Re: hosed nvram on OldWorld Mac
Well, I tried this fix on my system, and it seemed to have partial success. The boot command stuff definitely didn't work, it just says that "wboot - bad word" or something to that affect. On my system, the video is readable, but not great. But I'll take whatever improvements I can get.
A few more bits of knowledge gained:
the boot-device spec scsi/sd@0:0 and scsi-int/sd@0:0 turn out to differ on my machine by virtue of the fact that scsi-int refers to the internal, on board scsi connector marked "fast." scsi refers to the connector right next to it marked "normal." on my 7200, there is no fast connector and scsi seems to work for the single internal connector.
my conclusion about the kernel and the xfer rates having something to do with the badblock(s) problem now appears to be bogus. More likely it is a cable, termination, or disk drive problem. the investigation continues on that.
a
Michel Lanners wrote:
>
> On 3 Feb, this message from Andrew Sharp echoed through cyberspace:
> > No, I'm getting no output on the monitor.
>
> Important side-note: control video hardware as initialized by OF is
> notoriously bad at doing monitor timings. By default (i.e. after a PRAM
> reset) it sets up some weird mode that resembles 640x480@60HZ, but
> isn't.
>
> Depending on your monitor, it may or may not sync to this sh... My old
> Phlips 17B does, my newer Dell P990 doesn't.
>
> If that is your problem, get yourself a serial console, reset PRAM, and
> boot with cmd-opt-O-F into OF, set your terminal to 38400 and conectit
> with a null-modem cable to the modem port. You should have the OF user
> interface there.
>
> >From there, do like this (from a mail from some time ago...):
>
> ______________________________
>
> Fixes for Apple OpenFirmware 1.0.5
>
> Alan Mimms (alanm@unforgettable.com)
> Sun, 17 Aug 1997 19:08:19 +0000
>
> Hi.
>
> I have finally had enough with the buggy screen and disk drivers in Apple's
> Open Firmware on PowerMac 7200, 7500, 7600, 8500, 9500, and probably some
> others I'm forgetting. So I have written some NVRAMRC based patches to
> Open Firmware to hack around the bugs enough for my purposes anyway. I
> hope the hacks may help you too.
>
> Start up and break into your Open Firmware -- Cmd-Opt-O-F during the boot
> beep held down until the "user interface" for Open Firmware comes up on
> your screen or, if you're smart, your serial port. The banner printed by
> Open Firmware shows the Open Firmware version. These patches ONLY apply to
> Open Firmware version 1.0.5. Other versions will crash if these patches
> can be applied at all!
>
> Type at the prompt:
>
> nvedit
>
> and hit control-L to see the cryptic stuff that is part of your Open
> Firmware's startup sequence. This stuff patches various bugs in the ROM.
>
> Hit control-N enough times that you no longer see a new line of
> gobbledegook every time several times in a row. This means you're at the
> bottom. Either paste the following into a terminal session (NOTE: must be
> at least a dozen or so ms delay between characters and maybe 100ms between
> lines to work right!) or else enter the following lines very very carefully:
>
> dev /bandit/gc/via-cuda
> ' write value &W
> : -&We &W swap - execute ;
> : P1 4D8 -&We false 548 -&We ;
> &W FC + ' P1 BLpatch
> : P2 0C 2 ms ;
> &W E0 + ' P2 BLpatch device-end
>
> : wBoot
> begin
> boot-device ['] $boot catch drop
> ." -Waiting for boot-device" cr
> d# 500 ms
> key? until
> ;
>
> Note that ALL whitespace above except for the line indentation is REQUIRED.
> FORTH is a very very very strange "language". It may be safe to leave the
> line indentation as I have it above when pasting if you wish. It's
> wasteful but who cares?
>
> At the end of this laborious typing (or pasting) session hit control-C (yes
> that's right: control-C is the end of editing session character in Open
> Firmware). Then type at the prompt
>
> nvstore
>
> to save the changed NVRAMRC variable into NVRAM.
>
> The first block fixes a bug in the via-cuda driver in which not enough time
> is given for the device to settle when it is told to set the video
> controller's clocks up.
>
> The second block defines a FORTH word that can be used in place of the
> normal boot-command contents to wait for the disk to spin up before
> attempting to really boot. This avoids the standard "black screen the
> first time you power on the computer each day" problem.
>
> Then type at the prompt
>
> setenv boot-command wBoot
>
> This sets up the default command executed on auto-boot (normally on power
> on) to run the above disk spinup waiting hack.
>
> FYI: the reason I know about this stuff is that I worked for about two
> years as the Copland booting guy. Sheesh...
>
> Please don't inundate me with a bazillion questions about Open Firmware. I
> have a real job and it takes 60+ hours a week of my time. I get PAID to do
> it. I just did this to fix MY PPC Linux box and I wanted to help you folks
> out a teeny bit if I could. No, I don't work at Apple anymore. Cancelling
> Copland was the last straw. I worked there more than nine years. (sigh)
>
> Happy trails.
> a
>
> A copy of the universe is not what is required of art; one of the damned
> things is ample. -- Rebecca West, The Creators, by Daniel J. Boorstin
> ___________________________________________
>
> Hope this helps
>
> Michel
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Michel Lanners | " Read Philosophy. Study Art.
> 23, Rue Paul Henkes | Ask Questions. Make Mistakes.
> L-1710 Luxembourg |
> email mlan@cpu.lu |
> http://www.cpu.lu/~mlan | Learn Always. "
>
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