28 Jan
2007
28 Jan
'07
11:44 a.m.
> > 1. My AppleCD 600e (which works fine on the
PB 150) does
> > not show up on either of the PB 540c, so I have no way
> > to read CDs on the 540c machines.
This sounds
like an Extension problem. Do you have all the CD extensions
installed on the 540c? I don't remember them off the top of my head, but
they're things like Apple CD, Hi-Sierra, etc.
I don't recall there being any extensions that were CD related. Would
they have come with the default OS install? And how does an extension affect the ability to boot
from the CD? I
would have thought that the boot ROM code would have to know about
the CD without the aid of an extension...
It will boot from any generic SCSI device assuming it is an HFS file
system, including a CD, and exports a blocksize it can understand (you
use the "snag keys" to tell the Boot ROM to boot over external SCSI). However,
it will not be able to do "CD things" (like eject) in MacOS, or at least not
without a lot of work, and it will not understand other filesystems (i/o/w,
it will treat it like a slow read-only hard disk).
You *may* be able to get around this by having the CD plugged in, turned
on and the disc in, and then booting the Mac. If the CD in the drive does
not automatically appear as a mounted device, a tool like SCSIProbe or
Mt Everything will find it and may allow you to mount it without a driver.
However, the filesystem must still be HFS -- it will not read ISO 9660
without an extension. Also, you will have to mount and dismount it manually.
I assume you
are using the same cable (HDI-30 to "Centronics" SCSI).
Yes, I'm using the funny Apple SCSI cable. It is the same cable/setup
that works fine with the PB 150. Perhaps the 600e is just too new for
the 540c, but the PB 150 came out in 1994 and the PB 540c was certainly
in about that same time frame. The AppleCD 600e came out in 1995, so
maybe that is the problem. I guess I should pick up an AppleCD 300
to see if that works better. > > 2. FreeStyle uses FreeMidi to talk to a MIDI
interface over
[...]
> I haven't had much experience with FreeMIDI;
I've always used Open Music
> System.
[...]
How did you
get Mac OS 8 installed on the 540c without a CD??
One 540c came with 7.5 installed and the other with 8.0. I have not
upgraded either OS, primarily because of the lack of 600e support. > > 3. I thought that updating the version of
FreeMidi from 1.3
> > to the latest 1.48 would be a good idea. The image size
> > is 4Mb, which does not fit onto a floppy.
> I suspect this problem will be solved when you
get the CD working :)
How does the working CD solve my problem? I realize
that I will be
able to write a large file on my PCs CD-RW, but will the MacOS be
able to read the file structure? And if it does, will it handle
the file type problem correctly? The new FreeMidi version is a .hqx
file. Will the OS know what to do with that or will I have to get
some Stuffit type thing to take it apart?
As long as you put the .hqx on the CD, and the CD is ISO 9660, it will
work fine on the Mac. (Don't use Joliet long-filename extensions.) This
assumes you have, again, all the right extensions installed.
Once you copy the .hqx to the Mac, then StuffIt Expander will turn it
back into a proper binary with both resource forks intact, so yes, you
will need that on the other side. StuffIt Expander 5.5 should work on any
68K Mac running System 7 or later and will unStuff all but the latest
.sitx files. (For this reason, I don't use .sitx.)
This is exceedingly frustrating, especially as Macs
are touted as
being straight forward. I have to admit that in my experience over
the years, they have never lived up to that name, but then I guess
I try to do things which are less than mainstream.
I liken what you're doing to jumping onto another freeway from an overpass
... it takes a little while to get your legs back under you. :)
Plus, in an entirely Mac ecosystem like I have here (almost every system here
is a Mac from System 6 to Tiger 10.4.8, except the Commodores, of course, and
a couple DOS PCs), these tasks are easy. All of them support HFS, so
file interchange is a snap, and hardware of the same generation are often
interchangeable. It's jumping back and forth from a PC ecosystem to
a "couple token Macs" that causes problems because the interchange path is
much less smooth for both hardware and software, and people usually blame
the Mac because it's the different one (IMHO unjustifiably).
It's much easier to have a Mac ecosystem and a couple token PCs, because
Macs will read FAT, FAT32 and NTFS (and can write FAT and FAT32), and Macs
can speak most Windows protocols (natively in OS X, and with software in OS
9).
Granted, I'm at an advantage because I have a full LocalTalk network in
parallel to my Ethernet network, and a system entirely dedicated to serving
Classic clients. Your 150 would be happy as a clam in this world and would,
indeed, "just work." On the other hand, I do concede that it needed some
investment in time and hardware to set up, and it's worth it to me because
I have so many Classic Macs, but it might be worth it for others.
Doesn't make it any less frustrating for you, of course ...
Thanks for your help!
No sweat!
--
--------------------------------- personal: http://www.armory.com/~spectre/ ---
Cameron Kaiser * Floodgap Systems * www.floodgap.com * ckaiser at floodgap.com
-- Po-Ching Lives! ------------------------------------------------------------