Re: Installing NetBSD/macppc

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

Hello,

On Thu, 1 Aug 2019 20:44:04 -0400
Австин Ким <freennix%gmail.com@localhost> wrote:

> > 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.

> Thanks so much for all your efforts on NetBSD/macppc; couple questions:
> 
> 0.  Any chance we can have a working NetBSD/macppc install ISO for PowerPC 970
>     (e.g., Apple Power Mac G5) by 9.0?  And

Maybe, as a very experimental, don't try this at home unless you know
what you're doing kinda thing. All it would need is the right kernel
image on the CD.

> 1.  if not, could you point a NetBSD newbie like me to some resources on how to
>     put together a bootable NetBSD/macppc install ISO built from -current/HEAD?

Here's what works for me at the moment:
- my 11,2 boots with in-tree ofwboot.xcf and kernels built from the
  POWERMAC_G5_11_2 config. The whole thing seems to be dependent on the
  exact size of the kernel image, 4.5MB seems to work, above that we
  crash.
- you can netboot kernels directly - 'boot enet:,netbsd.g5' works if
  you have a dhcp/tftp server set up to hand 'netbsd.g5' to your G5.
  Again, there seems to be an OF-dependent size limit which seems to be
  the same we hit with ofwboot.xcf.
- more than 2 CPUs are completely untested
With that, most onboard peripherals should work, except:
- analog audio works by relying on OF to setup the codec and using
  software volume control. I want to split codec support from the DMA
  part before adding Yet Another Codec to snapper. Digital audio is
  unsupported.
- firewire is untested at best
- NFS reads may be incomplete or garbled, using tcp mounts may help
  there.
- X may work if you can find a PCIe graphics card that Xorg supports
  without needing DRM / KMS. My Radeon X1950 is not one of those. Low
  end nvidia cards may work with the nv driver.
The rest, as in USB, ethernet, PMU/SMU/FCU, SATA, wscons etc. works at least
for me.

My 7,3 does not boot -current at the moment, I didn't get around to
figure out why. It worked a couple months ago but the NFS errors
mentioned above seem to hit a LOT more often.

Any other models are untested and may or may not work even with the
restrictions mentioned above. At the very least the fan control code
will need testing and likely adjustments in order to map sensors and
temperature ranges to fans. Do NOT run any model not mentioned above
for more than a few minutes. Assuming they would actually boot...

> I really appreciate your humility/modesty in suggesting FreeBSD as a
>   possible alternative; however, I’d like to try getting a working
>   NetBSD/macppc installation up and running on my Power Mac G5 first
>   before jumping to FreeBSD.

You mentioned your machine is a 1.8GHz PCI-X variant - I assume one
CPU? That may actually work, with a POWERMAC_G5 kernel. I'll check if I
can get that one to boot on my 7,3 by stripping support for SMP and
PCIe-specific hardware.

have fun
Michael