From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Tomas To: 9fans <9fans@cse.psu.edu> Subject: Re: [9fans] PowerPC Booting In-Reply-To: <3F041E6F.9040204@ameritech.net> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Date: Thu, 3 Jul 2003 14:14:50 +0200 Topicbox-Message-UUID: e6a1919e-eacb-11e9-9e20-41e7f4b1d025 On Thu, 3 Jul 2003 at 7:15am, northern snowfall wrote: > >as well as the nedbsd source. > > > Ah, the NetBSD source helped. It solved the fd-just- > doesnt-seem-to-CLAIM issue. My Power Macintosh refuses > to boot certain devices if the output-device is set to > the on-board video. > > Booting NetBSD bootdisks blind works properly if output- > device is set to !screen. However, I have yet-another- > problem. I don't have a MiniDIN8 serial cable for the > Macintosh. Nor do I have a null modem. > > It seems that I can generate a null modem fairly easily, > according to: > http://www.netbsd.org/Documentation/Hardware/Misc/serial.html#mac > > However, I am faced with several problems: > a) I have to build my own MiniDIN8 cable > 1) what wires do i use? > 2) how do i get the 'connector'...? > 3) how does it interface with the 'null modem' > b) I have to build my own null modem > 1) see a){1,2} > c) I have zero experience with wiring and am extremely > nervous about this. I don't want to lose this Mac, > even though I bought it cheap. > 1) every machine is precious > > I'd love some assistance in building a serial cable from the > MiniDIN8 to a standard i86pc serial port. I'm very willing to > try things out, as long as the factors are known and I'm not > putting the hardware at a risk of shorting out, etc. > > I'm sure there are peopel on this list with experience in > this area of work. I'd appreciate the help. Trying to install and run a headless and diskless SGI Indy, I am also having problems due to MiniDIN8 connectors. It's no fun changing boot parameters in the PROM and trying to boot diskless when there's only a keyboard, ethernet and power cable connected to the machine -- I'd like to see that I really type in correct values, and also why the boot fails halfway through. So far it's been impossible to find a MiniDIN8<->DB9 serial cable (or a MiniDIN8<->DB25 plus a DB25<->DB9 converter), or even a MiniDIN8 connector. But I hear there's a Mac store near the Portland airport that might have some... anyways, I've been thinking about simply cutting off one end of a DB9 cable and plugging in the wires, one by one, directly into the contact on the Indy, using the pinout maps on the URL you mentioned above, as I can't seem to get my hands on a MiniDIN8 connector. Just haven't had the time yet. Building a cable isn't that hard. A soldering iron is helpful, but there are also snap-in connectors for us who don't like soldering. I doubt there are snap-in connectors for MiniDIN8 though, just DB9/DB25... but the pins on connectors are numbered, and it's usually a breeze to build a cable if one has instructions such as those on the NetBSD page. I'll try to get time to fiddle with this during my vacation, and if I have any success I'll let you know. Finally, aren't there some retailers specializing in Mac stuff in the US, from which one should be able to get a MiniDIN8<->DB25 cable? That might be the best solution. If anyone knows, I'd appreciate it if they shared. /Tomas