Discord Weekly Summary

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eric

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Discord Weekly Summary — Week ending 2026-06-27

Another busy week across the channels — highlights include progress on the SHORK 486 Linux distro, deep dives into Mac II 68030 upgrades, an A/UX archival effort, and a big discussion sparked by Linux dropping AppleTalk support. Here's the rundown.


Summary

#the-lab-software
Admiral Shark has been preparing SHORK 486 for its first public release with ready-to-go builds. Highlights this week:
  • A new unified settings app, SHORKSET, with a menu-based interface, consolidating the various settings tools.
  • Plans for an easy disk-mounting interface and a basic network manager.
  • A new SHORK DISC variant — an ISO containing precompiled 486 and DISKETTE .imgs plus a guided install script that automates dd'ing an image onto a disk or diskette (handy for those without an IDE-to-USB adapter). Shark noted that for pre-El Torito 486s that can't boot the CD, you can still mount it via SHORK DISKETTE and run the installer.
Stinkerton18 built SHORK DISKETTE and booted it on a 486SLC, reporting two bits of feedback: config/build had to be run as root directly on their distro, and the full build failed on libXdmcp-1.1.5 with a 404 (fixed by updating to the xorg.freedesktop.org URL — Shark has since updated all the x.org URLs). The plan is to try building the DaynaPORT SCSI/Link driver module.

#the-lab-hardware
  • Cracking protected PAL/GAL chips: Xiang asked about unlocking protected AMD PALCE16V8H chips with blown security fuses. zigzagjoe and Bolle discussed the Chinese "RunFei" programmers, which appear to use power glitching (cutting power mid-erase so only the protection bit clears) for GALs, while SuperSVGA noted the PALCE method seems to apply VPP for a permanent unlock. Bolle confirmed it has worked on countless chips but has occasionally fully erased one in the process — a known risk with glitching. Bolle offered to share logic analyzer dumps.
  • Adding a PCI slot: Trina's Technobabble asked whether an unpopulated "PCI1" footprint on an ASUS F2A55-M board could be made functional by soldering on a slot. The consensus (bakkus, Dorkulon, Justin D. Morgan) was that it's possible but risky — bakkus estimated ~30% odds given unknown missing components — with cautionary tales of people soldering slots onto footprints that turned out not to be standard slots.
  • Aging HDDs: techknight shared photos of age-related head coil adhesive failure on a black 2.5" IBM drive, prompting a "Powerbook/iBook owners beware" thread and reminiscing about how painful HDD replacement is on white iBooks and PowerBook G3s.

#vintage-apple
The busiest channel this week (300+ messages):
  • Apple II Serial Grappler: Wavebird picked up an Apple II Serial Grappler card and sought documentation. Andy pointed to several archives and noted that since it (like the Apple Super Serial Card and AE Serial Pro) uses a 6551, those manuals should apply. Confirmed convention: slot 1 for printers, slot 2 for modems; back-panel connectors mount with #4-40 nuts.
  • Mac II 68030 upgrade deep-dive: An extensive technical discussion (DosFox, zigzagjoe, twvd, Bolle, Andy) on upgrading a Macintosh II from the 68020/HMMU to a 68030. Key takeaways: you need FDHD ROMs (the same ROM used in the IIx/IIcx/SE/30) as the original II ROMs go into a reboot loop with an '030; the IIx-style PAL is very simple and the rest is mostly jumpering PMMU socket signals; the AMMU is just a set of simple GALs (reproducible in three 16L8s per the prototype). Bolle is considering including an '030 adapter in a PowerCache/Turbo040 adapter for the Mac II. twvd clarified the ROM detects an MMU by running an instruction, so an '030 is detected fine. Andy also cleared up confusion over PAL SIMMs (a fix for larger SIMMs on the Mac II, not the IIfx's dual-port RAM).
  • 68851 PMMU hunt: Sharpie sought a Motorola 68851 PMMU for a friend's Mac II upgrade; Kai Robinson found one (expensive, but rare these days).
  • A/UX archival: Sharpie is archiving a full A/UX 1.1 set — 33 floppies (some needing extensive repair), manuals to be photocopied, and a QIC install tape. twvd floated the idea of building tape drive emulation into Snow so A/UX could be installed directly from such media. Sharpie noted an A/UX install tape may not have been archived before.
  • "Is it vintage yet?": A lively debate kicked off by the news that the next macOS is the last to support Intel. TopherPerson linked Apple's official Vintage/Obsolete list. Xodium argued early Intel Macs (pre-Nehalem) already qualify, while Dorkulon countered that old machines feel slow mainly because modern web browsers and apps (e.g., Discord) are so bloated.
  • Repairs & projects: Josh (new to the scene) posted a detailed Mac SE restoration troubleshooting thread — moisture damage, a ~30s delay before the cursor appears, and a BlueSCSI that reaches the data phase then times out. Suggestions covered the 5V rail (raised to 5.04V via the PSU pot, no change), bad SCSI controllers, termination/assembly issues, and rolling your own known-good disk image rather than trusting prebuilt ones. Still unresolved. Wavebird sorted out an Apple II joystick button issue — Apple wired the buttons to +5V rather than the conventional ground, unlike the IBM joystick they'd been testing with. Coal Shork is sourcing a 3D-printed inner bezel for a slot-loading iMac G3, prompting discussion of the structural challenges (the CRT effectively hangs from it, and 3D prints are weak along layer lines). For plastic polishing/scuff removal, Novus 1/2/3, Magic Eraser, and brake fluid were recommended (always test first). killvore recommended the Noctua A6x15 FLX as a drop-in 68040 fan.
  • KansasFest 2026: Ron's Computer Videos reminded folks that on-campus lodging registration closed midnight Friday June 26th. The event runs July 14–19 at the University of Illinois Springfield, with special guests Dan Kottke, Jimmy Mensch, and IIgs engineer Dan Hillman announced.

#the-lab-networking
The big story: Linux is dropping AppleTalk support (EOL in 7.2). nulleric shared the Phoronix article, kicking off a long discussion:
  • The source has been moved to the linux-netdev/mod-orphan repo, so the module can still be compiled and loaded out-of-tree. Andy already does this for his Synology NAS, and daniel confirmed building the out-of-tree AppleTalk module has been "remarkably painless" so far (DKMS can auto-rebuild on kernel upgrades, per Nick-el) — the main worry is future-proofing against kernel API changes.
  • Maighstir noted the removal is largely about the maintenance burden of low-quality (or potentially malicious) patches. The Linus commit message ("Let it join hamradio in our out of tree protocol graveyard") was described as "on brand."
  • daniel (Netatalk) framed Apple killing AFP and Linux dropping the kernel module as "a blessing in disguise" that opens up the design space for rewrites. They reported major progress on a userspace AFP client — at feature parity with Apple AFP in macOS 26, with ResourceFork and FinderInfo xattrs transferring correctly against both Netatalk and vintage Apple servers; only speed optimization remains. daniel also noted NetBSD will soon be the only living OS shipping DDP in the kernel out of the box (though thecloud pointed out it's commented out on some arches like evbarm and needs a recompile).
  • Other userspace efforts mentioned: the Netatalk client, and dev1098's pointer to TailTalk (a Rust/Tokio async userspace AppleTalk stack), which dev1098 has used to share files Windows → Farallon iPrint → LC II. daniel noted TailTalk's author chose not to make it interoperable with Netatalk's C API.
  • A reminder from thecloud and daniel that AppleTalk is more than filesharing — games, chat, printer drivers, etc. all build on DDP.
  • Earlier in the week, CTB troubleshot a missing AFPServer on a netatalk 4.2.3 install; daniel's common fixes: add appletalk = yes to afp.conf and start atalkd before netatalk.

#vintage-programming
1Bit Fever Dreams released cozyMIDI v0.1, a standard MIDI file player for classic Macs (runs fairly well on a Plus, very well on an SE/30). It plays type 0 and type 1 MIDI files, pre-calculates timing to avoid real-time divisions in the playback loop, and uses lean CopyBits animations. It needs a synth MIDI module (recommended: vintage Roland Sound Canvas SC-55ST and up, or modern mt32-pi). They initially used the modem port due to a printer-port issue, later traced to mistaking the modem-in port address for the printer-out port. Source is on GitHub (view as raw to avoid classic Mac line-ending issues).

#self-promotion
Plenty of streams and videos this week:
  • Ron's Computer Videos: a Let's Chat with Karl Baron (Kalleboo) on GlobalTalk, a 1989 Apple Desktop Media VHS feature, and a Let's Chat oral history of TNT Amusements with Todd Tuckey.
  • Trina's Technobabble: multiple streams — laptop testing, motherboard recapping/desoldering, and a Lenovo ThinkBook 15 G4 teardown.
  • BigBadBiologist: a two-part saga reballing and (improperly, with hot air) reattaching an Intel 440BX northbridge on an Acorp 6BX86 Pentium II board.
  • 1Bit Fever Dreams: a full video on coding the cozyMIDI MIDI file player for the Mac Plus.
  • HardwareHacker / Lord Heincrad: Let's Play streams of Subnautica 2 and Ni No Kuni.
  • seatsafetyswitch: a new blog post on an Apple IIgs pickup and RAM expansion.


Links & Resources


This summary was generated by an LLM and may contain errors or omissions. Please check the original Discord conversations for full context and accuracy.
 
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