Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

jhu

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Apr 4, 2004
854
1
i just received a blue and white g3. it's a nice little machine. it'd be even better if i could actually install an operating system on it. here are the important specs:

400mhz g3
9gb hd on an adaptec 2940 uw2 scsi card
dvd-ram drive

the configuration is straight from apple back when it was obtained (not by me). so here's the problem: i can't boot from cd using the normal procedure of pressing the 'c' key when the machine chimes on boot up. i first tried using a mac os x boot cd but that didn't work. i know the cd works because i was able to install os x on my beige g3 with it. so i tried booting using a netbsd install cd. this required going into the open firmware console and manually entering the commands to boot the cd, which is "boot cd:,\ofwboot.xcf netbsd.macppc".

so i figure i can boot the mac os x boot cd this way and type "boot cd:,\\:txbi". this doesn't work and the error messages are rather cryptic.

i then continue with installing netbsd. everything is extracted as expected. now i have the other problem of trying to boot from the harddrive. the problem is that the correct command to do this eludes me. since the hard drive is on the adaptec controller, the expected command is "boot /pci/pci-bridge/ADTC,2940U2B/disk@0:*:,\ofwboot.xcf netbsd" where * is a partition number from 1 to 9 (i don't know which partition the os resides on so i tried them all). nothing works.

so, wtf am i doing wrong? anyone with the same configuration and can display their open firmware settings? my next step is to replace the dvd drive and see if that works.
 

jhu

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Apr 4, 2004
854
1
disconap said:
What he said. I've never even heard of a G3 b/w booting from a SCSI drive.

the blue and white g3 could be ordered in a server configuration with a 9gb scsi drive.
 

Azurael

macrumors regular
Mar 21, 2005
191
0
My B&W boots OS X/OS 9/Linux fine off of drives connected to my Adaptec 29160... It's just a bit awkward remembering the Open Firmware location of the drive & partition with Linux on it after I've set the Open Firmware startup disk to one of my Mac OS drives, since there's no way to select a Linux partition for booting within Startup Disk :D
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.