Re: Installing NetBSD/macppc

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

Hello,

On Wed, 17 Jul 2019 20:50:52 -0400
Австин Ким <freennix%gmail.com@localhost> wrote:

> Recently I acquired an IBM PowerPC 970-based Apple Power Mac G5
> (1.8-GHz PCI-X) due to wanting to run a simple *nix-based WWW server
> for a class project on a non-AMD64/x86-64, 64-bit machine.  Based on
> an Internet search, NetBSD came up as the simple, permissively
> licensed OS that seems to support the widest variety of
> architectures.  According to “Table 1.  NetBSD/macppc Model Support”
> in “NetBSD/macppc Model Support” at
> http://www.netbsd.org/ports/macppc/models.html “Power Macintosh G5
> G5(970MP) PPC970 (a.k.a. G5) CPU [is supported by NetBSD since] 5.0”
> so I jumped into the installation instructions at
> https://cdn.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/NetBSD-8.1/macppc/INSTALL.html
> burning NetBSD-8.1-macppc.iso to a disc, entering Open Firmware, and
> attempting to boot with “boot cd:,\ofwboot.xcf netbsd.macppc” per the
> instructions.

Hmm, that needs to be changed, it used to say basic 970 CPU support is
in 5.0, and nothing else. Sorry about that :/
Actual PowerMac G5 support is in -current, but experimental at best.
I got most built-in peripherals running, including fan control and such,
but there's a lot of work left to be done. Also, the fan control
hardware is ridiculously model-specific, I have it working on
PowerMac7,3 ( that's the PCI-X SMP machine ) and 11,2 ( the PCIe
variant ), but anything else likely needs adjustments.
If you want to play with NetBSD on that hardware you need -current
( HEAD in the daily builds ) in order to have a fighting chance to get
anywhere, and even that may or may not work on your machine. All the G5
models differ in some ways, and I have only two of them.

If you want to play with NetBSD on a mac, pretty much any 32bit machine
should Just Work. If it has to be this one you'll be better off with
FreeBSD for the time being.

have fun
Michael