What is the latest pentium chip supported for NeXTSTEP 3.3 or OpenStep, thanks

[brunocampos]

Do you think 1920x1200 might work? I'm considering building a PC for Openstep 4.2 and would love to use the native resolution of my older LCD monitors.

If I may ask, what motivates you to build a dedicated OpenSTEP machine?

[turboslab]

If I may ask, what motivates you to build a dedicated OpenSTEP machine?

Just the joy of retro computing, using hardware I couldn't afford to buy new back in the day. In this case, I would like to use my 1920x1200 LCD monitor (DVI or DisplayPort) if possible. I was able to use the AtomicObject VMWareFB_OpenStep 1.1.1 driver to achieve 1920x1200 in VMWare Workstation. I'm hoping I can do the same with physical hardware, and with a digital interface if possible.

[Nitro]

Just the joy of retro computing, using hardware I couldn't afford to buy new back in the day. In this case, I would like to use my 1920x1200 LCD monitor (DVI or DisplayPort) if possible. I was able to use the AtomicObject VMWareFB_OpenStep 1.1.1 driver to achieve 1920x1200 in VMWare Workstation. I'm hoping I can do the same with physical hardware, and with a digital interface if possible.

I'm running OPENSTEP 4.2 with a PCI Express Nvidia GeForce GT 710 video card at 1920x1080 32bpp (VESA VBE Driver) through the HDMI port, so it can be done with real hardware. Let me know if you need any help, and I can post all of the specs and pictures if you need them.

[verdraith]

I'd be interested in knowing what hardware is involved... mobo, CPU, chipset et al.

I'm contemplating building a NeXTSTEP/Intel workstation around one of these at some point in the next year or two:

https://www.checkmate1500plus.com/Products.aspx?id=368

-- Edit --

This might not actually be worthwhile, unless there happens to be 440BX Mini ITX motherboards available somewhere.

I was looking at some Via socket 370 Mini ITX boards, then I noticed they come with Via CPUs.  That and the fact most lack an FDD connector on the motherboard are show-stoppers (Via CPUs had some notorious compatibility issues back in the day.)

So, looks like it's back to planning a build around a Socket 370 440BX ATX motherboard, which is a shame, as things like these exist:

https://www.fractal-design.com/products/cases/node/node-202/black/
https://www.fractal-design.com/products/cases/ridge/

[Nitro]

I'd be interested in knowing what hardware is involved... mobo, CPU, chipset et al.

I'm contemplating building a NeXTSTEP/Intel workstation around one of these at some point in the next year or two:

https://www.checkmate1500plus.com/Products.aspx?id=368

-- Edit --

This might not actually be worthwhile, unless there happens to be 440BX Mini ITX motherboards available somewhere.

I was looking at some Via socket 370 Mini ITX boards, then I noticed they come with Via CPUs.  That and the fact most lack an FDD connector on the motherboard are show-stoppers (Via CPUs had some notorious compatibility issues back in the day.)

So, looks like it's back to planning a build around a Socket 370 440BX ATX motherboard, which is a shame, as things like these exist:

https://www.fractal-design.com/products/cases/node/node-202/black/
https://www.fractal-design.com/products/cases/ridge/

I posted specs of my recent build here:

http://www.nextcomputers.org/forums/index.php?topic=4876.0

I like that Checkmate case, really cool. That would make a great NeXTSTEP box. The Fractal cases are nice too. I have an old Pentium 4 Mini ITX box that I've wanted to put NS/OS on, just need to find some free time.

[pTeK]

I did not install Openstep on that computer but moved my disk image from VirtualBox over to the SSD. It uses my own version of boot2 aka booter developed from the Darwin sources. This booter stops after enumerating 512 MB of RAM even if the computer has more memory (2 GB). The booter from Patch 4 might do this differently so having more than 512 MB of RAM installed might be a problem.

Can you please explain more about your patch? Was the only modification you did was to check the max RAM in boot.c I remember seeing that RAM limitation in some file but I can't remember.

It either crashes for me straight after the RAM Memory test OR after it brings up the OpenStep boot menu with 10 seconds and you have to enter a command line i.e -v, conf=default....

**Edit found the RAM limit it's boot/i386/boot2/sizememory.c

[Ingo]

I took the source code of the booter (a.k.a. boot2) from Darwin 0.1 and put together a software project in Project Builder under Openstep 4.2. After spending a lot of time cleaning and rearranging the messy code, writing new code for file access from scratch (it is crippled beyond salvage in the source code), I had my own booter.
The approach to enumerate memory in the booter is somewhat bizarre. By now, I have replaced the code with a call to the BIOS to find out, how much memory is installed. What I can say is: the Kernel will crash with 1 GB or more and it will work fine with 768 MB, so I put a limit of 768 MB into the code.

[Ingo]

I spent a lot of time on the source code for the file system and also on the booter code, I'm not willing to put this code in the wild at this time.

Maybe you should try to put some more memory into your laptop, like 1 GB. The BIOS might store some ACPI tables at the end of the memory and the booter RAM check will overwrite them.

You could query the BIOS for this information like this:

Code Select Expand

BOOL baGetMemorySizes(uint32 *conventionalMemory, uint32 *extendedMemoryBelow16MB, uint32 *extendedMemoryAbove16MB)
{
    // Query conventional memory size
    bb.intno = 0x12;
    bios(&bb);
    *conventionalMemory = bb.eax.rr;
    // Extended memory between 1 MB and 16 MB and above
    bb.intno = 0x15;
    bb.eax.rr = 0xe801;
    bios(&bb);
    if(!bb.flags.cf)
    {
        *extendedMemoryBelow16MB = bb.eax.rr;
        *extendedMemoryAbove16MB = bb.ebx.rr * 64;
        return YES;
    }
    return NO;
}

void boot(int bootdev)
{
    uint32 conventionalMemory, extendedMemoryBelow16MB, extendedMemoryAbove16MB;
    ...
    // Get size of memory
    if(!baGetMemorySizes(&conventionalMemory, &extendedMemoryBelow16MB, &extendedMemoryAbove16MB))
    {
        printf("Memory size query from BIOS failed.\n");
        printf("This Booter requires INT15/E801h to work,\n");
        printf("so it will not start this installation of Openstep.\n");
        turnOffFloppy();
        halt();
    }
    kernBootStruct->convmem = conventionalMemory;
    if(extendedMemoryAbove16MB == 0)
    {
        kernBootStruct->extmem = extendedMemoryBelow16MB + 1024;
    }
    else
    {
        if(extendedMemoryBelow16MB < 15360)
        {
            printf("Warning: Memory hole below 16 MB, might be a problem\n");
        }
        kernBootStruct->extmem = 16384 + extendedMemoryAbove16MB;
    }
    ...
}
If kernBootStruct->extmem is smaller then 512 * 1024 * 1024 = 512 KB, the booter is overwriting something that the BIOS put there.