Re: Debian on mac68k
Hi Stefan,
On 5/30/16 4:36 AM, Stefan Niestegge wrote:
>
...
> I just wanted to install Debian
> to my friend's old Mac.
>
> But how much sense makes a system that you can only use remotely?
> I guess for you people that run buildds it has all you need. I'd prefer
> a system i can use locally, on its own.
>
> Perhaps there is an older kernel that can use your chroot, but still has
> (unstable?) ADB keyboard support?
>
Debian 3.1 installs and runs on my Mac LC III and Mac IIfx. The only
problems I've noted are that having multiple SCSI disks doesn't work
well (lots of timeouts and phase errors), and with a Linux 2.2.25
kernel, file sizes are limited to 2 GB.
Based on the kernel that Finn compiled (4.1.20-mac_scsi+), I recompiled
the 4.1.20 source (patched with the scsi patch) on my Mac IIfx. Debian
3.1 includes gcc 3.3.5, and that worked, though it took two weeks to
compile on a Mac IIfx. I re-enabled ADB (it works ok for me). I
mistakenly thought my LC III had an FPU, but it doesn't, so if you're
running on such a system make sure FPU emulation is enabled
(CONFIG_M68KFPU_EMU=y). Otherwise, the kernel will hang with a white
screen at boot. So the 4.1.20 kernel runs fine on my Mac IIfx and LC
III, but it is noticeably slower than the 2.2.25 kernel in Debian 3.1.
I also had to switch out my Ethernet card on the Mac IIfx to get 4.1.2
to work on a network; the code for the AsanteFast 10/100 card (SMC9194)
that worked in Debian 3.1 is marked as broken in the kernel 4.1.20 source.
If you just want to get any version of GNU/Linux running on your
Performa 450, then Debian 3.1 might be the best way to go (that's just
my opinion).
-Stan
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