NetBSD/mac68k Frequently Asked Questions with Answers

Colin Wood, ender@macbsd.com

1. Introduction

• 1.1 Purpose of this FAQ
• 1.2 Scope
• 1.3 Availability
• 1.4 Copyright and Disclaimers
• 1.5 Additions and Corrections
• 1.6 FAQ Contributors

2. What's New

• 2.1 Additions
• 2.2 Changes
• 2.3 Deletions

3. General Q&A

• 3.1 I want to see if NetBSD will run on my Mac. What do I need to do?
• 3.2 Can I break the distribution up into 1.4MB chunks so it will fit on a Mac floppy?
• 3.3 What is Eschatology? Why does my partitioning software list it?
• 3.4 What is an "Autorecovery" partition?
• 3.5 Do I need "Eschatology" or "Autorecovery" partitions for NetBSD/mac68k?
• 3.6 What do I do with the *.hqx files? Why won't the installer recognize them?
• 3.7 NetBSD/mac68k doesn't boot on my machine. It hangs. What do I do?
• 3.8 NetBSD doesn't boot on my IIsi with a PDS/NuBus video card; it hangs while setting the video address. What's wrong?
• 3.9 Even though I have 32-bit mode enabled on my IIsi, I'm told during boot that it can't run with the current memory mappings, and that I should turn 32-bit addressing on in the Memory control panel. What's wrong?
• 3.10 Occasionally, NetBSD refuses to boot on my AV Mac. Is there a remedy?
• 3.11 Is NetBSD/mac68k exportable?
• 3.12 Can I still run NetBSD/mac68k without a secr distribution installed?
• 3.13 What is NetBSD used for?
• 3.14 Is there support for Japanese under NetBSD?
• 3.15 If I have a 32-bit dirty machine, can I use the "32-Bit System Enabler (1.0.3)" I found on Apple's ftp site?
• 3.16 In the Booter utility, what does that radio button that specifies the kernel is in Mac OS do?
• 3.17 Why does NetBSD always seem to lose more time the longer I leave it running?
• 3.18 What system software should I be using in order to run MacBSD?
• 3.19 Do(es) my monitor(s) need to be in black-and-white (i.e. 1-bit) mode in order for NetBSD to boot?
• 3.20 How do I stop the Booter once it has started?
• 3.21 I type mesg y to turn messages on but I do a finger on myself and it says messages off... am I missing something?
• 3.22 How in the world are these kernels being numbered?
• 3.23 What is this black Apple chip in my Mac II or where can I get a PMMU?
• 3.24 What exactly is a GENERIC kernel?
• 3.25 Is there any support for virtual terminals available?
• 3.26 How do I unsubscribe from the mailing list?

4. Installation and Upgrade

• 4.1 How much RAM is required?
• 4.2 How much hard disk space is required?
• 4.3 Do I have to add the swap partition?
• 4.4 Do I have to have a Mac OS partition?
• 4.5 Do I run Mkfs (Newfs) on the swap partition?
• 4.6 Why does the Installer crash several times with a "Trap not implemented error" when I try to use it?
• 4.7 What software should I use to create MacBSD partitions?
• 4.8 Do I need separate root and usr partitions?
• 4.9 I want to use additional partitions. What kind should I use?
• 4.10 What is the best way to install current binary snapshots?
• 4.11 How do I install a new kernel?
• 4.12 When I run the Installer program it gives me the error: Error on SCSIRead(), #5. What's wrong?
• 4.13 Why won't the Installer utility recognize and mount my NetBSD partition?
• 4.14 Why does the Installer/Mkfs keep trashing my Mac OS partition?
• 4.15 Why does the Installer crash with a type 10 error whenever I try to install a distribution file?
• 4.16 Why doesn't Mkfs 1.4 recognize the partition I've decided to convert to a NetBSD partition?
• 4.17 Why does NetBSD drop into the debugger when I turn off my serial console?
• 4.18 Now that I've used newfs to format my partition, why does the Installer crash when I try to install on it?
• 4.19 Where can I find out what has changed between NetBSD releases to ease the upgrade process?
• 4.20 After upgrading to NetBSD 1.3, the boot stops after a usage message from fsck. What's wrong?
• 4.21 Why does the Installer bomb with an unimplemented trap error when I try to install to my 2GB disk?
• 4.22 Now that I've upgraded everything to NetBSD 1.3, why do I get the message: /etc/rc.conf is not configured. Multiuser boot aborted.?
• 4.23 Now that I've installed/upgraded to 1.5, why can't I boot multi-user?

5. Administration

• 5.1 How do I bring the system up in single/multi-user mode?
• 5.2 Why isn't adduser implemented? or How do I add a new user?
• 5.3 Once I've booted single-user, how do I bring the system up into multi-user?
• 5.4 My filesystem is mounted read-only. How do I mount it read/write?
• 5.5 When is it safe to use fsck?
• 5.6 How do I shutdown the machine?
• 5.7 How do I reboot the machine?
• 5.8 How do I set the TZ environment variable to my timezone?
• 5.9 How do I set the correct time (and timezone) in MacBSD?
• 5.10 What is the /kern directory used for?
• 5.11 What is the /proc directory used for?
• 5.12 How do I change the information that gets displayed via finger?
• 5.13 What files do I need to configure in order run NetBSD?
• 5.14 Is there anything I can read to find out more about administering my NetBSD system?
• 5.15 I'm having a little bit of trouble trying to mount a NetBSD directory with my Linux box over NFS (the other way it works very well).
• 5.16 Is there any reason to run in single-user mode?
• 5.17 I'd like to change the message in /etc/motd, but a while after I changed it, something reset it to its original contents.
• 5.18 How do I go about setting up networking under NetBSD?

6. Devices & Peripherals

• 6.1 Will NetBSD/mac68k work on my <insert machine name here>?
• 6.2 Will my <insert name of ADB device here> work?
• 6.3 Will my <insert video card name here> work?
• 6.4 Will my <insert name of accelerator card here> work?
• 6.5 Will my <insert name of ethernet card here> work?
• 6.6 How do I mount a floppy disk?
• 6.7 Does sound work?
• 6.8 Do I need a PMMU (M68851) to run NetBSD/mac68k?
• 6.9 Do I need an FPU (M68881, M68882, or full '040) to run NetBSD/mac68k?
• 6.10 If the problem with some Macs is the lack of an FPU, would it help if you talked to the author of Software FPU?
• 6.11 Does internal video work on <insert model here>?
• 6.12 When I telnet into my mac, I seem to only be able to open a few ports before things get strange. I get the message:
• 6.13 I am having trouble using an external monitor in addition to built-in video on my machine, is there some trick to it?
• 6.14 I'm having trouble mounting the SCSI device for a new partition I've just created. What's up with this device-numbering scheme?
• 6.15 Does anyone have an HP DeskWriter working with NetBSD?
• 6.16 Does anyone have an Apple StyleWriter-series printer working?
• 6.17 What kind of 3-button mice are supported for use with X and how do they work?
• 6.18 How do I mount my CD-ROM?
• 6.19 I want to run my NetBSD box without a monitor, but it won't boot since the kernel cannot sense the monitor. Can this be done?
• 6.20 Is there a limit to the number of hard drive partitions NetBSD-mac68k will recognize?
• 6.21 NetBSD doesn't seem to like my SCSI disk. Is there any way I can prevent this annoying filesystem damage?
• 6.22 Is there any way I can get inverse video on the console (i.e. white on black)?
• 6.23 I've heard that the external cache in my IIci is disabled by default. How do I enable it?
• 6.24 Why does my IIcx hang configuring the ADB without a keyboard and mouse attached?
• 6.25 Why does my SE/30 hang just before configuring my extended keyboard?
• 6.26 Now that I've upgraded to NetBSD 1.3, why does X no longer work on my Quadra?
• 6.27 I noticed that the Booter contains support for external clocking on

7. Porting and Programming

• 7.1 Is any of the NetBSD or NetBSD/mac68k source restricted by AT&T, USL, or Apple copyrights or restrictions?
• 7.2 Is the source for the Mac-side Utilities available (Booter, Installer, Mkfs)?
• 7.3 Does NetBSD/mac68k support shared libraries?
• 7.4 What are shared libraries for?
• 7.5 Where do I get kernel sources from?
• 7.6 Is there any way to set up a cross-compiler for NetBSD/mac68k?
• 7.7 Is there any kind of manual for the kernel debugger?
• 7.8 Are there any good books to help me understand UN*X internals?
• 7.9 Are there any Mac OS utilities for investigating hardware so I can begin implementing support for it?
• 7.10 Why is sys_errlist[] redefined when I try to compile anything?
• 7.11 Whenever I compile a program using iostreams with g++, I get this error:
• 7.12 Is there anywhere I can get source or binaries that have already been ported to NetBSD/mac68k?

8. Communication and Networking

• 8.1 How do I set up networking under NetBSD?
• 8.2 I'm trying to use cu to establish a SLIP connection, but everytime I try, I get an error message and am disconnected from the serial port. How can I fix this?
• 8.3 How do I set up a connection using PPP?
• 8.4 Does NetBSD include demand-dial PPP?
• 8.5 Does anyone have any idea how to use PAP with chat or pppd?
• 8.6 Does anyone have a PPP setup that works with an ISP that doesn't allocate static IP addresses?
• 8.7 Is there any documentation on PPP other than the manual pages?
• 8.8 Why won't my network interface work now that I've upgraded to NetBSD 1.3?
• 8.9 I know that Netatalk is now supported in the kernel, but where can I find the userland utilities?
• 8.10 Since the kernel understands AppleTalk now, does this mean I can use LocalTalk on my serial ports?

9. X Window System Version 11 Release 6

• 9.1 Now I've got NetBSD working, so where do I get X?
• 9.2 When I type startx I get the message: startx: Command not found. What's wrong?
• 9.3 I can't get X to run. Does this have anything to do with having a read-only filesystem?
• 9.4 After I type startx something weird happened: I got six really tiny screens on the top of my monitor. Can anyone help me with this one?
• 9.5 When I type startx I get the message: xinit: libXmu.so.6.0 not found. What's wrong?
• 9.6 When I type startx I get the message: xinit: libXext.so.6.1 not found. What's wrong?
• 9.7 When starting X, I get "ld.so: warning: libm.so.0.0: minor version >= 1 expected, using it anyway". Should I worry about this?
• 9.8 When starting X, I get "ld.so: Undefined symbol "__sys_errlist" in X:X", and then X just dies. What am I doing wrong?
• 9.9 When using X and fvwm, I've noticed that the mouse tends to wrap around the left side of the screen. What's up?
• 9.10 After using X for several hours, I've noticed that certain keys, such as the arrow keys or the 'a' key stop working. Is there a fix?
• 9.11 I have two monitors, but how can I get xterms and stuff to come up on the second monitor?
• 9.12 What's wrong with the up and down arrow keys under X?
• 9.13 I've noticed that the speaker no longer seems to beep when I'm running X. What's wrong?
• 9.14 A Black & White X Window System is cool, but what about color?
• 9.15 When starting X, I get Fatal server error: Can't run X server with no screens!, and then X just dies. What am I doing wrong?
• 9.16 I like X, but my German keyboard makes things a bit difficult. Is there a fix?
• 9.17 When I start X, I get the error: /dev/grf2: not found. What's wrong?
• 9.18 How do I keep console messages from messing up my X screen?
• 9.19 After upgrading everything but my X server, I get strange error messages about fonts. How can I fix this?
• 9.20 When I try to start X, my machine appears to hang. What am I doing wrong?
• 9.21 When I start X, everything runs in lovely shades of pink and yellow. What's wrong?
• 9.22 The keyboard emulation for mouse buttons 1, 2, and 3 doesn't work.
• 9.23 My backspace key produces ~ instead of backspace.

10. Errors

• 10.1 When rebooting it says, "WARNING: cannot set battery backed clock...". Should I be concerned?
• 10.2 When rebooting it says, "NetBSD/mac68k does not trust itself to update the RTC on shutdown." Should I be concerned?
• 10.3 When I boot, I get the following error message:
• 10.4 When I boot, I get the following unusual lines:
• 10.5 My keyboard locks up after I type a few commands. What's wrong?
• 10.6 I just switched the SCSI ID's of my drives, and now my machine freezes after:
• 10.7 The NetBSD 1.1 distribution kernel will not boot on my IIci. What's wrong?
• 10.8 When I try netstat -r I get: netstat: kvm_read kvm_read: Bad address. What's wrong?
• 10.9 When I try netstat -r I get an endless stream of question marks. What's wrong?
• 10.10 I just upgraded to a new kernel and now w, ps, and netstat, among others, don't work. What happened?
• 10.11 After changing kernels, I get a "proc size mismatch" error when I try to use ps. What's wrong?
• 10.12 Whenever I make extensive use of the serial ports, I get a lot of fifo overruns. Is there a fix?
• 10.13 When I boot, I get the following error message:
• 10.14 When going multi-user, I get the following error message:
• 10.15 Now that I've got ethernet working, my machine hangs a lot with the message:
• 10.16 Now that I've installed an ethernet card, I get the following message:
• 10.17 Whenever I telnet into my Mac running NetBSD from a machine running Mac OS, SunOS, or Solaris, I have severe terminal emulation problems. What's wrong?
• 10.18 Why does Booter 1.9.2 always crash with an Unimplemented Trap system error?
• 10.19 Why do I get the message savecore: can't find device 0/0 when I go multi-user?
• 10.20 Now that I've added an ethernet card right next to my video card, why does MacBSD refuse to boot?
• 10.21 Why do I get the line: ae0: NIC memory corrupt - invalid packet length 65280 when I boot?
• 10.22 When attempting to mount my filesystems, why do I get an error like /dev/sd0a on /: specified device does not match mounted device?
• 10.23 I added a non-standard ADB device and now my machine gives the following error:
• 10.24 Whenever I install something using the Installer, I get an error saying: Warning: Battery clock earlier than filesystem date. What's wrong?
• 10.25 When I boot, I get the error: "kernel is not in a format the booter can understand". What's wrong?
• 10.26 Why am I getting the message: "sn0: receive descriptors exhausted"?
• 10.27 My boot hangs shortly after printing "warning: no /dev/console" What's wrong?
• 10.28 I just upgraded my kernel, and now when I boot, I get the following message:
• 10.29 My machine hangs when I try to shut it down or reboot it. How can I get around this?