Re: original iMac problems

[Michael <macallan%netbsd.org@localhost>]

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Hello,

On Jul 5, 2012, at 10:53 AM, John D. Baker wrote:

> I've finally been able to turn some attention to the problems with  
> trying
> to run NetBSD on my original iMac (MPC750, 233MHz).
>
> Recent changes in -current related to machfb have had no noticable
> effect.  If machfb attaches, the display is illegible.  One can type
> blind at the keyboard and it responds, however.  As part of the test
> procedure, I booted an up-to-date netbsd-4 build and the same problem
> has been there at least since then.

Black, garbled, out of sync or something completely different?
It either picks the wrong mode, fails to set it up properly, or  
something completely different. Would be nice to nail down which one  
it is first.

> For kernels with "genfb" available, it Just Works(tm).

Yeah, it just uses whatever mode the firmware set up

> The QVSS8x15 font is nice (in -current).  How does it decide which  
> font to use when
> multiple fonts are compiled in?  Is there a way to make it use a  
> particular
> font in spite of what it's own selection criteria indicated?

I added code ( a couple months ago I think ) to pick whatever font  
gets closest to an 80x30 console, with smaller screen sizes heavily  
penalized so if there is no exact match you'll end up with something  
bigger. The target size can be configured too.

> The other problem is that at some point between netbsd-4 and netbsd-5,
> probing atabus* for devices hangs the system hard.  I've completed the
> first two iterations of bisection as follows:
>
> 21-Sep-2007 0000Z (4.99.31) works
> 21-Apr-2008 0000Z (4.99.60) hangs
>
> Currently rolling sources back to 27-Jan-2008 0000Z and will try  
> again.

I do not have the hardware and I can't reproduce the problem on any of  
the machines I've got - a beige G3 should be fairly close but that  
Just Works.

have fun
Michael

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