt, bootable 7.5.3 images that work on the SE/30 but not all of them.

Thank you for your time and help,
Gerry

 

[dougg3]

So I put the microSD in my LC475 (it too has an internal BlueSCSI v2 )and it booted OS 7.5.3 fine. I tried to use an external 25-pin BlueSCSI and the SE/30 got to the 'Welcome to Macintosh' before freezing. Perhaps I'm wearing out the SD port in the back of the internal BlueSCSI.

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that you are using a custom ROM SIMM in your SE/30. With a custom IIsi- or IIfx-based ROM in an SE/30, System 7.5 and up will hang at Welcome to Macintosh until you patch a couple of system files with ResEdit. bigmessowires saved a copy of Gamba's page that explains the necessary hacks.

I'm not sure about the other stuff you saw with the flashing question mark or the trouble booting from 7.1, but the freezing at Welcome to Macintosh on a brand new install of 7.5 on an SE/30 is usually a telltale sign that someone is using a custom ROM SIMM.

 

[GerrySch]

dougg3, you are completely right. I do have a Garette ROM SIMM in my SE/30. I COMPLETELY forgot about patching System 7 to run on my SE/30. I've been wrapped up with conquering my BlueSCSI issues and now that I'm starting to wrap my head around how it works, what it wants, when it wants it has filled my thoughts for the last couple of weeks. Finding these great shortcuts like Disk Jockey and using the Infinite Mac to build boot images has helped a lot. It's just that there's a lot of background information that stitches all how BlueSCSI ties into building the right kind of HDA files. For instance, when I get the blinking ? when trying to boot from 6 HDA files I made indicate to me that, unlike my understanding that Apple SCSI ports boot from SCSI IDs 6 to 0, they stop at if it can't boot from the first drive. That's what I misunderstood and had to find this out as I struggled with these issues.

Another issue I was fighting with was how AppleTalk and the 'Alternate Internet' from the BlueSCSI work together. Internet access was very spotty even though I have a WiFi hotspot about 15 feet from the SE/30 and having it connect with other Macs and my SAN all on the same local network. Does the SE/30 use the printer port or WiFi to connect to the other Macs? And can I share files? Tonight I copied files from my PW6500 to the SE/30 and it appears to use the AppleTalk (lots of blinking LEDs on the Bridge) instead of the 'Alternate Internet' as setup in the TCP/IP Control Panel (Yes, I have the original AppleTalk hardware and cabling that I got from eBay 15 years ago). Also, as it turned out, the printer serial port on the back of the SE/30 is worn out and I get intermittent connection problems. Moving over to the modem port helped a lot.

So, things are looking up with my Mac networking and using BlueSCSIs. Not I need to find another job. I got laid off a month ago from Fox. I've enjoyed my extra free time to work on this but I'd rather be working.

Thanks a lot for your observation. I would have never thought of that. I couldn't see the forest for the trees,
Gerry

P.S. I use a BlueSCSI on my Power Mac 6500 for booting and storage. I have an IDE to SD card adapter but I find the BlueSCSI much more flexible and a great replacement for a Zip Drive.