[rescue] Mac Hints needed

[Clayton Wheeler]

On Nov 2, 2003, at 4:52 PM, William Barnett-Lewis wrote:

> Ok, I got the Beige G3 I mentioned the other day - it's a 233 mhz, at 
> least rev B (RagePro video) and has 288mb of RAM. Not shabby for $40 I 
> think.
>
> However, I can not get it to boot. I am about ready to pull out my 
> hair over this.
>
> [tried many things]
>
> I've run out of ideas and could use some hints.

You mentioned that you zapped the PRAM, but on modern Macs there are 
other things, not traditionally "PRAM" settings in the days of real 
PRAMs, kept in the NVRAM. I'm pretty sure you hold Command-Option-N-V 
at boot, until you hear a chime, to clear them. If that doesn't work, 
try Command-Option-O-F to get into OpenFirmware. Mac OpenFirmware isn't 
as nice and helpful as it is on Suns, especially on Old World hardware, 
but some basics like "printenv" will certainly work. Use "mac-boot" 
instead of just "boot" for booting; I think they come with the usual 
aliases like "cdrom", "disk", etc. You can also poke around in the 
device tree to see what hardware is being recognized; I always forget 
how to do this but there are some Apple tech notes on the subject. I'll 
see if I can dig them up.

Hope that helps,

-- 
Clayton Wheeler
csw at thirdshoe.net