Has anyone heard of anyone getting Darwin running on an ANS?
I saw some old posts awile back (don't know where) detailing some kids trying to get OS X Server on one, too ambitions for my blood, but I figured if an ANS CAN run NetBSD, then they probably can run FreeBSD, and if so, it ought to run Darwin too. I just need the instructions, and version stuff.
Darwin on ANS
April 6, 2004 - 3:01pm
#1
Darwin on ANS
There are no hardware drivers for the ANS in Darwin.
Dr. Bob
Just as a side note, well...
A: NetBSD and FreeBSD are *not* the same OS. They actually differ in several significant respects, in terms of code history, platform support, and driver implimentation.
B: Darwin differs substantially from both, in that it uses a completely different kernel structure and driver model. Darwin uses a large amount of FreeBSD and NetBSD derived code in its userland and network stack, but it is *not* technically a "version" of Free or NetBSD.
Thus it's an invalid chain of logic which leads one to conclude that an ANS "should" run Darwin because it runs NetBSD.
Of course, if there was some particular command-line Darwin binary you were simply dying to run on an ANS you could try leveraging this:
http://hcpnet.free.fr/applebsd.html
--Peace
Because no one responded for a while, I was going to send you a message asking for help, but being as we don't know each other, I thought better of it.
I was getting some people telling me that the ANS was more of an RS/6000 than a Mac, so, my poor uniformed logic was taunting me with "well, they ported Darwin to x86, and while that's not money, yet, some are cross compiling on x86 linux for RS6000's, so, although they are totally different, something must be similar enough to allow this, and if an ANS is like an RS6000, maybe...?"
I really love fantasy.
Thanks, if you wan't, keep the suggestions comming...
By that logic, anything written on any computer should run on any other computer. Example:
"Macintoshes must run Windows XP! Why? Well... Apple machines run OS X, and part of that, Darwin, has been ported to x86 computers. And since x86 computers run Windows, then Macs and PCs must be similar enough for Windows to work on Macs! Tell me how to install it!"
Or how about some *really* torturous trains of thought:
"How do I install RSX-11M on my TI-92 graphing calculator? See, my TI-92 has a Motorola 68000 CPU in it. I heard there's a version of Linux that runs on that CPU, and since Linux is like UNIX, I figured that must mean UNIX can run on my calculator. And since UNIX was created on the DEC PDP-11 minicomputer, then everything that runs on the PDP-11 should run on anything that runs UNIX. Thus I should be able to run RSX-11. And besides, I read somewhere that the 68000 CPU is a lot like a 32 bit version of the PDP-11!
So I have an RK05 disk cartridge here. Where do I plug it in?"
"Porting" something to a platform doesn't mean that you just figure out the magic words to say in order to make a computer boot binaries for something else. Porting means reading hardware documentation, writing drivers, fixing compilation bugs, and otherwise killing a lot of time getting something to work. I'm sure the work to get Darwin running on an ANS would actually be *fairly* trivial as ports go, since it would mostly consist of writing device drivers, but there *is* still the work to be done. Considering the "installed base" of functional ANSes is probably in the hundreds, at most, and that there are already several alternative OSes which *do* work on the platform, I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for someone to do it.
(Particularly since Apple's method of controlling what changes to Darwin can actually be commited back to the main development branch rather discourages new-platform development. For obvious reasons.)
--Peace
The ANS can run Linux, which can run Mac-On-Linux, which can run Mac OS X.
Good luck.
I am having trouble learning how to learn what I want to know. Too much info to begin with, I've gotten really lazy, and I ask about stuff before bothering with research, hopefully to help the research. Most people who know what I want to know didn't learn it in school, and I know books are (sometimes) involved, but really the knowledge they have comes from the hands-on experience of people who never planned to be doing what they do and knowing what they know. My ignorance is an accident.
The ANS can only run linux ppc which is not supported any more and hasn't been in many years. I tried over 2 years ago to get that running on and ANS 700 and the best I could do was get it to boot from the floppy. Since then nobody has shown serious interest in supporting this dinosaur.
Dr. Bob
Hardware wise, I'd say it's probably closest to a 9500. However, there are a bunch of chips for SCSI and video on the board that are not on the 9500. It's been a while since I looked at the board from an ANS, but that's what I remember. So, since the main chipset and architecture is a 9500 mac, I'd start working there. I made several attempts at putting a 9500 ROM dimm in my ANS to get it to run Mac OS, but to no avail.
Dr. Bob
Starting by installing onto a drive in a 9500 (er, 9600), then just putting the drive in the ANS? What are the chances it might boot?
About the same as if you were putting a HD with an install of OS 9 into a dell and getting it to boot from that drive.
From what I remember reading its a matter of ROMs
Absolutely zero chance
Dr. Bob