NetBSD/Mac68k, also known as MacBSD, is a port of the UNIX-like operating system NetBSD to
the Motorola 680x0 processor-based family of Macintosh computers. For more general
information on NetBSD/Mac68k, point your web browser at any of the following sites...
If you like NetBSD/Mac68k and/or use it, you should subscribe to the Mac68k port mailing
list, port-mac68k@netbsd.org.
Do this by sending mail to
majordomo@netbsd.org with no subject
and the single-line message:
subscribe port-mac68k J. Random User
replacing J. Random User with your real name, of course.
The minimum hardware configuration includes a 68020 with a 68851 PMMU chip or a 68030 or
better processor, without which the Booter will refuse to start. The Booter has been tested
recently under System 7.1 and 7.5 (both minimal and full installs), but it should work under
any System 7 setup. System 6.0.x is not supported because the Booter requires the machine to
be booted in 32-Bit Addressing mode. The Booter also will certainly fail if Virtual Memory
is enabled, so turn that off too while you're snooping around in the Memory control panel.
The Macintosh models that are supported to some extent by NetBSD/Mac68k vary on what
seems to be a daily basis sometimes. Check the web sites,
and especially the user survey contained therein, for more information.
First and foremost you must have formatted and partitioned a drive for A/UX,
and run Mkfs, and downloaded and installed at least the base package and a kernel.
If you haven't done this, you should visit the above Web sites
for more information.
Assuming you have enough of Unix (and MacOS!) installed, here is how to boot it:
Open the BSD/Mac68k Booter from the MacOS. A window will appear entitled
'BSD/Mac68k Launch'. The default Booter settings should work for most Macs, although
if your A/UX partitioned drive is not at SCSI ID 0, then you will need to configure the
Booter
Choose 'Booting...' from the Options menu to open the main 'Boot Options'
configuration dialog. Configure the boot options in accordance with your system (the
most commonly changed ones will be 'Root SCSI ID' and 'Kernel Name'). When you have
finished, click OK
You may wish to edit some of the options under 'Serial ports...' if you want to use
the serial console or boot echo features, or if you are having trouble booting on a
machine with interesting serial port hardware (e.g. PowerBooks). If you want to
log debugging information, you should look in 'Startup...'. All the boot options
available are documented below in
'Boot Options Ad Nauseam'
After you have configured all the boot options you want, you may wish to save them
for future boots, using the 'Save Options' command under the File menu
First off, the Booter must attempt to open the kernel you've specified. If you've specified
a kernel in your BSD partition, it will take a second to search for it. Then the Booter will
(hopefully) identify the kernel as a 68K executable and print its entry address, which will
look similar to this:
MID_M68K executable: entry 0x3356.
(Here, as in the rest of the boot process, the numbers you get may not be the same as the
numbers I get. They are highly kernel-dependent.) Then it will proceed to load the
kernel. As the different sections of the kernel are loaded, numbers will appear in the
status window, which look something like this:
768400+57532+99064+45588+48244
These numbers correspond to the sizes of the text (executable machine code) section, the
static data section, the bss (uninitialized data) section, the symbol table, and the string
table, respectively. The final message displayed before the jump to kernel space should be
as follows:
Bye-bye...
So I sez to him... The real way
that it should be done is to...
Then the system will act as if it is restarting, and when the restart would normally happen,
the screen will go blank and a short list of memory mappings will appear, followed by a
copyright notice and autoconfiguration information, which signals that you've booted.
The boot process is not completely machine- and installation-independent. Therefore, the
Booter allows you to set certain options and flags in order to communicate to the kernel
important facts about your machine. Most of these options are set in the
'Booting' dialog window, though some are set in the
'Serial ports...', 'Monitors'
and the 'Preferences' dialog windows.
Described below are the options that can be set from the 'Booting' dialog window. In most
cases you should be able to boot after modifying only these options.
Kernel Location: Mac OS file or BSD device
The chief purpose of the Booter is to load the BSD operating system code into memory.
This code is called the kernel and is normally contained in a file called
netbsd. This file is normally in the root directory of the root partition
of your BSD file system. However, it is also possible to load kernels from the MacOS
file system, such as when testing new systems, or on systems where SCSI is not yet
supported. This boot option lets you select the location of your kernel; if you select
Mac OS the Booter will look in its own folder for the kernel (or another folder selected
by pressing the 'Set' button). This option should, as stated above, normally be set to
BSD device
Kernel Name
Normally, the kernel is named netbsd, and that is what you should enter
for the Kernel Name. However, if you are testing a recently-installed kernel, or simply
want to boot an alternate kernel, you can enter that name here too. Note well, however,
that much BSD software assumes that the kernel is named netbsd and is in
the root directory, so if you have a kernel that works well, you should probably name it
as that
Partition and Root SCSI ID
The Booter needs to know which partition contains your kernel, if you are booting
from the BSD/Mac68k file system. You should enter the SCSI ID of the drive which
contains your root partition. If there is no SCSI ID entered, zero is assumed.
By default, the Booter should locate your root partition. If you have more than one such
partition at the selected SCSI ID, you may want to force it to use one of them by
entering the name of the partition in the Partition Name field (This would be the
name which your disk formatting software gave the partition when you created it
e.g. 'UNIX Root&Usr slice 0', 'NetBSD Root & Usr' or 'A/UX Root'). If you do not
enter a name, the Booter tries to guess the correct partition. The first Unix
(i.e. type="Apple_UNIX_SVR2") partition with 'Root' in the name is its best
guess, and if there isn't one of those, then the first Unix partition which doesn't
have 'Swap' in it's name is its next best
Enabled?
This option will allow systems to boot without a root SCSI ID specified, e.g.
using NFS filesystems. For normal usage you will probably want to leave this on
Ask for alternate root/swap?
This option allows the user to specify an alternate root or swap device right before
the root partition is mounted. This allows you to, for example, boot off a kernel on the
first SCSI disk (sd0) and specify that root is on cd0 (a CD-ROM) or sd1 (et cetera
). For normal usage you will probably want to leave this blank
RAM size and Auto-size RAM
You should click Auto-size RAM to have the Booter automatically calculate the amount
of RAM installed in your computer. This will not be an option in future releases. The
paranoid can type in the amount of RAM (in megabytes) in the appropriate box as well
GMT Bias and Auto-set GMT Bias
This should be a number of minutes which are added to UTC (Coordinated Universal
Time, also known as Greenwich Mean Time or GMT) to get to your time zone. If you have
the MacOS Map control panel set with your location, you can enable the 'Auto-set GMT
Bias' option to set this information
Single User
This option tells the kernel to boot the system in single-user (administrative)
mode, as opposed to your normal everyday multi-user boot. This can be necessary when
you're having trouble booting into multi-user, or if you need to edit some files before
the system finishes booting
Extra kernel debugging messages
This option tells the kernel to display some extra debugging information
Jump into debugger after booting
This flag tells the kernel to go into the debugger (either kgdb or ddb) shortly after
initialization
Don't disable VBL interrupts on video cards
Booter versions after version 1.8 attempt to disable vertical blanking
(VBL) interrupts on all active video cards found, because current implementations of the
grf_mv (Macintosh QuickDraw-compatible NuBus video card) driver do not handle VBL
interrupts reliably. If this process fails (and it should be obvious if it fails; an
error code is printed and the boot stops) then you should check this box and try booting
again
Video address hack (for LC575 & LC475)
This option should allow the internal video to be used as the console on these two
Macs with almost any kernel. These machines use the MMU to remap the video address under
MacOS, and this mapping is lost when BSD/Mac68k kernel execution begins. Do not use this
option for any machine other than the LC/Performa 475, 575 & 630 series, as it may cause
undesired kernel crashes
The options in this dialog window, described below, pertain chiefly to the initial settings
of the new zsc/zstty serial driver:
Serial Boot Echo
Output from the kernel will be echoed to the printer port at 9600 baud, no parity,
8 data bits, 1 stop bit, if this option is checked. (See also the 'Default Serial Speed'
boxes)
Serial Console (Modem or Printer)
The selected serial line will be used as the console, with the same communications
settings as with Serial Boot Echo (above), if this option is checked. Be careful that
you do not have a getty process running on the same serial line you are using as the
console (i.e. do not run getty on both ttye0 and tty00 if Modem port is serial console)
because this could panic the kernel. Note that you can select a port for the serial
console, but the serial boot echo is always on the Printer port.
LocalTalk connected to Printer port
In some instances the kernel will freeze if it is connected to a high-traffic
LocalTalk network. Although LocalTalk is not supported in the kernel, if this box is
checked it will keep the kernel from panicking if it encounters this situation.
Open port before booting (for PowerBook)
In order for PowerBooks to use the serial port(s), they must be turned on before
booting in order to get the Power Manager to turn the power on to the chip and the
ports. Setting this option should only be necessary if you are booting NetBSD/Mac68k on
a PowerBook.
Default Serial Speed
With NetBSD/Mac68k kernels later than 20th October 1997 (i.e. 1.3), the port
speed can be set by typing the new speed in here. This might be useful if you want to
log boot messages to a HP DeskJet printer, for example.
Set Modem (or Printer) port to 'stty raw' defaults
This option instructs the kernel to set the defaults for the serial port in question
to those from the 'stty raw' command. BSD assumes serial ports are hooked up to
terminals by default, and the default behavior for terminals is for the kernel to echo
back characters that the user types into the terminal. In 'raw' mode, no assumptions
are made about what's on the other end of the serial port. Among other changes, no
characters are echoed back out the port.
The difference is important if your BSD/Mac68k machine is connected to the serial
interface of an HP DeskWriter printer. They (and possibly other printers) report status
by sending a character to the host computer. Without this boot option, BSD would
think that a person was typing these characters and echo them back. But then the printer
thinks it is supposed to print these characters. On the DeskWriter, these characters can
come out as ugly white-on-black block letters (garbage). This printing will happen
seemingly spontaneously, with no intervention from the user. Setting this boot option
should cure the problem.
This option is probably not appropriate for a serial port hooked to a terminal, as the
normal terminal defaults are the best in this case.
External clock sources
The new zsc/zstty driver (introduced in NetBSD/Mac68k 1.2) tries to support more of
the options Apple originally foresaw for the Mac's serial ports. One feature is support
for feeding the Mac a clock from which it will generate the baud rate used to send and
receive data. Potential uses include talking to certain Personal LaserWriters and
driving MIDI adapter units.
Each serial port has two input pins, so there are four possible clock rate values.
When a clock rate is entered, two things happen. First, the associated pin is flagged as
reserved for a clock, and second, the clock rate is considered when NetBSD requests a
particular baud rate.
The first action happens as these pins (which have different names under BSD and Mac
OS) are usually considered as modem signal pins by BSD. The kernel must respond
accordingly whenever the modem thinks a data carrier has been detected, something which
would normally happen less than once a second. Clock rates, on the other hand, are
usually in the millions of cycles per second, so the clock reservation acts as a
protection for the NetBSD kernel.
Note that one of the pins on the printer port (GPi/DCD) isn't actually usable by the
baud rate hardware; it corresponds to the fully-featured clock input on the modem port.
Thus it is included to protect the kernel from a device intended for the modem port yet
connected to the printer port.
Current kernels and X Windows servers cannot change video modes very well. The BSD/Mac68k
console will work with almost any depth or resolution, but the X Window system (and maybe
the DT multi-window console) cannot.
For those of you whose use your Macs for MacOS as well as BSD/Mac68k, these options allow
you to keep you MacOS screen the way you like them, and then change the settings just before
booting the BSD/Mac68k kernel:
Change Monitor Colourmap to GreyScale
Support for colour is not currently in all X servers, but some of them do support
256 greys. This option should make X Windows a little more usable on those systems
Change Monitor Depth
A set of common depths, some of which your Mac may not support. If the requested
depth isn't supported, no depth change should occur
Change Monitor Resolution
Common MacOS screen sizes, which both your monitor and your Mac may not
support. If your Mac doesn't support the requested size, the screen may flash, but no
change should happen. If you monitor doesn't support the requested resolution and scan
rate, behaviour depends on the monitor and cable. Usually, there will be no resolution
change. If you have a Mac to PC style cable which is set differently to your monitor's
capabilities, the monitor may lose sync, and in rare situations, damage may occur
Note that these options only affect the main monitor. They don't currently do anything with
multiple monitor setups.
A few more miscellaneous options pertaining to the operation of the Booter itself are in the
Preferences dialog window:
Auto boot on startup / Timeout before boot
If you have saved your normal boot preferences, you might want to just boot right
into BSD as soon as you open the Booter. Checking 'Auto boot on startup' will make the
Booter start booting a specified number of seconds after it starts.
Show dialog & wait for OK before booting
If the above option is checked, then a dialog window will appear before booting that
asks you whether you want to Boot or Cancel. This was implemented so you might read the
messages in the window before they are blanked out by the appearance of the console
Debugging level
Setting the debug level to 1 or greater values gets you lots of debugging spew in
the status window that can help you diagnose what's going wrong in the boot process.
But normally you will want to leave this at 0.
Log debugging to file / Set...
If you want to keep a log of the messages in the status window, so that you can dump
it into a mail message or just look at it later, check this box and click on 'Set...' to
choose where you want the log file created. Note that the Booter will not replace an
already-existing log file, but will append to it, even though it says "Replace existing
'bootlog'?" when you save it. Note also that when people ask for a bootlog they usually
want you to turn debugging on (to level 1 or 2) and use this option. Normally, of
course, you won't need to keep the bootlog turned on.
No env dumps
If this option is not checked, the Booter will dump the boot environment,
a list of variables not unlike the UNIX process environment, into the status window
before booting. If this option is checked, the booter will not spew this entire
list of strings into the window before booting. They are nice for bug reports, but
they do slow down the boot process. This option disabled goes well with 'Show dialog &
wait for OK before booting' being enabled & a nice, big boot window. :)
Halt on non-fatal errors
A few errors (mostly concerning such recondite things as video board interrupt
errors) are considered non-fatal. If you are having trouble with BSD/Mac68k video,
you might want to try turning this on, so that you can read the error messages as they
scroll by. Mostly, though, you'll not need to worry about this; leave it unchecked
Some of the following errors are practically FAQs on the port-Mac68k list. Some are not.
Any of these could possibly happen to you. This guide can help you understand what is going
wrong. Don't leave MacOS without it!
Couldn't locate any partitions on SCSI ID (0). Cannot open kernel (0,?)netbsd.
This error occurs when the Booter cannot open the partition you specified for the
kernel. Check for typos in the SCSI ID and/or Partition Name boxes in the 'Booting'
dialog window.
File 'foobar' is nonexistent. Cannot open kernel (0,?)foobar.
This error occurs when the Booter found the partition, but couldn't open the kernel you
specified. Make sure you specified the right partition, and make sure you didn't mistype
the name of the kernel (in the 'Booting' dialog window.)
Cannot malloc()...
malloc() failed...
Not enough free memory to load this kernel.
(et cetera)
These all mean that the Booter has run out of memory. Increase the Booter's memory
partition using the 'Get Info' command in the Finder, and try booting again.
Magic numbers do not match -- Improper UFS partition.
This means that the Booter went to read the NetBSD partition you specified, and it
didn't find a valid BSD filesystem there. Did you remember to run Mkfs on the partition?
Error -nnn turning off interrupts for slot SS
Error -nnn {getting name of,trying to open} slot 0xSS video driver
(et cetera)
Though these shouldn't happen, if a video card error stops your booting, you might want
to try booting again with "Don't disable VBL interrupts on video cards" checked in the
'Booting' dialog window
Error #-nnn locking kernel memory.
The Booter is trying to boot with virtual memory enabled, and it couldn't lock the
kernel buffer in real RAM. Booting with virtual memory enabled is not supported at all,
and on top of that, it is extremely unlikely to work. You should turn off VM in the
Memory control panel, restart, and try booting again
Failed to read executable header from kernel image.
This kernel is not in a format which the Booter can execute.
The kernel does not appear to be a 68k kernel.
Short boot_read. Kernel file corrupt?
These messages all indicate that the Booter can't imagine that the file you have
designated as a kernel is really a NetBSD 680x0 executable. It may have become corrupted
in transfer - you did use binary mode when FTPing, didn't you? - or you may have
forgotten to untar the kernel
The Booter src code package contains a file ChangeLog.txt which
has a detailed log of different Booter versions. Here is a summary of the ones you will
probably need to know about:
Version: 1.9.4
Author: Brian Gaeke
First Booter to support any 68040 (i.e. Quadra-class) machines. Known to
boot kernels from NetBSD/Mac68k versions 1.1 and later. For kernels older than 1.1,
your mileage may vary -- in theory the support is still there, but it's not been tried
in quite a while
Version: 1.9.6
Author: Allen Briggs
Allows booting with larger kernels (many post 1.2 kernels require this Booter)
Known to have problems booting the Mac IIvx
Version: 1.9.7
Author: Steve Brown
New 'Auto Set GMT bias' checkbox which uses the 'Map' MacOS Control panel to set
Unix's time zone information
Known to have problems booting the Mac IIvx
Version: 1.10.0
Author: Allen Briggs
New ability to boot from gzip-ed kernel files
Known to have problems booting the Mac IIvx
Version: 1.10.3b1
Author: Nigel Pearson
Some user interface improvements and new functionality
Fixes the recent problems with booting the Mac IIvx
New serial fields to set different default serial port speeds
New Monitors options which allow changing of the main screen depth before booting
Version: 1.11.1
Authors: Scott Reynolds, Nigel Pearson
More user interface improvements
If boot is aborted, resets monitor depth
Saves preferences in a file in the System Folder
Added video address hack for LC475/LC575 Macs to allow console on internal video
MacOS kernel file can be selected using a file requestor, allowing selection of a
kernel file which is an alias, is not in the current directory, et cetera
Better debugging/error output for low-level SCSI stuff
Version: 1.11.2
Authors: Eugenio Macia Vivo, Nigel Pearson
Booter now checks for Virtual Memory, and pops up an alert and exits if used
Monitors options now allow changing of main screen's resolution and colour mode (to
greys) before booting. The latter is for some of the new Xservers which don't work
with colour yet
Now correctly kills running applications (checks for AppleScript beforehand)
Version: 1.11.3
Author: Nigel Pearson
Booter can now request that the kernel jumps into a debugger after startup
Some flags moved around in (and between) dialogs
Low-level SCSI error-handling bugfixes
Bugfix of monitor depth change stuff (Booter 1.11.2 used to try change resolution
whenever depth change was requested)
There are a list of Booter improvement suggestions in the file
TO-DO.txt (in the src code package). Feel free to email any new
suggestions to Nigel after glancing through that file. Also feel free to contact Nigel
about implementing any of them yourself!
If you have a bug report for the Booter, please send him a complete record of your system
configuration, including NuBus cards, along with a detailed description of the erroneous
behavior and how to repeat it. If you broke into MacsBug, you should include the contents of
the Standard Log (type StdLog into the MacsBug command buffer and hit return; with luck it
will end up in the Desktop Folder of your boot disk.) Note: If you got past the
NetBSD copyright message, the error is probably not the fault of the Booter.
The long list of people have worked on the Booter: Allen Briggs, Steve Brown, Chris Caputo,
Michael Finch, Brian Gaeke, Brad Grantham, Markus Hitter, Dan Jacobowitz, Lawrence Kesteloot,
Nigel Pearson, Scott Reynolds, Bill Studenmund and Eugenio Macia Vivo.
This manual was written originally for NetBSD/Mac68k Booter version 1.9.4 by Brian Gaeke.
Thanks to Bill Studenmund for descriptions of the new serial port options.
Apple, Macintosh, LocalTalk, System 7, and MacOS are all registered trademarks of Apple
Computer Corporation. UNIX is a registered trademark of SCO. Other trademarks mentioned
herein are property of their respective companies.
Copyright (C) 1996 Brian R. Gaeke
Copyright (C) 1997-8 Nigel Pearson
All rights reserved.
Redistribution and use of this document, with or without
modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
are met:
Redistributions of this document must retain the above copyright
notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
The name of the author may not be used to endorse or promote products
including this document without specific prior written permission.
THIS DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHORS 'AS IS' AND ANY EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES
OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED.
IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT,
INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT
NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE,
DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY
THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT
(INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF
THIS DOCUMENT, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
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