Re: got quik working with OldWorld G3 Beige 233MHz
On Fri, Oct 29, 2004 at 01:29:47AM -0400, Rick Thomas wrote:
> Bottom line question... Does the Apple licensing requirement for
> the drivers and patches mean that (as a practical matter) we'll
> never be able to write a "free" miboot that can boot off
> "partitioned media"?
Well, I wouldn't say never. The only patch we absolutely have to have
is the one for MESH support. Obviously that is important, since most
oldworld models do have that. However, that would only prevent us
from creating a free partitioning tool. As long as the user has at
some point partitioned the drive with an official tool, the patches
will all be there. The problem with that is CD-ROM support, since
that is done as part of the ISO image creation. The patches aren't
actually put into miboot, so it's relatively independent of the
question of "is miboot free".
Would we be able to use the patch drivers if someone convinced
Apple to give us permission to redistribute them? This is old,
obsolete stuff, after all. If we could even put them in a special,
non-free package, it could be usable.
> Is a "free" but "floppy only" version of miboot worth the effort?
Probably. It would make it possible to make bootable floppy images
that actually work without having to change OF settings. If we had
this support, we could legally put an image up that users could dd
onto a floppy, stick in their Mac, and run the installer without
needing anything else.
Of course, they couldn't install a bootloader in this case without
either booting from floppy every time or having used 3rd party tools.
Brad Boyer
flar@allandria.com
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