OpenBSD/mac68k

OpenBSD/mac68k runs on many of the Motorola 680x0-based Apple Macintosh computers. It requires a Motorola 68020, 68030, or a 68040 processor. If you have a 68020, it will also need a Motorola 68851 PMMU (note that this is different from the 68881, which is an FPU).

A mailing list dedicated to the OpenBSD/mac68k port is available at mac68k@openbsd.org. To join the OpenBSD/mac68k mailing list, send a message body of "subscribe mac68k" to majordomo@openbsd.org. Please be sure to check our mailing list policy before subscribing.

There is currently no maintainer for the mac68k port, although Martin Reindl (martin@openbsd.org) hacks on it from time to time. Others are definitely welcome to contribute!

Table of contents

• History of the port
• Current status
• Project list
• Supported hardware
• Getting and installing OpenBSD/mac68k

History:

The mac68k port of OpenBSD was derived from NetBSD/mac68k, and it used to support most of the same hardware as NetBSD. Development is ongoing, and updates from NetBSD are made from time to time, depending on people's free time.

Current status:

Currently, all hardware listed in the supported hardware section below should boot multi-user, and support enough of the on-board devices to be generally usable.

A native, unaccelerated X11 server is available for built-in and NuBus graphics.

Projects (in no particular order):

• Improve install procedures.
• Better ADB support and switch to the wscons(4) framework.
• Support more devices.
• Switch to X.Org.

Supported hardware:

Supported models

OpenBSD/mac68k now runs on a large part of the 680x0-based Macintosh computers. The kernel itself has support for the following processor combinations:

• 68020 with 68851 PMMU and 68881 FPU
• 68030 with 68882 FPU
• 68040 (not including the 68LC040)

The following Macintosh models are supported and tested. This means that at least the SCSI controller, serial console and on-board ethernet will function on these models. On some of these machines, a full 68040 CPU is required to replace the default 68LC040 CPU.

• Centris family: 610, 650
• Quadra family: 610, 630, 650, 660AV, 700, 800, 840AV, 900, 950

Supported devices

• Internal SCSI controllers and peripherals:
  • Quadra/Centris series' onboard NCR 53c96 SCSI controller (esp).
  • Macintosh II-series', Performa, and LC-series' onboard NCR 5380 SCSI controller (ncrscsi, sbc).
  • SCSI disk drives (sd).
  • SCSI cdrom drives (cd).
  • Autochangers (ch).
  • Tape drives (st).
• Internal sound (asc).
• NuBus internal expansion bus (nubus) (except on the 840AV).
• Most NuBus video cards.
• Both internal serial ports (zsc).
• ADB keyboards and mice (adb) (except on the IIfx, Quadra 900 and 950).
• Ethernet cards based on the Natl. Semiconductor 8390 (Asante, Apple, and a few others) (ae).
• Quadra/Centris AV series' onboard MACE ethernet (mc).
• Some ethernet cards based on the SONIC chip including internal Ethernet on many of Apple's non-AV Quadras/Centrises and PowerBook 500 series (sn).

Untested systems

• Classic family: Color Classic, Classic II
• Macintosh II family: Mac II, IIx, IIcx, IIci, IIsi, IIfx, IIvi, IIvx, Performa 600
• LC family: LC, LC II, LC III, LC III+, LC 475, Performa 400-430, Performa 450, Performa 460
• 500 family: 520, 550, 575, 580, Mac TV
• Quadra family: 605

Unsupported systems

• PowerPC-based Macs. Some of these are supported in the OpenBSD/macppc port.
• Powerbook family. Hardware capabilities limit the usability of these systems.
• Machines based on the 68LC040 processor. Unfortunately, the chip itself contains a major bug for which there is no software workaround available in OpenBSD.

Unsupported devices

• LCPDS ethernet cards.
• Apple Communication Slot (CS) ethernet cards.
• Any other NuBus card not listed above.
• Floppy drive.
• IOP ADB subsystem on the IIfx, Quadra 900 and 950.
• IDE drives.

Getting and installing OpenBSD/mac68k:

The latest supported OpenBSD/mac68k release is OpenBSD 3.6. Here are the OpenBSD/mac68k 3.6 installation instructions .

Snapshots are made available from time to time, in this location as well as in a few mirrors. Here are the OpenBSD/mac68k snapshot installation instructions as well.