Does anyone know anything about Open Firmware? How can I make it perform that cryptic "setenv boot-args romndrv=1" at startup without me having to type it in?
Or maybe there is a simpler solution: a new video card. This is not my machine, I am helping a little idealistic magazine getting OSX to work on their elderly machines - one of my favourite hobbies, making "obsolete" Macs do useful things for the poor.
They don't have much money to spend. I see a lot of cheap videocards (AGP and others) for PCs. Would any of these work with the Mac mentioned? It needs to be able to drive the 24" Sony W900 at about 1600 x 1024, but maybe that's not a big demand these days?
Bruce?
On 21. september 2004 09.15.34 MET Are Hansen wrote:
I have a 400 MHz G4 AGP. The problem is the video card: Formac
Proformance III. It runs an old 24" Sony W900 at 1600 x 1024 resolution.
But when booting in OSX, the machine freezes, while the big gray apple and the rotating "fan" is still onscreen. The same happens when booting from OSX install discs.
Searching the net, I found a solution: go in to Terminal, and key the following:
sudo nvram boot-args="romndrv=1"
But there is a Catch-22 here: I can only do this by booting in OSX! So I disconnected the Sony, put in the original AGP-card, attached a smaller screen and booted happily in OSX. Attached the Sony screen again, and did a restart. Then both screens showed up in the Monitors control panel, and I could select the Sony as the main screen. Powered down and removed the AGP-card and small screen.
All very well, except: after booting in OS9 and then going back to OSX I have to do the whole rigmarole again..... :-(
I�ve been told the same could be done directly in Open Firmware with the commands:
setenv boot-args romndrv=1 mac-boot
QUESTION: is there any way I can make the machine do this automatically at
startup? Isn�t there a file that Open Firmware reads at startup, where these commands
can be included? And would that be OK with OS 9?
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