(Answer) (Category) Linux on PowerPC FAQ-O-Matic : (Category) Hardware Compatibility : (Category) G3/G4 Upgraded PowerMacs :
I got my Newertech card working
I tried all the INIT/scri tricks and so forth, including making a stripped down version of systems 7.6.1 and 8.0 and it would never boot properly. If the MAXPowr Init (to start the updgrade) was a scri, it would load too early in the process, and crash, because it was system stuff that it needed. When the booter was an INIT the booter would crash. Booting in 60MHz 601 mode worked, but was too feeble to bear for long.
But once I upgraded to MacOS 8.5, the linux booter started to work as an INIT. So now I can boot Linux, and with the accelerator it's pretty peppy.
Unfortunately, I'm not out of the woods yet, as I get an odd error "dma! 4" on 60-80% of boots... Once it does boot successfully it seems to run pretty well. I haven't been able to trace this error down, but perhaps someone else can. I can't even find any doc that seems relevant.
I'm also pretty sure that the original boot problem was in the mkLinux booter, and not the kernel, so a look at the source might help -- I couldn't find it, but I'm a Linux novice, and so might not have known where to look.
I have MKLINUX-DR3 running successfully on a PowerMAC-6100/60AV running OS8.5 [now 8.6] with a NewerTech G3 PDS card. I used Conflict Catcher 4 [now 8] to resolve the booting issues. I created a minimal load set by removing everything that could be removed from the boot sequence and then adding the NewerTech extension and the MkLinux booter. The load order for this minimal configuration was set using Conflict Catcher so the NewerTech extension loads first followed by the MkLinux booter.
Everything appears to work well. The system boots 100% of the time. I have not experienced any of the previously reported DMA problems.
-Joseph
UPDATE:
NewerTech has released a new version of their extension, version 2.0.4, which works "straight out of the box" without any modifications.
The extension can be downloaded for free from their WEB site.

-Joseph

[Append to This Answer]
dgd@cs.bu.edu, jsacco@earthlink.net
Next: (Answer) Sonnet has updated their mkLinux compatability listing
This document is: http://www.jonh.net/cgi-bin/lppcfom/fom?file=539
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