Panther upgrade

[Doug McNutt]

So you can understand my reply (below) to my girlfriend - er -  wife Kit who was an MCI and Pansophic guru in the past..

I run OS neXt version 10.2.8 on a G4 sawtooth. I appreciate it. It allows me to regress to my roots as a FORTRAN programmer with assembly language roots into a Control Data drum scope computer I used well before the mouse was invented. The machine is named Earth and it's disks are Luna, Mir, and Hubble. It is truly nice to be able to gcc a source file and have it work.

I have asked Kit to install panther on the G4. I once used the G4 as a primary computer using Microbesoft Excel and Apple's MPW to control my finances and a productive consulting business.. When OS neXt was introduced I placed all of my  important business on an older Mac 8500 which was updated to OS 9.1. My G4 was relegated to experimentation with UNIX and the free software foundation. Actually, BBEdit worksheets and Telnet to an Intel box running Linux has been productive.

I have backed up the entire contents of the disk "Luna" to CD-ROM's using an Mac 5500 which I trust;., The next step (without a pun) is to install Panther on Luna. I have asked that the disk be reinitialized with a case-sensitive format if possible. I pray that, after that, it will be possible to boot into Jaguar from the existing image on Mir.  But it's not so clear. It's possible that the installation of Panther will muck with EEPROM in a manner that will make it impossible to reboot into Jaguar.

I'm not sure if I need to physically disconnect the ATA cable to the Mir disk to prevent unanticipated changes. I'm thinking about that and would appreciate any advice.

Kit points out that installation of Panther may cause a reboot into Jaguar to fail. I have spent a lot of time persuading Jaguar to use my SE/30 running Mac OS 7.5.3 as a file server. Connecting to the server has required that I learn about system calls mount_afp and the like and I fully expect that my startup shell scripts will require modification.

I doubt that I can execute ControlPanels:StartupDisk to choose a new boot partition but I'm pretty sure I can physically disconnect Luna and reboot.  Where are the instructions? How does one choose a startup disk in Panther? Do I have to install it to find out?

Read on to understand where we are.

At 17:22 -0700 1/3/04, Kit Harras wrote:
>Looks like the only concern with a dual boot. (is the prospect that journaling will cause Jauguar to fail.)
>
>http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20031025023359826
> 10.3: Possible kernel panics on dual-boot machines

My reply to Kit. She's also my wife, but she's also an experienced software manager: She has installed Panther on a Pismo powerbook but that's just a start.

Luna should be reformatted. Everything has been backed up. I really don't know if it makes sense to crate a partition for virtual RAM imaging. Apple doesn't provide any guidance.

I'll bet there are more problems. What I really worry about is my 3 PCI-driven black and white monitors powered by older ATI cards.

If asked, do not enable journalling on Mir or Hubble.

If asked only for all or none, do not enable journalling at all.

If not asked. Go and look for a way to disable journalling on Mir and Hubble.
Otherwise figure out a way to disable journalling everywhere.

If that's a problem pull the power plug, and ask. I will physically disconnect Hubble and Mir.

Otherwise just do something. There is NOTHING of serious importance in OS neXt. I have made it a point to keep it that way.

And. . . I intend to keep it that way. OSA 9.1 has everything important to our well being. The 8500 will remain live and well and we have two of them. We can toss the G4 into the river if necessary, and I would enjoy inviting the press to observe the procedure.

Steve is NOT to be trusted. The G4 is truly for play only. If it doesn't work for a year it's OK. The IRS won't even know about it..

What I really hope is that the PRAM or BOOT ROM are not being mucked with by Panther. There is no way to tell. The final test is to physically disconnect Luna and boot from Hubble.. If that fails we are going 100% to Linux with no - NONE - not at all - no way - looking back.

Perhaps we can get YellowDog to run on the G4, If not, I swear we will drown it in Fountain Creek with the Gazette reporters invited.

Remember that ALL important financial information is safely stored in MacOS 9.1 format on the 8500.

Doug


-- 
-->  There are 10 kinds of people:  those who understand binary, and those who don't <--