" Mike
i've got the answer for _most_ of the people who want to install Rhapsody DR2 on a unsupported machine like mine (PowerMac 7300). I don't get it why it would install with no probs on a 7600, but not a 7300. Anyways, the Multibooter app that comes with DR2 does not work at all on unsupported models, you have to use the Rhapsody CP that came with DR1. First you reboot off the CD in macos, then do the mini install, then you restart like it says. Now, it won't work, you'll get a black screen, you'll have the Zap the PRAM (command-option-p-r) then you'll get back into MacOS. In the Rhapsody Control Panel, enter the scsi ID of the your cd-rom (scsi id 3 if you didn't change it). Now reboot, and as soon as it says welcome to MacOS, press and HOLD down the capslock key, once it loads the rhapsody CP, you'll reboot into rhapsody off the CD, if you get any errors, make sure your last hard drive on your SCSI chain (intern) is terminated! that's what was giving me lots of errors, apperently Rhapsody is very sensitive about that. If you get any other problems, then it's probably because you have unsupported hardware. to boot back in macos, immediatly hold down the M key when you go to 'Logout' in DR2, to boot back in rhapsody, go in the Rhapsody CP and change the scsi ID the drive you just installed it to. then reboot once again, and hold the Capslock key.

A big thanks to 'Butch' who told me about using the Rhapsody DR1 CP and the installation process, and another big thanks to 'Yeknum' who told me about the termination on the drives.

good luck,(i'm writing this in Claris Emailer2 in Rhapsody bluebox).
justin "

" Hey,
This guy hasn't been reading the tech docs about Open Firmware I guess! It ouptuts via serial unless you can give it the correct video path.

ZAP the PRAM to reset it.

Also, the Adaptec SCSI is not supported so he has to move his drive to logicboard SCSI bus.

The tech notes for Open Firmware are available from Apple and also a bit more user-friendly ones at the LinuxPPC FAQ-O-Matic:

Apple:
http://devworld.apple.com/technotes/tn/tn1061.html
http://devworld.apple.com/technotes/tn/tn1062.html

LinuxPPC FAQ-O-Matic:
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~jonh/lppc-cache/217.html
Cya!
Mike Lamoureaux "

" Mike,
On OF...I do not know if a power tower has the newer version of OF (2.x), but it may have version 1.x in which case it does not know how to write to the screen...OR, you may need to tell it how to write to the screen (see below)

My powercenter has version 1.x...

Here is a cut from the linuxPPC install doc which talks about OF: (the full doc is at http://samba.anu.edu.au/linux-pmac/install.html)

Older machines, such as the 7200, 7300, 7500, 8200, 8500, etc. usually have version 1.0.5 of Apple's Open Firmware implementation. Newer machines (e.g. the 6400, etc.) and most clones have version 2.0.

There are some problems with the older version (1.0.5): * It doesn't have a driver for the screen display on the 7200, 8200 and clones (e.g. the PowerCenter 150). If you don't have a terminal or emulator to connect to the serial port, you can still set input-device to `kbd' so that you can issue commands to OF's user interface, as long as you don't mind typing blind.

* It doesn't define a `screen' alias, so you have to know the OF device name for your screen. On the 7300/7500/8500, this is `/chaos/control' (or alternatively `vci/@B', which amounts to the same thing). It does have a driver for the screen display on these machines, but the driver often doesn't initialize the screen successfully.

* The OF variables get reset to default values every time MacOS starts up.
-David Kinney "

" Mike
Your reader is going to have a helluva time getting the open firmware dialogue to show up on his powertower. I have a powercenter, which uses the same catalyst motherboard. [The post said PowerTower, but 250mhz 604E, so I'm guessing it's a PowerTower Pro, Tsunami based board.-Mike] Chances are that it uses an older revision firmware...You need another mac running a terminal app connected to the serial port of the powertower to read the output from the firmware because the older mac versions of the firmware do not output to the screen. The only macs that do this are the catalyst based powercenters, powertowers, and 7200's. I know this because I have installed both mklinux, ppc linux, and am currently trying to install rhapsody dr2. It is a real pain. I am pretty sure that dr2 will work on a powercenter or powertower, if you can get past the booting problems.

You can change the firmware settings through some linux utilities (bootvars is one), but I have not had any success thus far getting rhapsody to install. Apple must be having the same problem with those older machines' firmware because their multibooter utility on the dr2 disk does not support the catalyst machines as of yet.

There is one possible solution that I have not been able to try. If you install dr2 on a different supported machine like an 8500 and transfer the drive to the catalyst machine, I am almost positive it will work. I think the linux utilities should work as well, because I was able, with alot of work, to get both of the flavors of linux to work. I simply have not had the time to try every option.

By the way, when you get the blank screen, the OF dialogue is there, you just can't see it. You can type blind, but if you don't know how the interface looks, good luck. I have yet to try hooking up a terminal to the serial port, but if I get time, I'll let you know if it works.

Sorry for the huge letter, but I just wanted to let people know what they are getting into if they try to install dr2 on a catalyst machine. I think I have found the ultimate solution....Get a powermac G3 ;)
Charlie Archer "

" My guess would be that there is no video driver for Open Firmware in the ROM of that machine. Same goes for my PowerCenter 150 whenever I try to use Linux-PPC. So you either have to type blindly, or hook up a terminal to your computer to see OF's output.
-Colin Meginnis "

" The open firmware boot variables need to be configured for that specific video card. I don't recall exactly what it needs to say, but a similar process is done when installing LinuxPPC (which I tried and then switched to mkLinux), and I had the same problem when I had my video params set wrong. I don't recall what the vars need to be set to off the top of my head (something like /aty/bandit/mach_64pcc for the RAGE II card on my PowerCenter Pro), but this topic has been discussed in some of the PowerPC Linux newsgroups and may be in the FAQs...
HTH,
Tomas Remotigue "

" Mike
A comment on problems with Rhapsody and Open Firmware on a PowerTower...

It sounds like the Open Firmware "input-device" and "output-device" NVRAM variables are not correctly set. These variables control which devices should be used for text input and output by Open Firmware's user interface, and also seem to control what display Rhapsody tries to use for its main display. You can edit these variables with the "Boot Variables" application, which was written for LinuxPPC since it uses OF to boot. Boot Variables can be obtained at the LinuxPPC ftp site:

ftp://ftp.linuxppc.org/linuxppc/powermac/bootvars-1.3a.sit.hqx

Many Macs are set by default to use device "ttya", the modem port, for both input and output ("ttyb" is the printer port if you want to use that port instead). You can run OF remotely from another machine by hooking up a null modem cable between the Mac modem port and the other machine (which can be anything with a terminal program). The serial port parameters used are 9600 bps, 8 bits, no parity, 1 stop bit. If the machine is set up this way, a black screen is precisely what you'd get.

To use the keyboard for the OF input device, set "input-device" to "kbd". The setting for "output-device" can be a bit trickier, though. On some machines, "screen" is an alias to the built-in video, and will work. On the 7500, 7600, 8500, and 8600, use "/chaos/control". For a PCI video card, you'll have to find out what the name of the card is in the OF device tree. You'll need to access the OF interface through the serial cable method, and type "dev / ls" to list all the devices in the tree. Look under /pci (the list of PCI devices) for the video card, and set "output-device" accordingly. For example, I have an ATI XClaim VR Pro. Its OF name is ATY,XCLAIMVRPro. By setting the OF "output-device" field to "/pci/ATY,XCLAIMVRPro" I get the OF display on the ATI card instead of my PowerMac G3's built in video.

It's probably not safe to assume that Rhapsody will understand and work with any random video card.

Now, after all this, it may still not be possible to get a PCC machine to work. The 7200, and all machines derived from it -- namely, a lot of PCC models -- does not have OF driver code for its built-in video. It might be possible to get these machines to work with a video card, however.
Timothy A. Seufert "

" Advise your reader to go to samba.anu.edu.au and look at their linux-ppc mailing list. It's full of useful information. To answer the guy's specific query about a blank screen with cmd-option-o-f, I suggest he use DR2's multibooter, click net boot, click advance options and change the input and output appropriately. input should be "kbd" and output on my 8500 is "/chaos/control." For his PCC machine, it may be different, and he'll need to search linux-ppc.
Ken Lui"

" This happens when the COFF definition file is incorrect for that particular machine.The COFF definition is used to talk to the Open Firmware.

Examples of what I mean can be found at:

http://www.linuxppc.org/install/g3/

and

http://ogrady.com/articles/openfirmware.stm

(by the looks of things, we could run NT, Linux, BeOS AND the MacOS. great machines!)
Mark Costa"