YDL FAQ for Old world Macs

[Geert Janssens]

On Wednesday 2 March 2005 18:26, Daniel Gimpelevich wrote:
> 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).
>
Great,

This would be even more complete info for the FAQ.

<snip>
>
> 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/
>
Well, I had a spare boot ROM, because when I bought the G3, it was a Rev1. Via 
ebay, I found a Rev3 boot ROM which was in there all the time. Upon failure, 
I figured it might have been the newer ROM causing trouble so I re-installed 
the old one.

I never heard of the Linux boot floppies. I'll give one a try when I have a 
spare moment. Trouble is, the old G3 has already served as spare parts donor. 
Without its hard drive, CDROM drive, and memory modules, I would not even 
have the old x86 PC running Mandrake I use right now...

Also, the bus error is what I recall from memory, as the system has been dead 
for a couple of weeks now. It could have been something else.

I'll see if I can fix it up enough to try and boot it with a boot floppy. 
Thanks for the tip.


Cheers,

Geert Jan