Some progress with the 6500 |
October, 21, 2002 12:18 AM |
OSXGuru |
I've made a little bit of progress with the 6500 today. I have separated the NVRAM patches for the 6400 and the 6500. Several of the patches for the 6400 had been causing trouble on the 6500, and it turns out that just removing them actually gets you further. Unfortunately, the SCSI bus just doesn't seem to work for me. It is possible that it is a termination issue. At least, that's what I often tell people, so I may as well try my own advice. It may be a termination power issue, in fact, so I will check into that. Since the SCSI bus is not working, a normal install doesn't work either (because the CD-ROM is a SCSI device). What I did is use Apple Software Restore to copy a previously installed Mac OS X 10.1 volume to the internal ATA drive. XPostFacto version 2.2.4b1 was able to boot into Mac OS X from that. The video works, which is nice. The ethernet connection does not work. It is the same error message as for the ethernet-only connection on the original Powerbook G3. So that is convenient, actually, since I will be able to try to fix that now. Sound isn't working. It is unbearably slow, unfortunately (even with a 275 MHz 603). The machine I'm working with has only 96 MB of RAM, which I suspect is part of the problem. I read that the 6500 takes a max of 128 MB, which should be a noticeable improvement. It will still be slow, of course. (Getting a G3 upgrade card to work in Mac OS X will be a bit tricky, as it requires special software to engage the CPU at all--it is not just a question of enabling the L2 cache. I don't have an upgrade card at the moment, but I will try one once more of the other problems have been worked out). So I can't recommend that anyone try this yet--it is awkward, unbearably slow, and a lot of things don't work. But it was nice to see Mac OS X actually running on another machine. And it is at the point where it should be possible to try to fix a few more things. Here's the URL for the latest version of XPostFacto, which has these changes. (It isn't officially released at the moment). http://eshop.macsales.com/OSXCenter/XPostFacto/Download/XPostFacto2.2.4b1.sit |
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RE: Some progress with the 6500 |
October, 27, 2002 1:38 AM |
pbell3 |
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To OSXGURU, I haven't been on here long enough to know everybody's name yet . Anyway, I work as a Mac technician as a sidejob. Ran into a 6500 which refused to do anything with the CD-ROM, and the SCSI loop seemed to be totally locking up the whole system buss. Did two things: 1). Yank CD-Rom out of cabinet. Yank master connector from the SCSI end of the drive. Reinsert (whole connector gets corroded). 2). Yank staking peg at the active termination pins. 3). Reinsert drive (this cleans the pins on the other-side of the master connector). SCSI loop was fine. CD reads perfect. You might then concentrate on external termination of the CD-Rom, although this won't be needed for Classic MacOS. Hope that helps . |
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RE: Some progress with the 6500 |
October, 21, 2002 1:54 PM |
OSXGuru |
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The ethernet connection is way down at the bottom, so it sounds like I've got one of the CommSlot II ones. I suppose that it is possible that this is part of the problem. I'll have to take a look at the NetBSD sources and see if they do anything special here. |
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RE: Some progress with the 6500 |
October, 21, 2002 11:50 AM |
jeglin |
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Just to clarify: the CommSlotII is indeed a PCI slot, but not a "normal" one. The form factor is different, plus who knows if it's implemented in some odd "Apple" way. |
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RE: Some progress with the 6500 |
October, 21, 2002 11:48 AM |
jeglin |
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No need to open the machine :-) If your ethernet cable is connected at one of the 2 main slots in the back, you're PCI. If it's connected down at the very bottom left of the rear panel, you're CommSlotII. |
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RE: Some progress with the 6500 |
October, 21, 2002 11:16 AM |
OSXGuru |
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I'm not sure whether you would have to remove the Voodoo card or just not use it. I suspect that just not using it might be enough. With the 10 GB drive, you'll need to remember the 8 GB limit that the Mac OS X Installer imposes. I was using 10.1 because I believe that 10.2 won't work with the 603 CPU. But I actually haven't tested the 603 since one of the developer previews of 10.2, so I should probably test it again, just to make sure. I'm actually not sure whether my ethernet connection is a CommSlotII card or a regular PCI ethernet. As far as Open Firmware is concerned, it's on the PCI bus. And it appears to be based on the DEC 21041 chipset. I suppose I could open the machine and look :-) |
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RE: Some progress with the 6500 |
October, 21, 2002 11:02 AM |
jeglin |
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I have 2 6500s, one with a 300Mhz 603, the other with a Sonnet G3/500. Both have 10Gig Maxtors so I have some free space, and both are maxed out with 128Meg RAM. The G3/500 also has a Voodoo3 card in it (I run both in dual monitor mode), would I have to remove it entirely or just try connecting the mobo video alone? Will the software-restore trick work with 10.2? IOW, was there a reason you were using 10.1? Also, when you refer to the ethernet connection not working, do you have a CommSlotII card, or a regular PCI ethernet? (I have both that can be tried). |