YDL FAQ for Old world Macs

[Daniel Gimpelevich]

On Wed, 02 Mar 2005 12:21:40 +0100, Geert Janssens wrote:

> Another issue to add, would be that of bmac being a module with the latest 
> kernel.
> Solution: add
> alias eth0 bmac
> to the /etc/modprobe.conf file.
> This problem has popped up twice already in the last three days on this 
> mailing list.

The module is "mace" for pre-G3 models, and "bmac" for all G3 models,
OldWorld or NewWorld (except the B&W, I think).

> There's no way to revive the poor old G3. Tried everything from changing
> RAM, starting form MacOS BootDisk, even replacing the boot ROM, zapping
> the PRAM and any combination of these. I always get a bus error before
> the OS fully loads. I believe 8 years of service (and that means heavy
> duty in this camp), has put it over the top. But I consider dying of age
> to be a wonderful end for a computer. Much better than being dumped :-)
> I ordered a Mac Mini as a replacement the very same day. So as soon as
> it arrives, I'll be a happy YDL'er again (at least, if YDL installs
> already on it).

I find it curious that you had a spare boot ROM to swap into your beige
G3, but not a spare CPU, which can also be pulled from a B&W G3 or a
Yikes! G4. Granted, the symptom you describe doesn't sound like a CPU
problem, but you never know. Incidentally, if MacOS (< 10) says "bus
error" during boot, that's not a PowerPC bus error, but the emulation of a
68000 one, likely indicating a problem with the boot drive or SCSI or ATA
bus. It sounds like you have given up on diagnosis simply because you
can't fully boot MacOS. To that, I must say that you can't know anything
about what's wrong until you have seen what the Linux kernel has to say
about it. So try a Linux boot floppy and spare the best OldWorld model for
Linux from the scrap heap. You can find OldWorld Linux boot floppies at:
http://people.debian.org/~luther/d-i/images/daily/powerpc/floppy-2.4/