tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56619950882156057092024-03-13T18:45:01.337-04:00The World According to SlorIf you were right, I would agree with you.Slorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01571688503829566699noreply@blogger.comBlogger18125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5661995088215605709.post-21273798877765449492016-11-30T12:54:00.002-05:002017-01-12T10:07:27.340-05:00A native Windows port of MoriaAbout 8 years ago, I did a proof of concept for porting the classic text-based adventure game Moria to a native Windows application. I had some beta test help from other fans of the game (thanks Jou), and I had the blessing of David Grabiner for the project, based on the Umoria 5.5.2 core. As is the case with so many projects, however, the effort ended up being shelved after the initial PoC. I recently became interested again in the game and in finishing up the port, so that's what I've done with Win32Moria 5.5.3. Combining the Moria core with PDCurses and SDL, I've been able to build a native Windows binary without the need for emulation, CygWin, or other compatibility layers. It's possible there are similar efforts out there already, but this is mine.<br />
<br />
Over the past 8 years, of course David released Moria 5.6. The core source code is just different enough from 5.5.2 that I have not yet attempted to integrate those changes into the Win32 port, but it is on my list of to-dos along with releasing the final code changes for public consumption. For now, I'm making the binary package available and would appreciate any feedback from folks who give it a try, especially if you find any bugs! Also, if anyone would like to submit a good icon to use (maybe of the Balrog), I'd be glad to make an update. I'm no artist.<br />
<br />
Bits can be downloaded here: <a href="http://www.slor.net/moria/wmoria.zip">http://www.slor.net/moria/wmoria.zip</a><br />
<br />
A couple useful new hotkeys:<br />
- Alt-F toggles between fullscreen and windowed mode.<br />
- Alt-D toggles between double and single resolution when in windowed mode.<br />
* Alt isn't currently recognized more than once if kept held down because SDL needs to reset the keyboard when changing video modes, so it must be released and pressed each time for multiple toggles.<br />
<br />
A few features that may keep this from becoming an official Moria port:<br />
<div class="MsoPlainText">
- Optional auto-rolling for hero stats.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
- Optional auto-haggling for store prices.</div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
- Optional colors for monsters, treasure, and
mineral seams.</div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br /></div>
Some screenshots:<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hidckXQa2IE/WD78wirsYTI/AAAAAAAADY4/EDApjNKypVUyvpei6GHo5TSWgJhXTSuuACLcB/s1600/mor1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hidckXQa2IE/WD78wirsYTI/AAAAAAAADY4/EDApjNKypVUyvpei6GHo5TSWgJhXTSuuACLcB/s1600/mor1.png" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Jrov5xTJaFc/WD78-gZCS4I/AAAAAAAADY8/ynf0IaXMlGkej08dsX8oxAEGMffteLvUgCLcB/s1600/mor2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Jrov5xTJaFc/WD78-gZCS4I/AAAAAAAADY8/ynf0IaXMlGkej08dsX8oxAEGMffteLvUgCLcB/s1600/mor2.png" /></a></div>
<br />
And a completed quest:<br />
<br />
<pre style="white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;"> Name : Slor Age : 15 STR : 18/100
Race : Human Height : 73 INT : 18/100
Sex : Male Weight : 214 WIS : 18/100
Class : Ranger Social Class : 49 DEX : 18/100
Title : **KING** CON : 18/100
CHR : 18/100
+ To Hit : 20 Level : 78 Max Hit Points : 417
+ To Damage : 24 Experience : 8072780 Cur Hit Points : 417
+ To AC : 47 Max Exp : 8072780 Max Mana : 145
Total AC : 78 Exp to Adv : ******* Cur Mana : 145
Gold : 811536
(Miscellaneous Abilities)
Fighting : Superb Stealth : Excellent Perception : Superb
Bows/Throw : Superb Disarming : Superb Searching : Very Good
Saving Throw: Superb Magic Device: Superb Infra-Vision: 30 feet
Character Background
You are one of several children of a Townsman. You are a
well liked child. You have dark brown eyes, straight blond
hair, and an average complexion.
[Character's Equipment List]
a) You are wielding : a Battle Axe (Balestarius) (HA) (2d8) (+10,+14) [+2] (+1 to STR).
b) Worn on head : a Steel Helm of Infra-Vision [6,+7] (+3).
c) Worn around neck : an Amulet of the Magi [+3] (+15).
d) Worn on body : Augmented Chain Mail (R) (-2) [16,+12].
e) Worn on shield arm : a Large Metal Shield [5,+7].
f) Worn on hands : a Set of Gauntlets of Slaying (+3,+4) [2,+3].
g) Right ring finger : a Ring of Speed (+1).
h) Left ring finger : a Ring of Speed (+1).
i) Worn on feet : a Pair of Soft Leather Shoes of Stealth [1,+5] (+3).
j) Worn about body : a Cloak of Stealth [1,+3] (+1).
k) Light source is : a Brass Lantern with 10745 turns of light.
l) Secondary weapon : an Executioner's Sword (SD) (4d5) (+10,+19).
[General Inventory List]
a) 3 Books of Magic Spells [Beginners-Magick].
b) 3 Books of Magic Spells [Magick I].
c) 3 Books of Magic Spells [Magick II].
d) 3 Books of Magic Spells [The Mages' Guide to Power].
e) 10 Rations of Food.
f) 20 Flasks of Oil.
g) 11 Potions of Restore Life Levels.
h) 27 Potions of Restore Intelligence.
i) 19 Potions of Restore Dexterity.
j) 20 Scrolls of Word-of-Recall.
k) 2 Scrolls of Rune of Protection.
l) 2 Scrolls of Mass Genocide.
m) a Wand of Acid Balls (3 charges).
n) a Wand of Cold Balls (4 charges).
o) a Wand of Lightning Balls (3 charges).
p) a Wand of Fire Balls (6 charges).
q) a Wand of Drain Life (4 charges).
r) a Staff of Teleportation (6 charges).
s) a Staff of Teleportation (4 charges).
t) a Staff of Speed (3 charges).
u) a Staff of Speed (5 charges).
</pre>
Slorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01571688503829566699noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5661995088215605709.post-34986189412281920572013-12-03T23:50:00.001-05:002013-12-04T12:05:55.354-05:00Quick and dirty social media linksIf you're looking for a quick way to get a few social media sharing links on your site without messing with JavaScript and remotely hosted widgets, here is a simple solution. Below are some HTML snippets and images you can throw together in just a few minutes.<br />
<br />
Sample link bar:<br />
<div style="background-color: white; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http://blog.slor.net" target="_blank" title="Share on Facebook"><img src="http://www.slor.net/images/facebook.png" /></a>
<a href="http://twitter.com/share?text=An%20interesting%20blog&url=http://blog.slor.net" target="_blank" title="Share on Twitter"><img src="http://www.slor.net/images/twitter.png" /></a>
<a href="https://plus.google.com/share?url=http://blog.slor.net" target="_blank" title="Share on Google+"><img src="http://www.slor.net/images/googleplus.png" /></a>
</div>
<br />
Facebook code:
<br />
<pre style="background-color: #eeeeee; border: 1px dashed #999999; color: black; font-family: Andale Mono, Lucida Console, Monaco, fixed, monospace; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px; overflow: auto; padding: 5px; width: 868px;"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http://blog.slor.net" target="_blank" title="Share on Facebook"><img src="http://www.slor.net/images/facebook.png" /></a>
</pre>
<br />
Twitter code:
<br />
<pre style="background-color: #eeeeee; border: 1px dashed #999999; color: black; font-family: Andale Mono, Lucida Console, Monaco, fixed, monospace; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px; overflow: auto; padding: 5px; width: 868px;"><a href="http://twitter.com/share?text=An%20interesting%20blog&url=http://blog.slor.net" target="_blank" title="Share on Twitter"><img src="http://www.slor.net/images/twitter.png" /></a>
</pre>
<br />
Google+ code:<br />
<pre style="background-color: #eeeeee; border: 1px dashed #999999; color: black; font-family: Andale Mono, Lucida Console, Monaco, fixed, monospace; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px; overflow: auto; padding: 5px; width: 868px;"><a href="https://plus.google.com/share?url=http://blog.slor.net" target="_blank" title="Share on Google+"><img src="http://www.slor.net/images/googleplus.png" /></a>
</pre>
Slorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01571688503829566699noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5661995088215605709.post-75477237144469308212013-09-26T03:04:00.001-04:002014-01-22T11:28:59.638-05:00Turning your Raspberri Pi into a wireless bridgeI recently found myself in need of a wireless bridge. Having also recently purchased a Raspberry Pi and not wanting to spend money on a dedicated bridge (costing as much or more than the Pi), I decided I'd figure out how to make my Pi serve that function for me. It took a little searching and piecing together of web articles to find the simplest formula to get there, and it works pretty well.<br />
<br />
Here's what you need to get started:<br />
- Raspberry Pi (duh) - I recommend model B revision 2.0.<br />
- MicroUSB power supply - The more mA the better.<br />
- USB wireless network adapter - Mine happens to be a generic RTL8192CU-based unit that came as part of a starter kit with my Pi.<br />
- USB keyboard.<br />
- HDMI or video monitor.<br />
- Pi case (optional).<br />
- 4 GB or larger SDHC card - I used a Wintec 16 GB MicroSDHC with adapter.<br />
- Raspbian distribution image - The latest raw image can be obtained from <a href="http://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads">the Raspberry Pi website</a>.<br />
- A way to write Pi images to the SD card - For Windows, <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/win32diskimager/">Win32 Disk Imager</a> is a great choice.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Step 1: Copy Raspbian image to SD card</b><br />
<br />
If you own a Raspberry Pi, you probably already know how to do this. Using Win32 Disk Imager, it is a simple matter of browsing to the downloaded Raspbian image file, making sure the correct device is selected to write to, and then clicking the Write button.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-meDg7yP5mX4/UkM0Mzv9GrI/AAAAAAAAAIU/iFwb_S90Y-E/s1600/raspimage.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-meDg7yP5mX4/UkM0Mzv9GrI/AAAAAAAAAIU/iFwb_S90Y-E/s1600/raspimage.png" /></a></div>
<br />
Assuming no errors during the write process, you should now have a bootable SD card to put in your Pi.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Step 2: Hook up your system and set up Raspbian</b><br />
<br />
It doesn't get much easier than this. If you own a Pi, you certainly already know how to hook up your peripherals and power it up. At the end of first boot, you'll be presented with the raspi-config screen and can do any customization you need there. I recommend at least using the first item to expand your file system to fill available space. Once you're done, you'll be able to log into the terminal session.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Step 3: Enable both network interfaces</b><br />
<br />
You'll need to update your network configuration so that both the wired and wireless interfaces are enabled automatically at boot time. First file to edit (as superuser) is /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf. Assuming your wireless access point uses WPA2 pre-shared keys, replace the contents of the file with this:<br />
<br />
<pre style="background-color: #eeeeee; border: 1px dashed #999999; color: black; font-family: Andale Mono, Lucida Console, Monaco, fixed, monospace; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px; overflow: auto; padding: 5px; width: 100%;"><code>ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
update_config=1
network={
ssid="Your SSID Here"
proto=RSN
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
pairwise=CCMP TKIP
group=CCMP TKIP
psk="YourPresharedKeyHere"
}</code></pre>
<div>
<br /></div>
Make sure you use your own SSID and pre-shared key where appropriate. If you are not using WPA2, you'll need to find and use the correct parameters for your access point. Next file you need to mess with is /etc/network/interfaces. Replace the contents of the file with this:<br />
<br />
<pre style="background-color: #eeeeee; border: 1px dashed #999999; color: black; font-family: Andale Mono, Lucida Console, Monaco, fixed, monospace; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px; overflow: auto; padding: 5px; width: 100%;"><code>auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp
auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet manual
wpa-roam /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
iface default inet dhcp</code></pre>
<br />
Before moving on, you should test this configuration to make sure the wireless is connecting properly. Run these two commands:
<br />
<br />
<pre style="background-color: #eeeeee; border: 1px dashed #999999; color: black; font-family: Andale Mono, Lucida Console, Monaco, fixed, monospace; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px; overflow: auto; padding: 5px; width: 100%;"><code># sudo ifdown wlan0
# sudo ifup wlan0
</code></pre>
<br />
You'll likely see three ioctl warnings during the ifup command. Those are ok and can be ignored. From there, you can use the "ifconfig" command to check on status of both eth0 and wlan0 or "iwconfig" command to get detailed status for wlan0. Finally, if you want to make sure things will be enabled properly at boot time, this is a good time to reboot the Pi and see.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Step 4: Create the bridge</b><br />
<br />
Run the following commands to install bridge-utils and create the bridge br0 between wlan0 and eth0:<br />
<br />
<pre style="background-color: #eeeeee; border: 1px dashed #999999; color: black; font-family: Andale Mono, Lucida Console, Monaco, fixed, monospace; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px; overflow: auto; padding: 5px; width: 100%;"><code># sudo apt-get install bridge-utils
# sudo brctl addbr br0
# sudo brctl addif br0 wlan0 eth0</code></pre>
<br />
After making a backup copy of /etc/network/interfaces, update its contents to this:
<br />
<br />
<pre style="background-color: #eeeeee; border: 1px dashed #999999; color: black; font-family: Andale Mono, Lucida Console, Monaco, fixed, monospace; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px; overflow: auto; padding: 5px; width: 100%;"><code>auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
iface eth0 inet manual
auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet manual
auto br0
iface br0 inet dhcp
bridge_ports wlan0 eth0
bridge_stp off
bridge_maxwait 5
wpa-iface wlan0
wpa-bridge br0
wpa-conf /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf</code></pre>
<br />
That should do it. With the wpa-bridge line, you don't need to mess with ebtables or anything to spoof mac incoming and outgoing MAC addresses for the wireless side.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Step 5: Make it so</b><br />
<br />
If you have your wireless and wired ports currently hooked up to the same LAN, unplug the wired connection now. Reboot. Once your system reboots, you should have a Raspberry Pi bridge running in your environment. You can plug a single machine or switch into the wired ethernet port, and anything there will be bridged through the wireless access point on the other side.<br />
<br />
Hope this helps someone. If it doesn't, though, don't blame me.Slorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01571688503829566699noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5661995088215605709.post-45094489764451875512013-08-20T20:26:00.001-04:002013-09-07T22:42:35.504-04:00Installing Mac OS X Lion 10.7.5 on a Lenovo ThinkPad X61So you want an Intel-based Mac to play with but all you have laying around are a bunch of old non-Mac PCs. If one of those happens to be a Lenovo ThinkPad X61 laptop, you are in luck.<br />
<br />
<br />
<i>Disclaimer: Under no circumstances do I guarantee that you will not brick your system by following the instructions below. You follow this guide at your own risk, I will not be held responsible for any damages resulting from your efforts to build a Hackintosh. Only YOU can prevent forest fires. I suggest taking a first pass through the documented instructions to get a feel for the process and also to get some file downloads started before you get to work on the X61.</i><br />
<br />
<br />
<b>My target machine's configuration:</b><br />
<br />
- Model: Lenovo ThinkPad X61 laptop<br />
- CPU: 2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo SV T7300<br />
- Memory: 4 GB PC-5300 RAM<br />
- Disk: Seagate ST500LT012 5400 RPM SATA-II hard drive<br />
- Graphics: Intel GMA X3100<br />
- Sound: Intel High-Definition Audio (SoundMAX AD1981HD)<br />
- Network: Intel 82566MM Gb Ethernet<br />
- Network: Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG<br />
- Expansion: ThinkPad X6 UltraBase<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>What you will need:</b><br />
<br />
- Your X61, with or without UltraBase.<br />
- USB keyboard and mouse for temporary use with the X61.<br />
- Readily accessible PC. Doesn't really matter what operating system, as long as it can burn .ISO and .DMG files. For Windows, a great utility for this is TransMac.<br />
- Blank CD and DVD media (one of each).<br />
- USB drive for transferring files.<br />
- A lot of patience.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Step 1: Update your BIOS (optional)</b><br />
<div>
<br />
One annoying quirk with the stock X61 BIOS is that it only supports SATA I disk transfer speeds. The hardware, on the other hand, can support SATA II. If you have upgraded your internal hard drive like I have, you will benefit from updating to a third party BIOS. You can read all about the Middleton BIOS <a href="http://forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo/459591-t61-x61-sata-ii-1-5-gb-s-cap-willing-pay-solution-8.html#post6501443">here</a>.<br />
<br /></div>
<div>
- To get started, grab the archive <a href="http://www.slor.net/hacktop/Dual-IDA_SATA-II_Whitelist_SLIC21_ThinkPad_X61_X61s_BIOS_(2.22-1.03).rar">here</a>.<br />
<div>
- Burn the included .ISO file to CD-ROM and boot your X61 from it. The BIOS update will take place immediately without any prompting. It won't look like it's doing anything for a while, so be patient until you see the notice of completion.<br />
- Reboot your X61 and make sure it still works. If not, then you're probably done early with this project.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Step 2: Install Lion</b><br />
<br />
You'll need to obtain a copy of the iATKOS L2 installation media. You can read all about iATKOS L2 <a href="http://iatkos.me/2011/11/19/iatkos-l2-is-here/">here</a>, but we're not going to follow all the instructions listed.<br />
<br />
- Grab the .torrent file for the L2 archive <a href="http://www.slor.net/hacktop/iatkos.l2.mac.os.x.lion.10.7.2.torrent">here</a> and put your favorite torrent client to work.<br />
- Burn the included .DMG file to DVD-ROM and boot your X61 from it. The OS X installation procedure will start after a good amount of whirring by the DVD drive.<br />
- Once you get to the Disk Selection page, go to the Utilities menu and run <u>Disk Utility</u>. This has been known to occasionally lock up the X61. If that happens, just start this step over and you're likely to succeed the next time.<br />
- In Disk Utility, select the hard drive you want to install OS X onto.<br />
- Click to the <u>Partition</u> section of the right pane.<br />
- In the <u>Partition Layout</u> dropdown list, select <u>1 Partition</u>. Multiple partition support is doable but is beyond the scope of this guide.<br />
- Open the <u>Options</u> dialog and select <u>GUID Partition Table</u> for the partition scheme.<br />
- Use <u>Lion</u> for the partition name. It can be changed later if you like.<br />
- Select <u>Mac OS Extended (Journaled)</u> from the <u>Format</u> list.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MSJEdT-i4jw/UhajTaRwwmI/AAAAAAAAAHw/nxmhhivOfpI/s1600/Screen+Shot+2013-08-22+at+7.46.21+PM.png" /></div>
- Click Apply, make sure you're about to destroy the correct disk, then click <u>Partition</u>.<br />
- Once partitioning is done, quit Disk Utility.<br />
- In the installer's <u>Disk Selection page</u>, make sure to tag the <u>Lion</u> volume as your installation target.<br />
- Open the Customize dialog. Most things should be left as default.<br />
- The only change to make is to put a check on <u>Drivers</u> -> <u>Main Hardware</u> -> <u>SATA/IDE</u> -> <u>AHCI SATA</u>. Then click <u>OK</u>.<br />
- Now you should be ready. Click <u>Install</u>!<br />
- Kick back and relax. It will take a while.<br />
- After installation is complete, your X61 will reboot. You will want to make sure it boots from the hard drive this time.<br />
<br />
Did it boot into OS X? If so, continue on. If not, repeat this entire step until it does.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Step 3: Update some system files</b><br />
<br />
On first boot, many system devices will be unavailable or not working properly. This is where that gets fixed.<br />
<br />
- Grab a few extras from <a href="http://www.slor.net/hacktop/Extra.zip">here</a>.<br />
- And a bunch of .kext files from <a href="http://www.slor.net/hacktop/current-SLE.zip">here</a>.<br />
- And tonymacx86's KextBeast from <a href="http://www.slor.net/hacktop/KextBeast.zip">here</a>.<br />
- Put all of these on a USB drive and plug it into the X61.<br />
- On the X61, extract <u>Extra.zip</u>.<br />
- Copy the two .plist files into <u>/Extra</u>, overwriting the existing files.<br />
- Copy <u>DSDT.aml</u> into <u>/</u>.<span id="goog_995567130"></span><span id="goog_995567131"></span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><br />
- Extract <u>current-SLE.zip</u>.<br />
- Copy all of the .kext files to your Desktop.<br />
- Extract <u>KextBeast.zip</u>.<br />
- Run <u>KextBeast</u> and follow the prompts through completion to install kernel extensions specific to the X61.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-AcgyWnmazTw/UhUDo1fgdsI/AAAAAAAAAHg/y_cM3zTNxEs/s1600/Screen+Shot+2013-08-21+at+2.14.15+PM.png" /></div>
- Restart the X61.<br />
<br />
Still booting up OK? You should now be able to use most system devices and unplug the USB keyboard and mouse if you like. If you do unplug them, you'll want to disable the Bluetooth Assistant in your advanced Bluetooth preferences. Your machine is now a stable OS X 10.7.2 Hackintosh. You can pause here to set preferences as desired for networking and other aspects of the system.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Step 4: Update OS to 10.7.5</b><br />
<br />
Do NOT use Software Updater to update your OS. Instead, you'll want to download the standalone OS X 10.7.5 Combo Update.<br />
<br />
- Grab the update from <a href="http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1582">here</a>.<br />
- And a fixer-upper script from <a href="http://www.slor.net/hacktop/mac-os-x-lion-10.7.5-update-fixer.zip">here</a>.<br />
- And make sure you still have the .kext files and KextBeast from Step 3.<br />
- Install the <u>10.7.5 Combo Update</u>, but do NOT restart the machine yet.<br />
- Prior to allowing the updater to restart your machine,<br />
- Extract <u>mac-os-x-lion-10.7.5-update-fixer.zip</u>.<br />
- Open up a Terminal session and change to the directory containing the fixer files.<br />
- Use this command to run the fixer-upper:<br />
<pre style="background-color: #eeeeee; border: 1px dashed #999999; color: black; font-family: Andale Mono, Lucida Console, Monaco, fixed, monospace; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px; overflow: auto; padding: 5px; width: 100%;"><code>sudo ./UpdateFixer.sh</code></pre>
- At this point, you need to put all those .kext files from Step 3 back on the desktop.<br />
- Run <u>KextBeast again</u> to put your X61-specific files extensions where they need to be.<br />
- Now you can Restart you X61.<br />
<br />
If it booted back up, you Hackintosh is now updated to OS X version 10.7.5! If not, I'm afraid you're back to Step 2.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Pn__YyNS8oI/UhUCyCKrv2I/AAAAAAAAAHM/Ai7qnWd5nCs/s1600/Screen+Shot+2013-08-21+at+2.09.26+PM.png" /></div>
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<b>Step 5: Prevent CMOS corruption</b><br />
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There's an issue in the stock AppleRTC extension that will cause corruption in you CMOS settings after allowing your computer to go to sleep. This is very annoying because it causes all your settings to be set back to default and also turns off your bluetooth device. <br />
<br />
- To correct the issue, open a Terminal session on the X61 and use the following command to find and replace the offending bits:<br />
<pre style="background-color: #eeeeee; border: 1px dashed #999999; color: black; font-family: Andale Mono, Lucida Console, Monaco, fixed, monospace; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px; overflow: auto; padding: 5px; width: 100%;"><code>sudo perl -pi -e 's|\x75\x30\x44\x89\xf8|\xeb\x30\x44\x89\xf8|; s|\x75\x3d\x8b\x75\x08|\xeb\x3d\x8b\x75\x08|' /System/Library/Extensions/AppleRTC.kext/Contents/MacOS/AppleRTC</code></pre>
- Reboot your X61.<br />
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You should now have a Hackintosh that is safe to put to sleep on occasion.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Step 6: Update the rest of the system software</b><br />
<br />
You can now safely check for system updates using OS X's built-in updater. Everything should install fine and leave your X61 in a still-working state. If not, you know where Step 2 starts.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Step 7: Enjoy your Hackintosh!</b><br />
<br />
You are now the proud owner of a Hackintosh X61. You'll be the envy of all your friends. Girls won't like you any more than they do now.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Hints:</b><br />
<br />
- If your X61's bluetooth doesn't work or disappears after a future startup, reboot the X61 with a Linux LiveCD like Knoppix. Once the bluetooth device has been activated in the BIOS, it will be available to OS X again next time it's booted.<br />
- You'll notice the wireless networking, PCMCIA card reader, and SD card reader still do not work. At this time, I don't have answers for supporting those devices. This post will be updated if and when I make further progress.<br />
- You'll also notice your Hackintosh is running the OS in 32-bit mode. You can change it to 64-bit by editing org.Chameleon.boot.plist, but you will lose support for some of the built-in devices such as sound, keyboard, and trackpoint.<br />
- I recommend turning off automatic system updates, just in case something comes along that could cause issues. Hopefully that isn't likely, but you may want to ability to control the update process and check on any suspicious-looking updates.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Useful tools:</b><br />
<br />
- <a href="http://www.acutesystems.com/scrtm.htm">TransMac</a> - A great app for managing Mac disk images on a Windows computer. I used it to burn my iATKOS install DVD.<br />
- <a href="http://www.bombich.com/">Carbon Copy Cloner</a> - Very useful for duplicating disk content on your Hackintosh. After preparing a second hard drive's boot loader with iATKOS, I use CCC to keep an exact copy of my system drive in case I screw it up and need a quick restore.<br />
- <a href="http://www.testplant.com/eggplant/testing-tools/vine-vnc-for-mac/">Vine VNC</a> - Way better than Lion's built-in VNC server, and it's FREE!<br />
- <a href="https://developer.apple.com/xcode/">Xcode</a> - I don't know much about developing apps for OS X, but I do know Xcode is an easy way to get GCC and related build tools installed on my Hackintosh.<br />
- <a href="http://www.macports.org/">MacPorts</a> - It can't get any easier to install many of the open source tools I'm used to using on other *nix-based platforms.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Final notes:</b><br />
<br />
I hope this guide has helped someone. Please purchase your own copy of OS X Lion before attempting your build. I cannot vouch for the legalities of running OS X on alternative hardware, but I'm pretty sure Apple would like you to pay for any software you use. No Apple software is, or ever will be, provided by this site.<br />
<br />
Thanks to the <a href="http://iatkos.me/">iATKOS</a>, <a href="http://www.tonymacx86.com/home.php">tonymacx86</a>, and <a href="http://www.osx86.net/">OSx86</a> teams for making this doable!</div>
</div>
Slorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01571688503829566699noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5661995088215605709.post-32723776315129703132012-10-18T03:42:00.001-04:002012-10-19T11:08:11.217-04:00Support your local SlorIf you have any need for domain name registration and/or web hosting, please check out these two sites:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.ehostdirect.com/">eHostDirect</a> - for web hosting (and domain names if needed)<br />
<a href="http://www.ikondomains.com/">Ikon Domains</a> - for standalone domain name registration<br />
<br />
Thanks!Slorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01571688503829566699noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5661995088215605709.post-40641262886903707002012-10-18T02:24:00.000-04:002013-08-22T20:17:47.501-04:00AtariNet directoryI started a simple directory dedicated to Atari-specific sites at <a href="http://www.atarinet.com/">http://links.atarinet.com/</a>. Whether or not it will prove extremely useful is still up in the air and, in the end, depends on the level of participation from the Atari community. If you have any links you would like to add, please feel free to submit them to the directory.<br />
<br />Slorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01571688503829566699noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5661995088215605709.post-75556138969497397192012-06-19T09:09:00.000-04:002013-03-17T16:36:10.721-04:00FireBee arrives!I have followed the Atari Coldfire Project (<a href="http://acp.atari.org/">http://acp.atari.org</a>) off and on for nearly three years now. This April, I decided it was time to fnally see about getting one. Here’s a brief timeline:<br />
<br />
April 20: Contacted ACP to place order. Got in touch with Mathias, who was very helpful in getting me up to speed on the project status.<br />
<br />
April 25: Sent my payment with the expectation it would still be a few weeks before shipping due to the timing needed to acquire the cases and prepare the OS image for the complete systems.<br />
<br />
May 20: Mathias wrote to confirm my shipping address. In other words, they were nearing time to ship!<br />
<br />
June 4: Notified by Mathias that my FireBee shipped that day! Now it was just a matter of waiting for it to make its way overseas.<br />
<br />
June 18: I got back from an early meeting to find this box sitting on my desk:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://slor.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/p6180912.jpg"><img alt="P6180912" border="0" height="184" src="http://slor.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/p6180912_thumb.jpg" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0; display: inline; margin: 0 5px; padding-left: 0; padding-right: 0; padding-top: 0;" title="P6180912" width="244" /></a><br />
<br />
In other words, my FireBee had arrived! It was tough, but I made it through the rest of the workday in anticipation of getting to play with the machine that evening. As I already knew, one thing that would not be included was a power adapter. Rather than take a chance on a 15-year old laptop adapter or similar, I invested just a little more cash on the way home in a new laptop adapter providing plenty of voltage (19.5VDC) and current (4A).<br />
<br />
After initial unpacking, here’s what I found very well packed inside the shipping box:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://slor.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/p6180913.jpg"><img alt="P6180913" border="0" height="184" src="http://slor.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/p6180913_thumb.jpg" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0; display: inline; margin: 0 5px; padding-left: 0; padding-right: 0; padding-top: 0;" title="P6180913" width="244" /></a><br />
<br />
I was very impressed by the professional look of the packaging, including the box, slipcover labeling, and getting started guide inside the box. Of course, then, this is the part of most interest:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://slor.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/p6180918.jpg"><img alt="P6180918" border="0" height="184" src="http://slor.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/p6180918_thumb.jpg" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0; display: inline; margin: 0 5px; padding-left: 0; padding-right: 0; padding-top: 0;" title="P6180918" width="244" /></a><br />
<br />
The FireBee itself is housed in a case about the size of a Netgear 16-port switch. In fact, with the blue case I chose, it might go unnoticed in a pile of said switches. And the back:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://slor.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/p6180917.jpg"><img alt="P6180917" border="0" height="184" src="http://slor.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/p6180917_thumb.jpg" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0; display: inline; margin: 0 5px; padding-left: 0; padding-right: 0; padding-top: 0;" title="P6180917" width="244" /></a><br />
<br />
The external ports I’ll be most interested in for the short term are:<br />
<br />
USB: For my modern keyboard and mouse.<br />
<br />
DC-IN: For power, of course.<br />
<br />
POWER: Power off/on, reset.<br />
<br />
SD (side): Floppy disk emulation.<br />
<br />
DVI (side): Video out to my panel.<br />
<br />
Ethernet (side): Gotta be hooked up to everything else.<br />
<br />
A quick look inside:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://slor.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/p6180923.jpg"><img alt="P6180923" border="0" height="184" src="http://slor.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/p6180923_thumb.jpg" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0; display: inline; margin: 0 5px; padding-left: 0; padding-right: 0; padding-top: 0;" title="P6180923" width="244" /></a><br />
<br />
If you’re saying to yourself “it looks like they did the whole thing on a PCI card”, you are correct. Besides running bare or in the specially designed case, you can run the entire machine from the power provided by typical PC expansion slots. That’s great for someone who might like to convert an old desktop/tower case into a FireBee host.<br />
<br />
As you can see, there are all kinds of things going on in there, including the Coldfire processor, ram, flash containing upgradeable firmware, lots of ports, and even a battery to provide a short period of operation without connect power. The CF card in there comes pre-staged with a base MiNT installation and a few options for desktop environment selection. Once hooked up, here’s what my desk looks like:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://slor.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/p6180919.jpg"><img alt="P6180919" border="0" height="184" src="http://slor.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/p6180919_thumb.jpg" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0; display: inline; margin: 0 5px; padding-left: 0; padding-right: 0; padding-top: 0;" title="P6180919" width="244" /></a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://slor.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/p6180921.jpg"><img alt="P6180921" border="0" height="184" src="http://slor.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/p6180921_thumb.jpg" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0; display: inline; margin: 0 5px; padding-left: 0; padding-right: 0; padding-top: 0;" title="P6180921" width="244" /></a><br />
<br />
It’s finally time to turn it on, and after some silent blinking of lights from the FireBee, I’m greeted by my first setup decision to be made:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://slor.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/p6180920.jpg"><img alt="P6180920" border="0" height="184" src="http://slor.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/p6180920_thumb.jpg" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0; display: inline; margin: 0 5px; padding-left: 0; padding-right: 0; padding-top: 0;" title="P6180920" width="244" /></a><br />
<br />
Stay tuned…Slorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01571688503829566699noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5661995088215605709.post-90673297469230869572012-04-04T10:34:00.000-04:002012-10-16T16:32:58.066-04:00Giving an old Atari computer a much needed upgradeNice! On the coattails of Boisy Pitre's work, I actually got a mention on Hack a Day!<br />
<br />
<a href="http://hackaday.com/2012/04/04/giving-an-old-atari-computer-a-much-needed-upgrade/">http://hackaday.com/2012/04/04/giving-an-old-atari-computer-a-much-needed-upgrade/</a>Slorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01571688503829566699noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5661995088215605709.post-58960089566894509232008-02-03T14:39:00.000-05:002012-10-16T16:29:11.007-04:00The best laid plans of mice and Slor...You know how some things tend to snowball? Well, let's just say my last week has been rapidly rolling downhill, getting larger and larger as it's moved on. If you recall, I stated in my last entry that I would be posting photos of the machines I've been working on the next day. That was just over a week ago. Here's a summary of events that have taken place between then and now:<br/><br/>- I decide it's time to take some photos to post here.<br/>- In order to be able to take decent photos, I figure I'll need to finishing cleaning up the computer room.<br/>- Just after I've started cleaning again, I'm notified that someone in the area is looking to part with a VAX system cheap. As is my tradition when I'm not sure if I should buy something, I offer the guy half of what he what he's asking for the system. He says "yes", so that's another half trunk full of stuff I need to find room for. It'll have to stay in the trunk until either my room or the garage has some space freed up.<br/>- As I get back to the cleaning, I figure it would be stupid of me to get everything all packed up and put away again without taking out, photographing, and settin aside the multitude of "stuff" that I have been meaning to get rid of for a while now. This, of course, means making the mess worse before it gets better. The VAX stuff makes itself comfortable in my trunk while I tear up the computer room and garage some more.<br/>- Each time I start to clean up again, I run across a piece of hardware that I can't put away in good conscience without installing whatever upgrade has been sitting around for it. There are a couple late nights gone.<br/>- After a good chunk of time upgrading, photographing, and setting aside items to sell (more on that later :)), I am finally able to make some progress putting things away.<br/>- Today, I am finally able to walk through the room again, take some photos, and write this blog entry.<br/><br/>As you've probably already noticed, the RetroChallenge ended 3 days ago, so that pretty much means I made ZERO progress in finding something "interesting" to do with the machines I spent the previous days getting up and running. Am I disappointed by that? Yeah, a little, but my disappointment is greatly overshadowed by my happiness that those machines are now working, I have organized a bunch of stuff to get rid of, my work area is nearly a work area again, I eventually found a nice spot to put the VAX(guess what my next restoration project will be), and it's only been a couple weeks. I'll credit the RetroChallenge for getting me on gear on a lot of that, and perhaps I'll enter myself for the "Most Untimely Yet Productive U-Turn in a RetroChallenge" prize. At the very least, I'll be ready when the next one comes along!<br/><br/>For what it's worth, here are some photos of the machines I worked with for this challenge. In the next few days (no, really), I will do another post or two to detail all the machines currently in this room that is nearing museum level and shoot more pics of the everything in sight. Anyway, thanks to the RetroChallenge for some motivation, and on to the photos:<br/><br/><a href="http://slor.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/p2030045.jpg"><img border="0" width="184" src="http://slor.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/p2030045-thumb.jpg" alt="P2030045" height="244" style="border:0;" /></a> The Amiga 3000 and DEC 3000<br/><br/><a href="http://slor.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/p2030046.jpg"><img border="0" width="184" src="http://slor.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/p2030046-thumb.jpg" alt="P2030046" height="244" style="border:0;" /></a> The HP 9000<br/><br/><a href="http://slor.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/p2030047.jpg"><img border="0" width="244" src="http://slor.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/p2030047-thumb.jpg" alt="P2030047" height="184" style="border:0;" /></a> The TT030 with Spectre<br/><br/><a href="http://slor.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/p2030048.jpg"><img border="0" width="184" src="http://slor.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/p2030048-thumb.jpg" alt="P2030048" height="244" style="border:0;" /></a> The next project...Slorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01571688503829566699noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5661995088215605709.post-89587967648323767572008-01-25T20:02:00.000-05:002012-10-16T16:29:11.022-04:00Amiga 3000 - I win, at least for nowI received the Amiga OS 3.1 install floppies I had been waiting for yesterday, and needless to say I was itching to give them a shot. The I stuck the first disk in, turned the machine on, and finally saw its first sign of bootable life since its original system disk was destroyed. Straight to the disk utilities I went to get the hard drive set up, but wait - no hard drive was found by the Amiga. Uh-oh. Knowing that I sometimes have SCSI hardware just plain configured wrong, I took a shot at changing the jumper settings just a bit. After a little bit of work, finally the Amiga could see my hard drive. Unfortunately during the process, though, I found that the machine had trouble reading some areas of both the Install and Workbench disks, which of course did NOT bode well for getting the OS put on the hard drive. With a little cleaning, the Install disk seemed to get past its issues, but there were 4 blocks still on the Workbench disk that could not be read. As I expected, this prevented the Workbench from being installed on the hard drive.<br/><br/>After wallowing for a bit, I thought perhaps I should give the emulation idea one more go. Since I had changed the drive configuration and managed to get it formatted in the actual Amiga, perhaps WinUAE would have more success using the disk. Lo and behold, and few minutes later, I could see the drive in my emulated Amiga. All I needed now was a good set of disk images to use for the install, so I went back to my disk supplier (who I now REALLY owe) and asked if I could possibly get him to email me a set of disk images to give this a shot. By the time I got a reply with the images that might do it for me, I was already falling asleep in my chair and way too tired to give it a go. That turned out for the best, because later this morning I received a followup email stating something like "Ignore that last email - THESE are the images you want." It was tough to actually go to work today knowing I was so close to getting this machine working, but willpower won out.<br/><br/>When I got home tonight, the moment of truth was near. I fired up my emulation host, got WinUAE configured as closely to the configuration of my physical Amiga 3000 as possible, and booted with the 3.1 install image. The install did its thing (and did it fast at 8x floppy I/O), and I soon had a hard drive ready to run. There was nothing left to do but move the drive back to the Amiga, turn it on, and cross my fingers. Could this actually be my victory? Well, if the thing hadn't booted up from the hard drive, you can bet you bottom dollar I would still be working on it instead of writing this blog entry!<br/><br/>Part I: Revive all the non-functional machines lying around in the retro graveyard - CHECK.<br/><br/>Tomorrow will be photo day - I'll get some shots of all the machines involved in this project and possibly some others relating to my retro collection. I now have 5 days to get them all doing something "useful". Will that require putting the Amiga 3000's hard drive back on my PC in order to get the appropriate networking utilities installed? I certainly hope not, but that has yet to be determined...Slorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01571688503829566699noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5661995088215605709.post-65345277274537922442008-01-21T17:56:00.000-05:002012-10-16T16:29:11.014-04:00Amiga 3000 - patience is not my favorite virtueThe Amiga is my last machine to get up and running, and it's definitely testing my patience. Unlike most computers I own, there are not too many ways to get a completely raw Amiga up and running without having actual Amiga-formatted floppy install media, and there is apparently no way to create an Amiga-formatted floppy on typical modern PC. Of course, I was not aware of that tiny detail until after I had stolen the the machine's hard drive a while back for use in another, more pressing project. The only idea I have seen that circumvents this process is to put your hard drive in a PC, use the WinUAE emulator to boot and load an OS onto the drive, and then move the drive back to the Amiga. I gave that a number of tries, but I have thus far been unsuccessful in getting the emulated Amiga to find the SCSI device and allow me to load the software.<br/><br/>The better news is that I recently had someone contact me (yes, in response to a newsgroup post) and offer to send the necessary boot media for only the cost of shipping. I jumped at that, and I'm now playing the waiting game to see how long it takes to get here. Being the big spender I am, I have offered to pay for priority shipping, so I hope to see the disks soon. Until then, I'm using my time to further improve the machines I've already rebuilt and clean up the computer room (no small task).<br/><br/>I have some ideas for making all these computers "useful" as a group, but I have not yet settled on a formal goal. With 10 days left in the month, though, I should have PLENTY of time. :)Slorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01571688503829566699noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5661995088215605709.post-10077146119134269812008-01-18T07:24:00.000-05:002012-10-16T16:29:10.991-04:00Spectre GCR - no freakin' wayI couple nights ago, I swapped the spare 500 MB drive into my Mac IIci (which happens to be a <a href="http://lowendmac.com/ii/macintosh-iici.html">Low End Mac best buy</a>) and booted it up with my Mac OS 6.0.8 install floppy. The IIci is the most comparable machine to a Mac Plus that I own, and one thing about the OS is that you can install it for "all Macintosh systems" to include support for every system OS 6.0.8 is aware of, so off I went for quickest OS installation I've done in a while - I believe it took about 5 minutes.<br/><br/>The next thing I had to do was gather up the necessary parts to hook the drive up to my TT's ACSI port. That included an external enclosure I grabbed from work, my ICD AdSCSI ST host adapter, mounting bracket, and a few cables. Once I got all that put together, I turned on the TT and configured HDDriver to scan the ACSI bus, and I was pleased to see it recognize the drive on reboot (along with the CD-ROM drive I added to the enclosure for future tinkering). It seems perhaps I'm finally learning how to configure a SCSI chain properly on the first try. :)<br/><br/>Now for the moment of truth. The only thing left to do was start up the software to kick off Spectre and try to use the drive. Not surprisingly (since RTFM is always my last resort), it took me a few tries to get the configuration settings right, but once I finally did... Well, that's where the "no freakin' way" comes in. The Mac BIOS was able to find and boot from the transplanted hard drive, and right in front of me sat my new Macintari TT Plus! My floor is just a bit cleaner now, so I DID do the Dance of Joy for this one. The hardware emulation runs quite smoothly, and I'm eager to get back to it tonight to test out some apps on it. The Spectre, even though it plugs into the TT's cartridge port, does absolutely nothing but stay out of the way unless you tell it to take over. This means I can just leave it plugged in all the time - even when I'm just doing ordinary Atari stuff on it.<br/><br/>Only one machine remaining to get functional, and then I can start making them useful!Slorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01571688503829566699noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5661995088215605709.post-60519858185996574392008-01-17T08:09:00.000-05:002012-10-16T16:29:11.011-04:00HP 9000 - it's alive!Wow - this one was smooth sailing after finally getting the right CR-ROM drive hooked up. The HP-UX install process took about as long on this machine as did the DEC 9000 OpenVMS install. A notable difference between the two is that there were no errors incurred by the HP-UX install. Even though I tried to cause myself some grief by incorrectly configuring the network settings, HP-UX recognized my potential for mistakes and put something on the screen to tell me how to redo the network settings later on without having to scour the web for instructions. Like a long lost friend who knows my potential for losing information, it even left me an email on the machine to reiterate the process for making configuration changes - that's a big gold star for user-friendliness.<br/><br/>Bottom line is that I now have this machine up and running with the OS it was intended to run, and I have one more item checked off of my "building the eclectic office" goals list. Only thing left to do right now is to pretty it up just a bit with some of my open source favorites like bash, openssh, and gcc. Then, on to the next machine...Slorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01571688503829566699noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5661995088215605709.post-17691611741094630862008-01-16T21:26:00.000-05:002012-10-16T16:29:10.994-04:00HP 9000 - finally some progressIt's been a while since I messed with the 9000. In fact, I actually stole its 1 GB drive a while back for use in my TT. Yesterday at the office, I stumbled upon a 4 GB drive in the junkpile that (assuming it was still functional) would be perfect for this box. I actually rebuilt the machine once after I brought it home, but I had so much trouble trying to figure out a way to install HP-UX on it that I gave up and did a network Debian install. That worked well and ran fine, but it was very much against the spirit of my goal to regain another OS that I used to work with. So, tonight I was determined to finally get HP-UX onto the box. That meant getting around the fact that the machine has no CD-ROM drive, you cannot install HP-UX from a floppy drive, and you cannot netboot an HP-UX install from anything but another HP-UX machine. This would be fun...<br/><br/>Software-wise, I was already in good shape thanks to an HP-UX 10.20 original CD set that I acquired from someone who replied to my call for help in comp.sys.hp.hpux (who says Usenet is dead?) with a very reasonable price of $20 shipped. They've been tucked away just waiting for another shot, and tonight was the night the would get it. Tonight was the night I managed to get the right CD-ROM drive temporarily added to the internal SCSI chain, typed "boot scsi.1", and nearly did the Dance of Joy when I started seeing boot messages from the install CD! In case you're wondering, I only DIDN'T do the dance because there is currently not that much open floor space in my computer room.<br/><br/>Once the install kicked off, I answered just a few questions and sent it on its way. As I write this post, I see the installation process I began before starting on the post is currently on package 38 of 243. It's going to be another waiting game.Slorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01571688503829566699noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5661995088215605709.post-49824121517294811432008-01-16T17:09:00.000-05:002012-10-16T16:29:11.004-04:00DEC 3000 - later that eveningAfter listening to the OpenVMS install churn away for somewhere between 2 and 3 hours, it finally stopped. As I eagerly approached the machine in hopes of seeing something like "install complete - press any key to boot from dka0:", the image of utter failure formed in front of my eyes in the shape of a single add-on package that failed to install. It happened to be the TCP/IP package, so I would have thought it could have finished everything else so that I could do TCP/IP later on myself (since it's not a required package). Sadly, that was not the case. That single failure was enough for the install to give up completely and leave me with a completely useless system. There's one strike against OpenVMS.<br/><br/>Not really wanting to sleep anway, I decided try the install one more time and hope for the best. This time, I did NOT select the TCP/IP package to be installed, and I sent it off churning again for a couple more hours. What would it choke on this time? Believe it or not, nothing! Install finished, I booted into my shiny new OpenVMS 8.3 OS. I installed the hobbyist licenses, and I eventually figured out how to install TCP/IP manually, which installed just fine on the first try. Go figure.<br/><br/>A little history: One of my current goals in the retrocomputing scene to to reacquire as many of various types of hardware and/or OS platforms as I've used regularly over the years. VMS happens to be one of them that dates back to my college years. We had a VAXCluster running VMS that was the university's primary general purpose system. People read their email, chatted, play games, did homework, etc. on all the VT nodes set up across campus. Since acquisition of a VAX mainframe really isn't practical, the DEC 3000 will have to do. :)<br/><br/>Besides getting the 3000 generally set up and networked, I have been playing with a number of random utilities, building a few from scratch, using it to browse the web and hit IRC channels on occasion, etc. Also, since the existing hard drive is only 1 GB, I also just added a second 2 GB drive to use for extraneous utility programs and user data. Things seem to be running smoothly.<br/><br/>More later, after the other machines catch up!Slorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01571688503829566699noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5661995088215605709.post-26557070159170720342008-01-16T14:16:00.000-05:002012-10-16T16:29:11.001-04:00DEC 3000 - the test of timeIt's not every day I can bring home a 14-year-old computer, pair it with an operating system that is currently being developed, licensed, and supported by <a href="http://h71000.www7.hp.com/?jumpid=reg_R1002_USEN">a major vendor</a> and expect it to work. Could I bring home a copy of Windows Vista (not that I'd want to) and put it on a 486-based PC? No. Could I Bring home a copy of Mac OSX Leopard and put it on my IIci? Not gonna happen. However, that is exactly what I'm doing with the 3000. Will a modern OS reduce the machine's retroness?<br/><br/>The OpenVMS 6.1 installation that came on the machine was configured very specific to its old environment, and plus I eventually lost the login information for it. :) When trying to determine the most appropriate OS for the box, I hit up the comp.sys.dec newsgroup and received a number of friendly replies. Some of them suggested I should try to upgrade at least the RAM and maybe the hard drive, but, without exception, everyone recommended that I get the lastest version of OpenVMS - 8.3 - and run with it. It's a rare thing these days to see some vendors who actually continue to make improvements to software performance without requiring new investment in hardware to run it. Still, I kept my options open based on what I could get ahold of for the least, hopefully no, cost.<br/><br/>Fortunately, one reader of my newsgroup post replied and offered me a copy of his OpenVMS 8.3 install media. That means I won't have to pay HP to send it to me, and it's not even illegal to make copies under their licensing model. Sweet! Also, I found out that you can actually obtain FREE licenses to use OpenVMS, along with its plethora of companion applications, in a non-commercial environment simply by signing up at your local DECUS affiliate (ENCOMPASS here in the USA) and requesting hobbyist licenses. So, just download the 8.3 install image and I'm all set, right? Well, not quite.<br/><br/>Native VMS CD images are interesting beasts in themselves. They typically use the ODS-2 or ODS-5 format, each of which is specific to the RMS filesystem used in VMS. On the flip side, most PC CD burning software will not properly burn an image that does not somewhere contain an ISO-9660 filesystem. After trying various approaches, the only exception I found to this rule to this rule is a package called GEAR PRO. Fortunately, GEAR has 30-day trials of all their products, because I ended up needing the Mastering edition in order to open a "foreign" (raw) image and burn it to CD. This pretty much means I have a few weeks left to burn any other VMS images I may need to obtain, because the $399 price tag is a little steep for me. :)<br/><br/>Once I finally found the correct piece of software to burn my CD, I popped the CD in the 3000, gave it the boot command, and off into the install program it went. Sweet! A couple minutes of whirring later, the install halted and told me that the firmware on the 3000 was way too old for it to even consider loading the operating system onto it. Crap! After some searching, though, I located the latest firmware on HP's site. I would just grab the firmware CD and do another foreign CD image. Sweet! Then I noticed that the firmware for older machines is not available in the standard update CD image, so I'd have to download the package as a single file. That would't do me much good, though, because I don't have a floppy drive in the 3000. Crap! What does this mean? It means I had to dive back into setting up my linux machine to provide BOOTP networking setup and TFTP file access for the 3000 to grab and load the new firmware.<br/><br/>To keep a long story from getting longer, suffice it to say I struggled with getting both ends of the BOOTP setup working properly. The biggest issue ended up being the fact that I didn't have the correct boot command to tell the 3000 to actually go out and look for its info. Once I found that, the firmware update ran smoothly. After it was done, I once again booted the box, the 8.3 install kicked off, and voila! This time, it moved on, collected information, and began installing the operating system. This was the last interaction I would have with the process for the next couple hours...Slorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01571688503829566699noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5661995088215605709.post-87556255412719184092008-01-16T13:15:00.000-05:002012-10-16T16:29:11.020-04:00Spectre GCR - I ain't afraid of no ghostThis is actually the piece of hardware I had started playing with when it was suggested by a peer that I might considering documenting some sort of related project for the RetroChallenge. I replied with something like "yeah, maybe" and went on with my experimentation...<br/><br/>I have heard lots of good things about this device, and it seems very cool indeed. You plug it into the expansion port on the side of any ST/TT computer, run the provided software to configure and manage your Mac emulation, and start it up (well, more or less). Compared to the Mac hardware available when the GCR was developed, this would actually give you a much faster Mac system than you could go out and buy. Its use even promoted the listing of the Atari ST in various literature of the period as a "Mac clone".<br/><br/>So, the first step was to get the thing plugged into my TT and verify that it at least starts up. I plugged the device into the expansion port, attached a floppy drive cable between the device and floppy port on the TT, and copied the latest revision of the software onto my hard drive. Following instructions in the manual, I was able to boot the device up to the point of the familiar grey screen with a picture of a disk and question mark to indicate that it is now up to me to figure out how to actually get some software installed. That is turning out to be no small task...<br/><br/>According to the documentation, the Spectre can read both native Mac (GCR) and Spectre formatted floppy disks and, of course, boot from them. Also, user reports show that the top operating system that was really supported is Mac OS 6.0.8, which is just fine with me. So, I grabbed the DiskCopy images for the Mac OS 6.0.8 install floppies, created physical floppies on one of my own Macs, and gave them a whirl. The install floppy, while it could verifiably boot my actual Mac, was unable to boot the emulated Mac. I tried another OS revision, different floppy disk density, and the addition of an external floppy drive in my effort to get the boot disk recognized as a system disk, all with no luck.<br/><br/>All may not be lost, though, because the Spectre has a very important feature - its hard drive emulation is actually not emulation. Spectre uses the same phyical SCSI disk partitions as a real Mac, and that's what I intended to eventually install onto using the install floppy I made. Since that does not seem likely, the option seems to be to actually install the OS on a hard drive in a real Mac and then transfer the drive to the TT. Assuming this is a viable approach, which it appears to be, there may still be some caveats to overcome. For one thing, Spectre only supports hard drives on SCSI controllers that are attached to the Atari's ACSI port. That means I need to get my ICD host adapter back out and try to find a drive lying around that works with it, which is hopefully easier to do on a TT that it is with earlier ST machines. Also, of course, this drive will have to work in the actual Mac.<br/><br/>As of now, I have located an Apple OEM 500 MB SCSI drive that I will try to use for this transplant operation. We'll see how it goes...Slorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01571688503829566699noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5661995088215605709.post-25981625338291703682008-01-16T11:35:00.000-05:002012-10-16T16:29:10.997-04:00Revival of the fittest...Over the past couple weeks, I've taken on the task of gathering up a number of classic machines that have been sitting around my house in non-running condition and bringing them back to life. All of them are in pretty good shape hardware-wise (some needing new hard drives) but without any installed software to run them, which always makes me appreciate my 8-bit machines that need nothing more than OS ROMs to get them booted. So, this will be a journal, I HOPE, of the journey back to functionality for 3 1/2 machines that are currently collecting dust:<br/><br/>* DEC 3000-M600 (circa 1994) - This machine sports a 175 MHz Alpha AXP 21064 processor with 64 MB RAM and a 1 GB SCSI hard drive. I picked it up this summer at the <a href="http://www.vintage.org/2007/midwest/">Vintage Computer Festival Midwest</a> for the grand sum of $30 (including 17" Digital monitor, keyboard, and mouse). It was running a Purdue University installation of OpenVMS 6.1 and, of course, did not include any re-installation media or current license for the software.<br/><br/>* Amiga 3000 (circa 1990) - This machine has been upgraded to a 25 MHz 68040 processor and 80 MB FastRAM. It also includes ethernet, CV-64 3D graphics, and Sunrize Studio16 cards. I picked it up this spring, along with a keyboard and mouse, with the transportation help of fellow classic computing folks. I don't remember what OS was installed when I received the machine, and it also came without re-installation media.<br/><br/>* Spectre GCR (circa 1989) - This is where the 1/2 comes in. The Spectre is an add-on device for Atari ST/TT computers that provides Macintosh hardware emulation using installed OS ROMs from a Mac Plus or similar 128K machine. I acquired the Spectre just last month on eBay, complete with installed ROMs, docs, and software. I will be working with it attached to my Atari TT030.<br/><br/>* HP 9000 712/60 (circa 1994) - This is a late addition to the list for this project. It needs to be rebuilt as well, so I might as well take care of them all! The 9000 boasts a 60 MHz PA7100LC RISC processor and 32 MB RAM. I brought this home from the office over a year ago after it sat in storage at the office for about 6 years. Prior to that, I had actually used it for work purposes, and I believe it had HP-UX 10 on it. You guessed it - no re-installation media could be found.<br/><br/>So, those are the machines I plan to bring back to life, and my end goal for this project is to get them all networked and particating in some common task. I haven't yet figured out what that task will be. I also hope to post pictures any anything else interesting as I go.<br/><br/>3 1/2 neglected classic machines: This is their story...Slorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01571688503829566699noreply@blogger.com0