Upgrading NetBSD macppc 6.0 RC1 from NetBSD macpcc 5.1.2 on a Powerbook G3 Wallstreet PDQ

The boot up process for Open Firmware (OFW) is slightly different on on NetBSD 6.0 RC1 than booting NetBSD  5.1.2. The main difference is that to boot from OFW you have to type in the following code. Which is slightly different from the one posted for 5.1.2.

At the OFW, hold down COMMAND + OPTION (ALT) + O + F along with or before the boot chime to get into the Open Firmware. Next set auto-boot? to false by typing in the following command.

0> setenv auto-boot? false

Grab hold of a Mac OS X 10.2 Disk 1 and insert it into the CD-Drive. Now hold down Command-Option-O-F before the boot chime. This should get you into the open firmware. Type in the following commands:

  0> boot

 Now hit the return key. Right after hitting the return key hold down C. This will boot the Mac OS X 10.2 Disk 1. Initially a Mac Icon will appear with a smiling mac. Then you will hear the boot chime again and it will stop at the Open Firmware boot.

Now remove the Mac OS X 10.2 CD from the CD drive and insert the NetBSD 6.0 RC1 CD into the CD Drive and close the drive. Now type in the following command at the prompt.

0>setenv real-base F00000

 Next type in the following command exactly as typed.

0>boot ide1/@0:0,\OFWBOOT.XCF;1 NETBSD.MACPPC;1

Next you will be prompted with the NetBSD Open Firmware boot prompt. Type in the following command, once agian type exactly as typed.

Boot: netbsd

Now hit Return/Enter and voila! you are in the installation wizard. Follow the installation Wizard and you will have a crisp new installation of NetBSD 6.0 RC1

Virtual Console on NetBSD MacPPC

One of the most amazing features, atleast in my humble opinion, about Unix based systems is their ability to support virtual consoles. Now to enable this on a NetBSD system running NetBSD 5.2.1, since it is not enabled by default, follow the following steps.

First enable wscons. To do this open the file /etc/rc.conf using vi Editor by typing in the following command

vi /etc/rc.conf

Navigate to the bottom of the file and insert the following line

wscons=YES

Hit ESC and type in :w! and hit Enter/Return. Hit ESC again and type in :wq!
Now type in the following at the command prompt and hit enter

sh /etc/rc.d/wscons start

Next type in the following command

sh /etc/rc.d/ttys restart

Not to navigate between Virtual Consoles hot COMMAND + Fx replace x with number of console e.g. COMMAND + F2 to goto second virtual console.

 

XFCE4 on NetBSD MacPPC

I'm running on a 300 Mhz PPC Powerbook G3 Wallstreet PDQ to be exact. After much thought I decided that I needed a desktop manager. So I setup xorg and I proceeded to install XFCE4. To install XFCE4 these are the steps I followed.

$ cd /usr/pkgsrc/meta-pkgs/xfce4/

$ make install clean clean-depends

That's it. It took a good 24 hours to compile so I left the machine on and went to bed. :)

Installing NetBSD on a Powerbook G3 Wallstreet PDQ

I've been having and old Powerbook G3 Wallstreet PDQ lying around. I had Linux running on it using BootX but I soon wanted to push it to it's limit and see if I could run NetBSD on it. With some research done I soon had NetBSD running on my old Powerbook. Here are the steps of running the installation.

Grab hold of a Mac OS X 10.2 Disk 1 and insert it into the CD-Drive. Now hold down Command-Option-O-F before the boot chime. This should get you into the open firmware. Type in the following commands:

0> setenv auto-boot? false

 once you enter the command hit return/enter key. Next type:

0> boot

Now hit the return key. Right after hitting the return key hold down C. This will boot the Mac OS X 10.2 Disk 1. Initially a Mac Icon will appear with a smiling mac. Then you will hear the boot chime again and it will stop at the Open Firmware boot.

Now remove the Mac OS X 10.2 CD from the CD drive and insert the Net BSD 5.1.2 CD into the CD Drive and close the drive. Now type in the following command at the prompt.

0>setenv real-base F00000

0> boot ide1/@0:0,\ofwboot.xcf;1 netbsd.macppc;1 

and hit the return key. If  there are any errors just reboot the computer by holding COMMAND+CTRL+ Power Button. Then retype the command. This will boot from the CD and continue onto the installation wizard.

Once installation is complete to boot from hard disk type in the following at the Open Firmware prompt

0> boot ide0/@0:0,\ofwboot.xcf netbsd-GENERIC_MD.gz netbsd.macppc

 Hit the return key and when prompted hit the return key again. Now you have NetBSD running on a Powerbook G3 PDQ :)