freebsd (OT -- 68k Mac)

[Joel Rees]

> i run a pc with windows xp as my internet connection. recently, i 
> acquired an old mac LC III with one floppy drive. if i download freebsd 
> and copy it to floppies on my windows pc, can i still use them to 
> install freebsd to my mac?

openbsd.org's hardware list says openBSD runs on an LC III, if you have
floating point on it. lowendmac.com says the FPU was optional. (I
understand netBSD pretty much has the same restriction, although they
are apparently working on emulation like debian is.) I think you can
still find the FPU at eBay.

You're going to want at least a 2G HD, and I understand you may end up
removing the internal HD to avoid SCSI errors. (Check the misc at openbsd
archives for more, I asked a question about it a few months back.) You
also want to check that you have enough RAM. 4M isn't really enough,
from what I hear, even for the install. And you need to check the
support on your ethernet card.

Transferring to the Mac by floppy really isn't what you want to do,
although it might be feasible. Do you know how to split a tarball and
put it back together again under the Mac OS? If you can get ethernet
running, and can find an old 68k version of fetch or Anarchy, you might
be able to ftp the stuff from your windows box.

I've been trying to get either netBSD or openBSD running on an old
Performa 550. Just loading the binary from the tarballs takes overnight.
I hear compiling the system takes several days when things go well.

You really might prefer to just load system 7.5.5 on it and enjoy the
best of the old Mac world.

-- 
Joel Rees <joel at alpsgiken.gr.jp>