NetBSD/mac68k

NetBSD/mac68k was originally known as MacBSD (and is still sometimes referred to that way). It will not run on PowerMacintosh systems.

After several informal releases, MacBSD was integrated into NetBSD and has been part of several official NetBSD releases:

The current system has evolved significantly since 1.0 and will continue to evolve as more people run and contribute to the system! Make your contribution now!

If you're looking for help, please check the BSD FAQ for general BSD or NetBSD information, and also the information on www.macbsd.com.

Some History of NetBSD/mac68k

The mac68k port originally started as a port of the Berkeley Networking Release 2 (more commonly known as Net/2) with 386BSD-0.1 filling in the cracks. This was running in a basic form in the late spring of 1992. About that time, it became obvious that 386BSD was a dead end and NetBSD looked like the way to go and the initial NetBSD merge was into the 0.8 released sources. The first formal release of NetBSD/mac68k is part of NetBSD 1.0.

There is a slightly more personal and slightly longer history that might interest you as well.

Allen Briggs was the port maintainer of NetBSD/mac68k through the 1.2 release. His machine is a 20MB IIcx named puma that has run NetBSD for several years. It provides all the normal network services that one would expect on a networked Un*x machine--ftpd, httpd, named, bootparamd, bootp, NFS, telnetd, etc. Puma is also www.macbsd.com and ftp.macbsd.com and also hosts some more information for NetBSD/mac68k users.

The position of NetBSD/mac68k port maintainer was handed over to Scott Reynolds effective as of the 1.2 release.

Supported Hardware

NetBSD is as useful and as good as its users make it.
If you are interested in helping with something, take a look at the list of things to do and choose something!

NetBSD works with a growing number of the older Macs. Join the port-mac68k mailing list for current information. Also check out the machine status document and the user survey.

There are still some incompatibilities with some 24-bit color cards, and with ethernet coexisting with some video cards. The www.macbsd.com contain lists of working hardware.

What about the PowerMacs?

Although they share a few bits of hardware, the PowerMacs are a completely different architecture than their 68k cousins, and you can not run NetBSD on them. The 68k-emulator does emulate the 68k processor very well for MacOS applications, but it is not sufficient to run NetBSD for several reasons.

There may be a native port of NetBSD for the PowerMacs one of these days; we hope so. (There is a PowerPC port in NetBSD-current, which should run on any PowerPC machine with Open Firmware.) In the meantime, PowerMac owners might be interested in MachTen (commercial -- not free) and the MkLinux project (free).

OK, so how about the '040-based Mac's?

Work is continuing on these systems as time permits. Some of the 500 series PowerBooks are now working, and all the Quadras lack is robust SCSI support before they become usable systems. If you have the time, opportunity and ability please jump in and help!

There are a few utilities for NetBSD/mac68k on ftp.macbsd.com (formerly puma.bevd.blacksburg.va.us). There is some more information there, too.

Go to an FTP site that carries NetBSD/mac68k.

There are several mailing lists associated with the mac68k port.

Home Page

www@NetBSD.ORG

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