NetBSD/mac68k 9.2 Install - Saga

[eric]

@Stephen over on OpenRetro SCSI discord mentioned it'd be neat if someone made a premade NetBSD 9.2 .hda file for Ra/BlueSCSI. This was something that was on my TODO list as I already created some A/UX images so I thought I'd be a quick, and easy process...

First I thought I'd try installing it via Basalisk II as that'd speed things up. But it seems it needs a "real" SCSI device to find the partitions on so that was out.

Then I thought I'd try it on my Quadra 950 - got the installer to start, but the Keyboard didn't work - turns out the Q950 is not compatible due the keyboard...

Ok, fine, lets get the SE/30 out. But I couldn't get it to boot in 32bit mode due to a 24bit color video card in it.

Classic II is on the compatibility list and I do have an FPU in it, so lets try that... except I only had 4mb of RAM (needs 10mb min)

Went rummaging in the back and found my IIci - took a peak inside and noticed I hadn't re-capped it... So lets recap it, why not!

Finally installing it following the Traditional Method (they should really list this one first!) and it locked up after installing for a few minutes.

Thought the OS was corrupted or something so I used the Apple Legacy Recovery CD to install 7.1... which doesn't have CD drivers, and the disk image on the ALR CD has a currupted Apple CD Software image... Luckily I could get them easily via RaSCSI download file to HFS ISO.

Still crashing while installing. That's when I noticed the IIci Cache card has 2 bad caps on it too! GAH! Don't have any replacements so I'll just take that out.

Now we're an hour into the multi hour install (read after that just the base will take 2 hours, i selected everything...) - will update when once I'm through this step!

 

[ScutBoy]

Watching with interest. A *BSD image would be fun - especially if you've done all the work!

 

[fehervaria]

Hm... you've wrote "Basilisk II" need a real SCSI drive to map to Basilisk's virtual SCSI disk...
Why don't you put a SCSI card into your G3 (or any Mac or PC desktop with PCI bus) and run Basilisk II there? Then you would have the quick(er) host computer ad Basilisk II for the NetBSD guest.
But I'm pushing my fingers for your install now...

 

[Drake]

I absolutely can relate with this!

 

[eric]

I believe netatalk on my rascsi created some odd network situation and crashed my dream machine pro and i had to force reset it and it corrupted the drive. I also have a sneaking suspicion my external i300 CD drive is going out as it has errored out and re-read things quite a bit.

I need the patched drivers to mount it via rascsi as it cant mount non HFS cd's without that...

The saga continues.

 

[Stephen]

The cursed NetBSD HDA. Will it ever work? Find out next time...

 

[Drake]

By the time Eric makes his live appearance he will be so frazzled by this venture...

 

[eric]

The CD drive was bad, luckily I had another. I copied over all the files to the HDD. Install succeeded.

Boot failed - It does not like the Apple Adjustable Keyboard ?!?!?

Hook up another keyboard, get to the debugger, but no shell, hmm.

Tried a the different SBC kernel, no go, and corrupted the drive somehow this time.

Yay. Will try again tomorrow.

 

[speakers]

I installed NetBSD9.1 over a year ago on a Iicx (and I presume 9.2 would be similar). Use an ethernet card and do a network install. I was amazed how easily a current OS installed on a 30-year old machine. BUT: it's very slow to use. I subsequently re-installed NetBSD3.1 which is less resource hungry but installation required some hackery because a netinstall wasn't available.

Also make sure you have enough RAM - at least 8MB although I use multiple OWC 16MB SIMMs.

I have 3.1 also running on a Iici and Q650 (and 9.1 on a G4 MDD but that's a different topic).

 

[Melkhior]

For those of you who have succeeded in installing NetBSD/mac68k, what is the type and size of your permanent storage? i.e. genuine SCSI hard drive or some version of SCSI2SD, BlueSCSI, RaSCSI, MacSD, ...

I've been trying to install NetBSD on my Q650 but to no good results yet. I'm using a MacSD with 3 partitions exposed as drive plus the original 7.5.5 file (on SCSI ID 4). I'm booting MacOS 8.1 on a MacSD partition exposed as SCSI ID1; two other partition are on SCSI ID 2 and 3. and while it works fine for Mac OS8.1, the NetBSD installer keeps failing with SCSI read() error on both ID 2 and 3. My original partitions were 8 and 5.7 GiB; I've also tried 4095 MiB for ID 3 but still a failure - next step is going down to a 2047 MiB drive I suppose. But I wonder if it's a disk size issue, or if somehow NetBSD and the MacSD just don't play well together in my machine.

 

[speakers]

I have a SCSI2SD. With HFS you must stick to a SCSI LUN of 2GB or smaller, so that's what I used. I used HDsetup (or perhaps LIDO) to create a small HFS boot partition for a minimal MacOS 7 install together with the NetBSD install/boot kit, plus a UNIX swap partition and a UNIX root partition forming the bulk of the LUN. Now, it may have been that my target LUN was 0 and that could explain your issues. I'd previously found that the A/UX install required targeting LUN 0. Anyhow, I was able to perform a net install without issue. I subsequently relocated the entire (2GB) slice to another LUN (using dd on the SD stuck in a OSX machine).

Note, as I remarked before, NetBSD 9 is pokey on 68k. NetBSD 3 is better but requires adhoc-ery to install.

 

[MacOfAllTrades]

Sorry what? So we have a/ux but we are trying to install an old netBSD on it? Or are we replacing the kernel or..? Sorry I’m mixed up with Unix sometimes