On Fri, 9 Aug 1996, thessaLINK Distributor wrote:

> 1. Does MacBSD finally support PowerBook ADB and SCSI?

Tough call.  The Powerbook SCSI is still flaky, don't know what happens
with the new sbc kernels, but it trashed my partition irreparably while
mounting it.  C'est la guerre.

I think I remembered hearing progress on ADB for some powerbooks through
MRG.  Don't know which models, though.

Fortunately, video display is now functioning on most powerbooks.  Three
cheers to M.R. Zucca for his work on that.  Thus, ADB is the last hurdle
that hasn't been... reduced at the very least.

> 2. Does the X Window distribution provided now operate in color?

The color X is available, I don't know if the colorkit patches are
included in the kernel to facilitate its use or not, though. in the
current generics.

> 3. Are there now any updated installation instructions and/or utilities?

The installer upgraded to 1.1.  It's a little cleaner, still has its
quirks, but is much better than 1.0.

> 4. Does anyone have a kernal that operates on 68040 systems?

Partially.  040 systems can run serial-console only, SCSI support does not
exist, however, so you must use a ram-based mini-root and do anything
serious by mounting (NFS) another un*x filesystem from another system.
ADB support... a few systems work, not sure which ones.  The systems with
IDE don't have IDE support yet, though things looked promising a few
months ago, when (as I understand it) single block reads and writes were
successful (partial driver operation).

> 5. Are there plans to port either NetBSD, OpenBSD, or FreeBSD to Power
> Macintosh systems?

I doubt a monolithic kernel will be developed any time soon, though a
44-Lite server is supposedly already available for Mach3.  Don't quote me
on that, though, as the open availability of sources would make a
monolithic kernel much more likely.

> 6. What are the new system requirements for MacBSD, and when is MacBSD 1.2
> supposed to be released?

Don't know if the release date has been set yet.

> I am desperate to get a BSD environment up and working on my PowerBook
> 165c. If anyone has any information regarding what I need and where to get
> it, please let me know. I would be more than happy to assist in the testing
> of new kernals and could provide as much or as little feedback as required.

Right now, it looks like things are progressing in that direction.  Only
one recommendation: get the MkLinux HFS utilities and keep backups of
_everything_ important on an HFS partition.  Either that or make regular
backups onto second, or even (preferrably) third partitions.  I came one
backup copy away from losing several days' work this week.  Glad I had
_several_ backups.

Later,

 /---------------------------------------------------------------------\
|David A. Gatwood             And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,  |
|davagatw@mars              Went home and put a bullet through his head.|
|dgatwood@nyx.cs.du.edu              --Edwin Arlington Robinson         |
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