Re: Booting a 660AV?

On Fri, 27 Mar 2026 13:20:20 -0400 (EDT), Mouse wrote:
> In particular, the mac68k pages make it look as though the only known
> way to boot them is to boot into MacOS and then run a Booter program.

*chuckle*

It's always been thus, ever since the ALICE group booted their first=20
Mac in the early nineties...

> But this machine's keyboard is ADB and video is a DA-15.=20

Why 'but'? It's a Mac.

> I doubt I
> have any of the latter and I'm not sure about the former.

You can boot to serial console, if you can borrow an ADB keyboard and=20
mouse (or get an ADB converter=20
<https://www.bigmessowires.com/usb-wombat/>), and a Mac video to VGA=20
adapter (or solder one yourself).

> Is this a lost cause for me?  Or is enough publicly known about the
> 660AV ROM boot procedures that all I need (heh) is to find enough
> documentation and I can boot it from the bare metal?

There was a native booter for some early Macs (Mac II class) in the 1.5=20
days; I still have the sources around, but they seem to not be online=20
any more. Also, I think the mac68k port of Linux does boot from=20
hardware at least on some of the supported models. But then you have to=20
set up enough of the Mac's hardware to drive keyboard, video and=20
storage. And that hardware is very diverse, it was never meant to be a=20
standard interface.

The AV Macs are probably the worst models to attempt that, for their=20
special hardware. ISTR martin@ has a 660AV, maybe he can help.

Cheerio,
Hauke

--=20
Hauke Fath                        <[email protected]>
Linn=E9weg 7
64342 Seeheim-Jugenheim
Germany