I thought I'd ask around. I picked up an ANS 700/200 a little while ago ($1 !) and wanted to put NetBSD on it. I found http://shiner.info that has (had?) some resources for NetBSD and linux installation. The site appears somewhat active, but comes and goes, and several links are broken- including one for a NetBSD install guide. I've trying straight up Googling, the Wayback machine, and posting on the shiner forum in hopes of finding the install guide. No love. I also see that Catmistake put out an all call for it a year ago here.
Does anyone have a copy of the install guide for NetBSD on the ANS? The file name was
installing_NetBSD.pdf
thanks!
mike
I've been looking for that guide for a while... I had it, but I lost it in a devistating hard drive crash late spring, 2005... I can still remember what the pages looked like... I've looked all over, a.b.m.*, torrent searches, I thought I had it when I remembered that I emailed it to someone, but they had deleted it months before.... crud
I don't think the install is much harder than a 68k machine, IIRC, but it was a nice guide, step by step...
I just remembered another story I never heard much of anything back about. I read in some archived thread about someone seeing a picture of an early version of Rhapsody running on an ANS. I could never verify this, and from time to time (between 1997 and 2001) there are posts with someone asking about getting OS X Server 1.x running, or Darwin, or OS 9 with a ROM swap (boots to OF?), its possible when Apple was being courted by NeXT that they got some customized version of OPENSTEP running on one... for proof of concept, or rumor fodder... but we're all just dreaming... it's not that it isn't possible, its just very very unlikely.
It'll run its special AIX, NetBSD, & YDL... and that's about it for the 'easy' installs. Too bad there's not more known about just how different it is from a 9500, that the original cost of these things didn't prompt some co to make a G4 upgrade for it like the other 604s. Someone has overclocked 604s to like 450Mhz, btw, so I don't see a reason why another couldn't overclock the proc in an ANS to there abouts (other than having no idea how to do it).
Yeah- I saw your request the first time. Shiner.info has been down for a few days it looks like. I posted a request there 2-3 weeks ago, seeing as how the link is on their website. I figured the webmaster would be like "sure, I haven't updated the page yet, but here's the new link." Nope. I do know that the author's name is Daniel Eggert- and he is one of the few active posters on the shiner forum. I figure I'll try asking the man directly. If I have any luck, I'll share the wealth.
Failing that, I can try to recreate it. I know that a majority of the sources were from NetBSD and ANS mailing lists. I think the whole rub with installing NetBSD on it is utilizing the RAID properly.
Did you ever get an OS on yours (like YDL?)
I have seen the same rumors about Rhapsody as well. I'm pretty sure that one or two AF'ers have tried the ROM switch. I seem to recall that part of the urban legend was that a special ROM was around interally that allowed MacOS to work- and that it was available to engineers of the ANS. Pity that "special" ROM doesn't show up (or exist
). I think a good number of folks with big Mac iron would be happy to run OS9.
we'll see-
mike
Just as a followup, I finally found and contacted the author of the installation manual for NetBSD on the Apple Network Server with PCI RAID. It was originally written for older versions (being a 2003 rev), but apparently is still applicable to version 3.x. I haven't tried it yet on my 700/200, but I will as soon as I get some more memory. If anyone would like a copy, the author is cool with me handing it out. PM me if you're interested.
Mike